Full moon overnighter on skis

Finally there was snow, clear weather and full moon, all at the same time. I attempted a similar overnighter one month ago, but had to do without seeing the full moon, since it was so cloudy. This time the weather forecast inspired more confidence. The only downside was the temperature, with a forecast low of -27°C (-17°F), a tad chilly for my gear.

I arrived at the Kuhankuono parking place at 20:00 in the evening after a 35 minute car ride. The temperature was -21°C. I took my backpack and put on my skis and went off. The slightly unsettling feeling of leaving the comfort zone soon gave way to satisfaction as the full moon lit up the surrounding.

The moon came out from the clouds as I started to ski.




No need for extra lights this time.


The ski tracks are in very good shape currently.


I soon went my own way, though.




I arrived at my selected tent spot around 21:30. My goal was not to cover a lot of distance, but rather to enjoy the situation and take pictures.

Packing down the tent spot. I selected the place on the map and it turned out to be just like I had imagined.


The tent is set up.




I went to sleep around 23:00. The temperature was -24°C (-11°F) Initially my feet were very cold, due to the ski boots being inadequate for the temperature during this outing.


At some point near the morning, the moon light disappeared behind clouds. I got up around seven and made instant coffee with water from a thermos bottle. Though I brought a stove and cooking set I did not use them this time.


The thermometer showed -28°C, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. I was still quite warm until I put my feet in the cold ski boots. Fortunately I have a very warm Himalaya-grade down jacket for occasions like this, so I quickly regained the warmth after getting out of the sleeping bag. I packed most of my gear, but left the tent standing for the moment and went out to take some pictures. The clouds meant that there would be no spectacular sunrise this time.


I put my tent on a place 1.5 m higher than the surrounding bog, giving better views and it is also possible that the place was slightly warmer. When there is no wind there can be surprisingly strong temperature gradients in some places.


And there it is.






Time to take down the tent and get going.


The snow pegs worked well and kept the tent up.


On the move again. For a moment I actually wondered if it was Saturday or Sunday today, which just illustrates how effective even a short trip is for getting away from the daily routines.




This was my coldest overnighter so far. Apart from the cold ski boots, I had no problems at all.


The car thermometer showed -24°C, so I guess it actually was quite chilly. My sleeping bag has a lower temperature limit of -18°C according to EN 13537, not really enough for the night. By putting the down jacket on top it was warm and cozy, though. This time I also took the tent instead of a bivi bag because of the temperature, since a tent should win you another few degrees of warmth. The Tarptent Double Rainbow with an extra liner is far from a winter tent, but worked well enough in these circumstances. My ski boots are definitely not warm enough for this temperature. A multi day trip with them when it is this cold weather would surely mean risk for frostbites. The rest of the gear worked fine.

I actually nourished some hopes for hearing wolves during this trip, but I guess not even the wolves waste any extra energy when it is this cold. This area should be good for wolves, though. The statistics shows 450 wolf observations for the year 2009 in the area.

A slideshow with more pictures and resolution.

Edit: I just realized that I unintentionally broke the rules of the national part this time. Camping with a tent (the actual word is "telttailu", tenting) is only allowed in a few designated places. I knew this, but since my intention originally was use a bivy bag, which technically is not forbidden, I did not think of it when I took a tent instead. Well, at least there won't be any trace of my visit once the snow melts or it snows more.

The cold weather is back

After having a little warmer weather with some thawing for a few weeks, the cold weather is back. I went out for a ride in splendid weather with sunshine and a crisp -16°C (3°F) temperature.



People were enjoying the nice weather on the nearby lake.




The trails are in nice and hard shape.




There was even some (barely) rideable tracks out to the two small islands of the lake.






The Biltema pogies worked great in this temperature. With a pair of thin wool finger gloves my hands stayed comfortably warm. The cycling shoes worked as expected as well. I replaced the insole with a wool felt one and used a pair of thick wool socks as well as neoprene shoe covers. After 2.5 h my feet were still fairly warm, but this is really a little too cold for this type of shoes.

New winter riding shoes

My Shimano MT-90 shoes started to fall to pieces a couple of weeks ago. The seams had ripped in enough places that I thought it would not be worthwhile to have them repaired. Even if repaired, the waterproofness would suffer, since it is mostly based on a GoreTex layer, which a repair job would perforate a lot. The MT-90 is an interesting mix of walking boot and SPD shoe and as such very suitable for adventure riding, which often brings you to places not entirely suitable for bike riding. I've had the MT-90 shoes for 3.5 years and have used them almost every day outside the short summer season, so I guess they held up well enough. Except for the unnecessarily wide top part, which makes snow gaiters absolutely mandatory when riding in snow, the shoes have been very nice.





I started to look for replacements on the web, and found that almost every web shop in Europe was out of stock when it came to winter SPD shoes of the rights size. I finally found a pair of Shimano MW80 on a German web shop and ordered it, at a greatly discounted price as well. Since I know my Shimano foot size this was the easiest way to get new winter riding shoes. The MW80 is sold as a winter riding shoe, and I assume it will keep my toes warm for several hours down to around -15°C. It also has a velcro closed top part, which should be fairly good at keeping the snow out, but I will probably still use snow gaiters for more difficult conditions.



I also have a pair of really roomy walking boots for very cold weather. They work best with flat pedals, but the Shimano SPD pedals with cages I have on the Pugsley are also ok.

Overnighter in Marttila

Toni Lund suggested Marttila for our next overnighter, which took place this weekend. During the winter this is includes mainly road biking, in addition to a hike-a-bike section. The actual trails are covered by almost 50 cm of snow, or in some places by ski tracks. In any case the trails are not rideable by bike. I took the Fargo, since I didn't think there would any fatbike terrain there and the Pugsley rolls slower on hard surfaces.

I packed the bike and started to ride to Paimio to meet Toni. It took me 1,5 h to ride the 33 km in a fairly good speed. The studded tires on a combination of ice and snow isn't exactly speeding things up.



When Toni was ready we continued towards Marttila on small roads.




The start of the hike-a-bike section was actually rideable, since some sort of forest tractor had made hard tracks.


Soon the bike pushing started.


There is probably a boardwalk somewhere under the snow.




We arrived at the Onnenperänrahka shelter around 10 o'clock in the evening after 55 km of riding and some bike pushing. There seemed to be some dry firewood there, so we started a fire.


The firewood wasn't that dry, but Toni chopped some more and we had a nice fire for grilling our sandwhiches.


Going to sleep around midnight. It was just few degrees below freezing, so it was almost to warm in a winter sleeping bag.


We got up at seven in the morning and started to make coffee and porridge.


Getting lighter. We've already gained 2.5 h of daylight since the winter solstice.


The Onnenperänrahka shelter.


Bike packed and ready.




We got started a little later than planned. First the bike pushing.




Snow over my knees.






Riding again, progressing from smaller tracks to larger roads.






Yours truly. Photo by Toni Lund.


Toni has finally adopted riding without a backpack.


Toni got off in Paimio and I continued towards Turku. I arrived after around 3.5 h since leaving the shelter, again after fairly hard riding. The distance was around 57 km.

Thanks Toni for the company. Once again a nice little outing.

A slideshow with a few more pictures is found here.

Toni's report is here.