✅ Sounds like a wolf?
✅ Is wolf-coloured?
❌ Is not a wolf
There are documented individual cases of crossbreeding Arctic wolves and Greenland dogs but contrary to popular belief, the Greenland dog is not a "wolf mix". Greenland dogs share some DNA with the Siberian Pleistocene wolves but that is from thousands of years ago.
We've had reports of people nearby hearing "a wolf howling" and we have a strong suspicion it was just Nova doing her thing! Nova howls and sings (she never barks) but that's just dog behaviour, similar to huskies.
Nova also spreads her paws to get better flotation on snow (like snowshoes) and leaves far bigger footprints than many other dogs of her size. Also easily mistaken as wolf tracks. If you're in Finland you might be familiar with the discussion around wolves... this is just a reminder that not everything that looks or sounds vaguely like a wolf is actually a wolf!
PS. Today in FInland we celebrate the Dog Day! We'll celebrate the International Dog Day again in August! ;)
PPS. Please don't mock my howling, I'm doing my best okay
The Finnish classic Pallas-Hetta traverse: twice on consecutive days! This popular route follows the fjell range for around 55 kilometers, and I thought it'd be fun to first try it in one day by kiteskiing and then repeat it the next day on cross-country skis. And thanks to a new collaboration with @suunto and the stats gathered by my Vertical 2 watch, it's now pretty much proven that cross-country skiing is way easier than kiteskiing ;)
On day 1 I kiteskied over the fjell range from south to north and honestly, I was struggling. The wind was too strong for my smallest kite, and there are several valleys along the route meaning you have to take the kite down 3 or 4 times and end up skiing a lot in the forest with heavy equipment. Still, even though I only left Pallas at 9:30, I made it to the bus stop in Hetta by 4 pm. In summer this is usually a 3-4 day hike so I was still happy!
The next day was the "recovery" ski day: same start and end points, but on cross-country skis. And done at a slow pace, because we wanted to keep it easy as Nova was with us. It was to be her longest run ever in a single day: 53 kilometers in total.
I'm going to use my @suunto more for adventuring than meticulously tracking all my training stats, but looking at the numbers, it's fun to get confirmation of what I felt myself. I was pretty exhausted after the kiting day (avg heart rate 137 bpm, 4000 kcal consumed), but the xc day felt like nothing (avg heart rate 108 bpm, 2400 kcal consumed). So yes a little help from Nova goes a long way!
Nova was still sprinting and playing as we arrived to Hetta, seemed like she wasn't tired at all, so if we start measuring endurance she's going to win by a very large margin...
🇬🇧 29% of Finland's land area is bog / 29% Suomen maa-alueista on suota
🇬🇧 ... and Finland is actually the world's most bog-rich country! While wallowing in a bog in summer isn't really that appealing, the snow season opens up some incredible opportunities! The last few days up north the morning crust has been solid, and with skis and the help of a kite (or a dog) you can cover a lot of ground fast.
🇫🇮... ja Suomi onkin maailman soisin maa! Vaikka kesällä suolla rymyäminen ei hirveästi kiinnosta niin lumipeitteen aikaan avautuu älyttömän hienot retkeilymahdollisuudet! Viime päivät pohjoisessa on ollut aamuisin hyvä hankikanto ja hiihtämällä ja leijan (tai koiran) avustuksella pääsee nopeasti ja pitkälle.
🇬🇧 West Coast Wrap-Up & Next Project 🇫🇮 Länsirannikon hiihdon lopputili & seuraava projekti..
🇫🇮 Pieni some-darra hiihtoretken jälkeen, joten tässä vasta viimeiset kuvat 😉. Suksista potkukelkkaan vaihtaminen oli ehdottomasti oikea ratkaisu viimeistä osuutta varten. Kevät tuli uskomattoman nopeasti eikä jää koskaan kunnolla toipunut. Missään vaiheessa ei ollut ajatuksena edetä mahdollisimman nopeasti vaan toivoin että jäis enemmän aikaa retken loppupuolella ottaa rennosti ja tutkia Perämeren saaria, mutta se jää nyt seuraavaan kertaan!
Oli hauska päivittää matkan kulkua livenä ja jäällä tapasinkin paljon mukavia ihmisiä, jotka olivat seuranneet trackeria! Iso kiitos teille kaikille.
