Day 1 Finland Spring 2025: Arctic Circle Adventures – I saw frozen waterfalls, crossed frozen lakes and melted my frozen flapjacks!
🇫🇮I have just returned from my spring expedition to Northern Finland. It was full of friendship, hard work, beauty, and a few surprises!
❄️Expedition: Self-supported cross-country ski expedition for 7 days. All our gear was pulled in our pulkas and carried in our rucksacks.
❄️Team: one wilderness guide (totally badass), one group leader (steely and strong) and six intrepid but nervous cross-country skiers. @jossystevo @jul3scorn3ll @elinsarah @wildschutesther @hennametz @ef877 @emmsieb
❄️Temperatures: The average is minus 8. You become very obsessed with the weather; you don’t want it to get any warmer, as it would ruin the snow conditions.
❄️Location: Lemmenjoki National Park – 69 degrees North
🦌Distance per day: 10-17km—Our fastest hour was 4 km per hour, pulling the pulks over flat frozen lakes. Most days, it was much, much slower. Especially when we had to switch to snowshoes pulling pulks through a hilly, uphill forest was hard work!
✈️Travel: I flew from the UK to Helsinki and travelled north to Ivalo Airport the next day.
❄️Moments to Remember: I arrived in Helsinki. It was dark, snowing heavily and minus 6 outside the train station, and I had no idea where I was going! I loved it!
Day 2: Cosy Huts, Open Fires and Hut Toasties.
❄️Daily routine: We ski in a long line, following each other’s tracks across a frozen river, which is lovely and flat! Stopping every hour to eat snacks and have hot drinks. My favourite snack was my homemade flapjacks. On the first day, I kept them in my trouser pockets, but they froze. After that, all the snacks were kept in my bra! We spent a lot of time talking about snacks!
❄️Lunch stop: was in a forest hut; we ate spicy hot noodle soup (manna from heaven), then rinsed our flask with hot water, and you got soup pudding!
❄️Hut Admin: When you arrive at the hut after a 6/7 hour cross-country skiing day, the hut admin begins. On the first night, this was pretty gutting as we were so knackered, but we soon got into a routine!
❄️Water: is collected from the river (you take a meter-long ice drill and make a hole in the lake, then ladle it into a bucket). The stove is lit, and the kettle is put on. We heat 10 litres of water that goes into our flasks—ready for our expedition-dried meals.
❄️Wood: is collected from the wood stores and piled high in the huts—ready to keep us warm. All kit from the pulks must be unpacked and brought into the hut. It’s a massive job at the end of a long day, but with eight women, it was done super quickly!
❄️Big hug to the Team: One team member was obsessed with Borders ginger biscuits, and another nibbled on cheddar cheese! We also brought a lot of Malt Loaf with us.
❄️Moments to remember: My favourite moment of the day is when all the jobs are done, we have a cuppa, digestive biscuit and eat hut toasties. The hut is cosy, boots are off and we sit squashed up, chat about the day and count our blisters!
Day 3 – It’s the BIG things you sign up for!
When I signed up for this trip, I looked forward to experiencing the BIG things: frozen forests, remote cabins, the northern lights and pulling a pulka.
❄️But I have learnt it’s the SMALL things that I love and will stay with me always.
❄️The power of eight women—always positive, and every job was done with no fuss! We all had our moments of tears and frustrations, which we resolved with hugs and chocolate.
🧦 Laughing as you get ready for bed, someone had always lost something—we did spend a lot of time rummaging for stuff!
❄️Falling asleep to the chattering of your hut mates – I slept better here than I do at home!
❄️The peace of the days: you don’t have much time to think – because you are doing stuff all day!
❄️The bubble you live in for a week switched off from the world (imagine no phone, no calls and no emails for a week)
❄️Hut pancakes covered in chocolate sauce – what a treat!
❄️The little glimpse into people’s lives: back home, someone would soon be a grandma! and someone would soon have a new job!
❄️You learn more about yourself daily: you have to give yourself a chance to find a new groove.
❄️Moments to Remember: One night in the hut, in a rare moment of calm, we had a quiz and shared some bizarre stories!
Day 4 What is a POOnami?
💩I always get asked about toilets and washing on these trips.
😉 No running water and no taps. All water comes from the river, so you don’t waste it on washing. You can use a mixture of wipes, handfuls of water, and antibacterial gel. Many huts had log saunas—a godsend for a quick wash and soothing achy bodies.
💩Option 1: All the huts we stayed in have drop toilets in smaller huts located at least 500 meters from the main hut. These are big holes in the ground that fill up with waste. The waste is collected in a massive box and is emptied by the National Parks team. These are super gross when the poo pile is very high!! we called this a Poonami!
💩Option 2: If you are not near a hut, you can dig a hole with a shovel and cover it when you are done, or you can use a plastic bag and take the waste home with you.
💩Option 3: If you are really unlucky and the snow is deep and you have to go to the loo while wearing skis – then you pray for dear life that you don’t fall over (hold onto a tree) – set light to your toilet paper and cover the evidence. Or you can use a plastic bag!
💩All methods require speed, efficiency, a lack of dignity and respect for the environment.
💩All positions require a sense of humour, a blocked nose and strong thighs.
💩Moments to remember: I am pleased to say I can add all these options to my skill set!
However, I am unsure how useful these skills will be on my LinkedIn profile.😜
Day 5 – I had my very own Arctic meltdown!
😟Today was not a good day. Today changed the course of my expedition!
