Sunday, March 20, 2011

Umpihankinhiihto!

Went with SOOPA for a ski expedition weekend starting in Sankivaara

My school bag, plus waterbelt worked just great!
Add a borrowed sleeping bag, and SOOPA ski equipement, and I was all set

Very convenient- lean-to's with bonfire pits along the way, not to mention dry firewood!


The never-ending chore of scraping ice and snow off of the bottom of the wooden skis

Navigating with a map and compass

And, we came upon a little cabin in the woods where these little elves lived!

Very nice sauna.

Melting snow for water- the well was frozen.

Soup has never tasted so good before.

It's always entertaining listening to conversations with a mix of English, Finnish, and Czech.

The group, eleven strong.

Beautiful weather on the return trip!


Moose tracks and bedding site.




Before the Equinox

Early March.. Back when we got less sunlight than the people south of us.

Had Karl over for a night.. and since we mutually agreed that cameras are a pain, I only took pictures at the train station before he left.

Went to the last Oulun Kärpät hockey game.

Pretty fast, good hockey.

Unfortunately, the home team lost 2-1 in overtime, and ended their tournament bid.
Don't ask what the beach balls mean.. I don't know.

Typical scenery on my way to the city center.


They've groomed some nice tracks on Pyykösjärvi




Finally met up with Sanna and Olli

Keeping up the family connections.

Tervahiihto

As with most races, I only have before and after pictures.  I never was sent an email from the race photographers, so no copyrighted images to share, either!


Me, Taneli, and Joonas.
Joonas and I finished just under 4 hours- 5 and 2 seconds under, to be exact.
Quite happy with the result, seeing as we were shooting for 4:30

Now, this is a piece of hardware.

Now I can tell people I skied in the FIS Nordic Ski Marathon Cup..
..Whatever that means!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Geocaching

Went Geo-caching with SOOPA- the outdoor adventure club at the University
 
Used a bit of the tiger claw method to get up a tree and over to the railing.
I found the geocache inside the pipe going through the roof

How does one get down from a lighthouse?

Might as well jump!
(Probably not the best thing to be doing on my study abroad, but I survived)
It really wasn't that sketchy- there was a nice bar to grab onto right above the edge (can't see it in the photo), and there was a soft snowbank below, as long as I cleared the concrete footing (which was impossible NOT to do, unless I swung towards the structure)

Geocaching can take you to very beautiful places,


and sometimes you find the geocache in urban areas, like the Technopolis here.
Wonder what J. Haro thinks of this architecture.

Winter Ecology Trip to Oulanka Natl Park

On Sunday morning, I woke up with a terrible sore throat and cold.  Perhaps getting only 6 or 7 hours of sleep each night for the past week finally caught up to me, combined with a sugar O.D. and a cold virus going around..
But, it was time to pack my bags and head to Oulanka Research Station, and I was NOT going to miss this opportunity.
The rooms at Oulanka are quite nice, really.
I slept 14 feverish hours on the bed on the left on Sunday night- It's amazing how sleep (and a little bit of prayer and fool's luck) can cure you of sickness.

Recording Crossbill calls with a mic/voice recorder

The ice hole.  Did not venture here until Tuesday, due to my sickness.

My getup: the skiis and boots are ENORMOUS, and hard to manage, unless you are in 2 feet of powder.  But, luckily, we spent most of our time in the woods.  The boots are insulated rubber boots with a groove on the toe and heel which are cinched by the binding.

Beautiful scenery- with plenty of elevation change.

The research station is at the bottom of the valley, situated on the Oulanka River.
Everybody used skis, regardless of experience.  The end result: plenty of wipe-outs to watch.
Props to these exchange students who have never skied before!

The evenings were free for plenty of card games-
Learned some new ones, and taught some familiar ones,
and played DOG with the Finns!!

Kuitaköngäs koski



Quite the contrast from flat-as-a-pancake Oulu!


Somebody shrunk Savu!
To me, this is despicable- a miniature husky- with all of the husky instincts, but the inability to follow any of them...

There was a dog team at the park HQ across the river, and I stumbled upon..
...Veikko?.

The avanto actually seems inviting!

Skiing out on a frozen lake







Drilling a hole with an ice auger

We took water samples every 3 meters to test how oxygen content depends on temperature


.. and went ice fishing for perch!
I caught one, but it was much too small to keep

The more fortunate ones enjoyed an evening snack

The annual sledding competition.
The hill was pretty decent size, and the corners were very hard to navigate- I didn't get past the first round





The Northern Lights marked the end of a very successful day- skiing, sledding, cards, sauna, and avanto.

Riisitunturi simply blew me away.

Words cannot describe the feeling.



Measuring and examining the snowpack on the peak.

At the top of the world- living in a post card-picture.
We had a picnic at a cabin down in the valley behind me- roasted sausage and had fresh coffee- thanks to our supply snowmobile!