Seuraava iso projekti on palata s/v Lumin tykö Grönlantiin ja purjehtia se Eurooppaan Islannin ja Färsaarten kautta. Elikkä lisää jäätä tiedossa.. Samalla keräämme dataa merenrantojen roskaantumisesta droonifotogrammetrian avulla. Mutta lisää siitä myöhemmin - nyt vielä pari viikkoa Suomessa!
🇬🇧 Bit of a social media hangover after the west coast ski trip so here are the last few photos 😉. Changing from skis to the kicksleds was definitely the right move for the last part. The spring came incredibly quickly and the ice never properly recovered. I never intended to be as fast as possible and honestly thought I'd have more time during the last part of the trip to take it easy and explore the islands in the Bothnian Bay, but that will have to be another year!
Had a lot of fun giving "live" updates during the trip and met some great people who had been following the tracker. Thanks so much to all of you for following along.
The next big mission is going back to s/v Lumi in Greenland and sailing her to Europe via Iceland and the Faroes. Meaning more ice! We'll also collect marine litter data using drone photogrammetry. But more about that later - now a couple more weeks in Finland!
🇫🇮 SE ON TEHTY / 🇬🇧 IT'S DONE
🇫🇮4 viikon taivalluksen jälkeen pääsin Kemiin ja Tornioon, vaikka hyvää jäätalvea seurasi historiallisen (ja surullisen) lämmin kevät. Yksi ylimääräinen viikko lisää kului rankkojen vesisadeiden päättymistä odotellessa Oulun seudulla. Tuolloin alkoi jo Kemistäkin kuulumaan viestiä että vettä on näkyvissä niin paljon että jäätalvi on jo ohi. Onneksi olosuhteet voivat muuttua nopeasti myös siedettävämpään suuntaan ja myös Nova-koira tottui vetisempään menoon, jolloin matkaa päästiin jatkamaan! Oulu-Tornio välille kulkuvälineeksi vaihtui potkukelkka ja se olikin todella onnistunut ratkaisu, lumettoman jään päällä hiihtäminen ei olisi ollut lähelleköön yhtä hauskaa kuin potkuttelu.
Tietääkseni vastaavaa retkeä rannikkoa pitkin ei ole tehty ainakaan "modernina aikana", eli sen jälkeen kun ympärivuotinen laivaliikenne aloitettiin ja laivaväyliä, yhtä pahimmista esteistä, alettiin pitämään auki myös talvisin.
Vaikka hyvät jäätalvet jäävät harvinaisemmaksi koko ajan niin kannustan kuitenkin opettelemaan jäällä liikkumisen taitoja ja käyttämään jään suomia mahdollisuuksia hyväksi! On harmi että jäällä liikkuminen on muuttumassa "erikoistouhuksi" kun se voisi olla koko kansan huvi. Hyvän jäätalven aikana meille avautuu yli sadan tuhannen neliökilometrin kokoinen alue, jota käyttäen voi liikkua lähelle tai kauemmas ja jota vastaavaa ei esimerkiksi missään muualla Euroopassa ole.
🇬🇧 After four weeks of travelling, I finally made it to Tornio - even though a historically (and sadly) warm spring followed what had been a great ice winter.
Between Oulu and Tornio I switched to a kick-sled, and it turned out to be a great call. Skiing on bare ice without snow wouldn't have been anywhere near as fun.
As far as I know, a journey like this along the Finnish coastline hasn't been done. At least not in "modern times", meaning since year-round shipping traffic began and the lanes, one of the worst obstacles on the trip, started being kept open through winter as well.
Made it: arrival to Kemi after around 760 kilometers total, thanks for the welcome & the celebratory prosecco @keminpurjehdusseura ! More words about the whole trip later
Potkurijengi - the kicksled gang. Sohvi and Keijo have joined me as we hopefully tackle the last kilometers to Kemi! Just around 40 kilometers to go, around 660 done so far (straight line distance). Travelled distance on skis/kicksled now probably around 800 km or so
The two stars of the show the last few days: Nova and the Esla Adventure kicksled! Day #28 or so of skiing the whole west coast of Finland. The finish line is not that far and so we have a chance to relax and enjoy. I also have to hold Nova back from going too crazy because the surface is so hard & slippery and when it comes to running she doesn't have much self-restraint 😁
Amazing day today! Kicksledding except I didn't need to kick because of the strong wind directly from behind. Literally went on and on without doing anything at all 😍😃. The idea to switch to a kicksled was mine but huge thanks to @esla.fi for providing the Adventure sled, which can be used with or without the help of a dog (or wind). If you haven't tried a Finnish style kicksled you definitely should!
