Border to Border Finland 2013

The English translation for the Finnish phrase, Rajalta Rajalle Hiihto is "from border, to border, ski"...and that's what I did in March 2013, along with 70 other Nordic skiers.  The Border to Border Finland event offers 450 kilometers of tracked classic skiing across northern Finland, just beneath the arctic circle, from Russia to Sweden in seven straight days. This was the 30th year of the longest tracked ski event in the world. Sound good?  It was.

I flew to Helsinki, took the city bus downtown from the airport and toured the city for a day.  I found Helsinki to be a delightful city with both Eastern and Western European influences apparent in the architecture, and  I experienced my first truly Finnish sauna at the Yrjonkatua Swimming Hall (the oldest pool in Scandinavia).  It was Wednesday, one of the female-only swimming days, and I must have looked like a tourist because soon several blonde, Finnish women, both young and old, were standing around me in the water al naturale asking about Alaska and my impression of Helsinki since my arrival (four hours earlier).  The women were so welcoming that I already knew I'd enjoy the long ski ahead.


I  read-up on Finland. It is the home to Nokia (and perhaps that's why we had flawless cell reception in the remote northern woods).  Wedged between Russia and Sweden, over the centuries the Finns have become notably adept at keeping peace with larger neighbors while maintaining their culture identity.  As a whole, the Finns are very fit, they drink more coffee than any other nation, and they love to sauna.  The Finns have a strong social welfare system, including national healthcare, and their educational system is among the top internationally. Impressive.


After a much shorter flight to Kuusamo the next morning, I arrived at the ski center in Oivanki.  There I met a dozen smiling skiers in the wax room and heard several different languages as I stared at numerous wax tables and skis.  A sixty-something Finnish women, ironing glide wax into her skis, peered up and greeted me in English by saying, "Hello  - it's International Women's Day today!"



During our introductory meeting and dinner I met six wonderful skiers from Seattle and several younger men from New York who were skiing the ultra-event as an extended "bachelor party."  One of the guys had his first experience on skis two weeks earlier!  Each skier received a well-organized booklet complete with maps and data regarding each day's ski.  We were also given plastic name tags with our national flag next to our name with the phone numbers of the Border to Border organizers on the back.  We were told to pin the tag onto our backpacks and use them if we ever got lost along the route.

The Oivanki ski center was terrific, and we dined on reindeer stew and toured the impeccably groomed trails, trying out our cold, green kick wax.  The next morning we took a bus to the Russian border and began our journey on hilly, single track with a temperature of -10 F.  The first morning was the hardest for me mentally because I was jet lagged and intimidated by the long days ahead (generally about 60 kilometers per day more or less).  But, as the day wore on and we skied into a lovely ski center and the tracks widened to include local skate skiers and later families skiing home from work and school, I began to loosen up and appreciate the quiet beauty of the white rolling hills and winter forest.  I ended the day by skiing across a lake to a plush ski resort with three of the Seattle folks.  A few hours later we learned that one of the women from Seattle had lost her way as night fell, and indeed her name tag with the Finnish phone numbers may have saved her from a night in the frigid tundra!

Evening Briefing 

End of Day 6 - One more to Go!

Each day was similar with cold, crisp sunshine and kilometer after kilometer of groomed classic tracks through the woods.  We saw a few reindeer, skied through another large and beautifully tracked ski area called Ranua, and were served berry soup, pickles and chocolate at noon by local Finns, including the Native, Sami.

A welcoming bear at the schoolhouse

We spent two enjoyable nights in old school houses, sleeping on mattresses on the floor, swapping stories about other adventures, eating tons of food, and washing off with buckets of water after hot saunas.

                
The last three days were even colder with the temperature dropping to -25 F for the starts.  Having spent many of my training days running or skiing in a mix of rain and snow in Juneau, I loved the clear, cold weather!  We all dressed in layers, and surprisingly I was never cold.  We stopped for lunches and breaks that at times included grilled reindeer or brats and once even crepes.

A lovely break spot

Evening Briefing

During the evening briefing prior to our final, seventh day of skiing into the border town of Tornio, we were told that because this year was sufficiently cold, the river we would be traversing towards the Baltic Sea was stable enough that we could ski on the ice (a mix of fresh and salt water) right up to our last hotel on the opposite shore.  So, we were lucky because that added another 15 kilometers of skiing and instead of the normal 60 kilometers we were going to get to ski 75 kilometers!  This statement was followed by a pregnant pause in the dinner hall as everyone mentally calculated how far they'd already skied and how tired they were...and then the room broke out into collective laughter.



Day seven was beautiful just like every other day, especially the last 15 kilometers along the river, past the brightly colored, increasingly urban homes, past the local Finnish skiers and skijorers with their slender dogs, and across the wide, crystal-white river with Sweden in view, and up the bank to our final hotel and our finishing celebration  (post-sauna of course).  

That night each nation gave a short skit about themselves and the skiing experience.  Many of the skiers were Finnish and had skied the route before.  There was also a large contingency from Germany.  Probably the most beautiful skier was a young man from Moscow.  There were also skiers from Sweden, Brazil, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, and Slovakia.  The Border to Border Finland event is run each March with four groups departing daily and ranging in size from 70-100 skiers.  I would encourage anyone who loves to Nordic ski to give it a go!  For information here's the event website: http://rajaltarajallehiihto.ranua.fi/In_english/Frontpage.iw3

Laskettulu Suomi!