😟After a long day skiing and about 100 metres from the hut (the remotest place on the trip), I fell over and heard a crack! I head-planted in the snow, came up with a mouth full of ice, and I knew at that moment I was well and truly screwed!
😟Then my body just went into a meltdown – the shock came up furiously from my toes and just took over. I sobbed like a crazy woman and hobbled back to the hut; I think it was a mixture of panic, pain, being scared and acknowledging the very deep shite I was in.
😟It took a while, but with the help of my team, a warm hut, hot chocolate and a few digestives, I slowly returned to normal! It looked like I had one very badly twisted ankle!
😟That evening, I sat very, very still. Henna, our wilderness guide, and Elaine, our group leader, began to hatch an escape plan! In that night’s turmoil, I remember Henna’s calm guiding force, her cool head and kind words.
😟At 3 am, I hobbled out of the hut to wee in a rusty old bucket located just outside the door. I was miserable; I knew that my skiing was over, and whatever happened now, I was now a massive pain in the arse for the team!
😟So, at my lowest moment sitting on my private bucket, feeling sorry for myself in the dark and at minus 5, I looked up, and there was the aurora borealis at its most glorious. This was a good omen, as I have tried 20 nights in Sweden, Norway, Iceland, and Greenland to see the lights and failed over the last decade.
😟Moments to remember: The northern lights danced above my head that night for my private light show. I felt Mother Nature was shining down and giving me an arctic kick up the arse. So I necked two very large painkillers, ate a packet of chocolate buttons, and happily hobbled and crawled back to bed!
Tomorrow was another day!
Day 6 – I was rescued by a Finnish Reindeer Herder!!!!!!!!
❄️Our rescue plan was put into place: Henna would be pulling me in a pulka! I was wrapped up like a chilly mummy. The team divided up all the kit, and away we went. Henna pulled from the front, and Emma shoved me up the hills. I hated those first few hours being pulled along like a total lazy arse!
❄️As we got used to the situation, Henna started to wind me up by running super fast down the hills (in snowshoes), making me scream with fear/delight?
❄️On our lunch stop, we were spotted by a reindeer herder, who offered to give me a lift to that night’s hut. That’s how I ended up on a snowmobile with a strange man between my thighs and riding off into the misty Arctic sunset! We have video evidence of me whooping into the distance! (It sounds like the beginning of a terrible Scandi noir movie)
❄️Throughout the trip, we felt safe. Henna was always calm and constantly calculating the weather, snow conditions, route, speed, daylight, and team spirit. Situations here can change in a heartbeat!
❄️Tonight was our last night eating our dehydrated expedition meals—by now, we found them hard to eat, as the texture makes you gag. We had some very funny moments around the table! My favourite was mac and cheese and mushroom risotto!
❄️Moments to remember: I loved my small luxuries—lavender pillowcase, eye mask, ear plugs, and clean socks and pants! You cannot underestimate the feel of clean socks and pants!
Day 7 – We made it back to Base.
Today was a monster day for Henna as she pulled me for 8 hours to get home. She secretly enjoyed her challenge and took lots of photos and drone footage. Rescuing a client and pulling her home to safety would give her some serious kudos with her wilderness guide colleagues!!
Elin, my ski buddy, went above and beyond her partner duty and pulled our pulka for two days. It was no mean feat, and I will be forever grateful for her steely determination.
We were so glad to see our lodge in the distance that we whooped and hugged as we crossed the finish line. By now, we smelt a little ripe—my hot shower with lemony shower gel was glorious!
That evening, at our celebration dinner, which was made with “real” food and a glass of wine, we gave toasts and speeches to mark the end of our Finnish adventure and cherish our Arctic friendships.
I will be forever grateful to the team for looking after me, going the extra mile, and just getting on with it. We made a great team from the word go, and I loved the fun, laughter, and daily nonsense the most.
On our final night in Finland, I was the first to fall into my bunk; I was so happy to be back at base with running water, light switches, and a kettle.
I fell asleep under the Northern lights, listening to the reindeer grazing outside and the chatter of my teammates.
Now, all I had to do was figure out how to return to the UK!
We did it!!: @jossystevo @jul3scorn3ll @elinsarah @wildschutesther @hennametz @ef877 @emmsie @gutsygirls_
#finland #womeninadventure #crosscountryskiing #thisgirlcanski
What happened next in Finland, 2025?
Needless to say, It was a massive pain in the arse getting home.
I made it home with the help of my teammates, wheelchairs, special assistance carts, and some parking shenanigans at Heathrow.
An x-ray at my local hospital revealed a fractured fibula and a badly twisted ankle. They sent me home in a boot, with daily injections and ordered to rest for 6 weeks.
I can’t tell you how happy I was to watch movies on the sofa!
It’s been six weeks, and I am bored of movies and hobbling about. I have started swimming and building my strength up again. Today, Sunday, April 13th, I walked my first mile since the accident! I am so happy!
Now the team are planning next year’s trip!
Finland 2025 – you have been more memorable than I would have wished for! But I do have a cracking story to tell!
If you have any questions about Finland 2025: The story of a lifetime! Please leave them in the comments below.
Bedtime Reading: What’s Hot in Adventure in April?
One Response
Oh Nicky you are so amazing! Well done on you and your teams achievement. I didn’t know you were doing it but am now cheering you on from our home in Brighton. What an adventure! And a fractured fibula! Well done for being brave with that and dealing with the pain. Take me on your next adventure, lots of love, Doctor Ali B haha (from the firewalk)! Xxx