Blogs from Enontekiö, Lapland, Finland, Europe

For better or worse, the heatwave gripping much of Scandinavia abated just the day before my summit attempt of Halti Mountain in Finland. The mountain's summit is actually in Norway but the highest point in Finland is just short of the summit. Norway recently tried to redraw its border to give Finland the entire mountain but was denied by a constitutional technicality. Of course, with the heat dissipating came the rain. A lot of rain. One minute I was basking in the sun at Pihtsusjärvi hut, the wind whipping up from the hot south, the next minute the wind shifted from the north, as in the North Pole, definitely not hot. I managed to tag objective numero dos of the Scandinavia Peak Bagging Trilogy in ~3 hours from the hut and another 2½ return, pretty pedestrian ... read more

Right, let me get all the negative things out of the way first. Our trip to the Arctic Circle, Hetta in northern Finland was a package holiday with Transun. It was the first for all of us (Adam, Myles, Scott and I) and the last. The flight was on ‘Strategic Air’, the service was hap-hazard and the inside a little old. Just before arriving and during some terrible weather the kids were allowed to sing/scream Christmas carols over the speaker system. Because we were a small party of adults we did manage to secure the exit seats, however they split us over two rows so Scott ended up sitting behind us. Then the most stupid thing happened. There were other people waiting in the hotel we were due to check in to so they had us ... read more