Thursday, 6. January 2005: Muorravaarakka - Anterinmukka (15 - 16 km)
5:45
Sami gets up and I also get going immediately. The other group seems to be in a hurry. They eat, pack and disappear already at 7:30.8:20
We start. It's still quite dark. It has been snowing all night long and it still is. Nice soft wonderful powder snow everywhere.9:20
My turn with the akio starts. The way has become much steeper. The
powder is still wonderful, just not uphill with the akio and
these skis. It gets more and more hilly, a very nice landscape
that reminds me more and more to the alps.
10:10
It's no use, Anne delivers me from my misery and takes over the akio. But before that Sami has already exchanged his small akio with the big one. He has been simply too fast for us all the time. "And if he's still too fast, we'll just all sit on the akio" - "Maybe I just ski slower.".
The way get steeper and steeper, there is more and more wind and snow. We end up in a snow storm at a scarp. It's incredibly straining to trudge up there. Everybody puts on their ski goggles. It all reminds me more and more to my skiing holidays in the alps.
Having crossed the pass it's naturally going down again on the other side, but by far less steep. Everywhere there is this really deep wonderfully soft powder snow. It's great, even though the storm doesn't cease until we get much lower. Then along the valley. My skis run really well, I do 2-3 m easily with every step, awesome. Anne however has the snow sticking on the bottom of her skis. Uphill this was a big advantage but now it's a torture. Waxing the skis only helps temporarily.
We meet the other group again. The track we've been following all day is theirs. Obviously it was discussed yesterday evening that we'd have the same destination, only that I didn't understand it. The dog is so sweet, it can hardly wait until they continue their way.
15:30
The cottage is there. 300 m before I took over the akio from Silja,
now that was worth it! It's a real luxuary cottage. There's a big
anteroom with an additional oven, a really nice stone fireplace,
mattresses on the sleeping places and even a sauna down by the
river. We eat our remaining sandwiches and cook some noodles with
pasta souce. Elina gives us some garlic that has deserved being called
so.
18:00
While the girls are in the sauna I'm taking a nap for a while.20:00
Excellent, candlelight sauna. It's a pity that the river is too shallow for really swimming in the ice cold water. Again no avatouinti. So I have to jump into the snow.23:00
I feel like newborn, even my shoulders are hardly hurting any more.23:30
Before I go to bed I want to repair these rubber boots. This twisted hook on the right binding has slashed the left boot. I try to glue it with an ordinary bike repair kit that Sami has given me. For some reason that doesn't work however. I also bend the binding back to it's normal shape but the wrong one as I will realize the next morning.
As I'm busy in the anteroom I discover this head light behind the firewood. I make sure it belongs to none of us. Nice, now I got one too. It's really practical, I can see so much more in the darkness.