2013-04-11 63 28

Location

In Valtimo, the slopes of forested hill Vasaravaara.

Participants

Pastori
The Wife

Plans

Today's hashpoint was so close, that it was practically mandatory to suit ourselves into expedition. Only 4 km as bird flies, but as we are not birds we must detour a bit. There is a logging road going quite near the hashpoint, but most likely the road is only ploughed as far as the nearest house lies, about 1,5 kilometers from hashpoint. Thus we need to bring skis along.

Expedition

Impossible feat?

Would you believe that these 2,3 meters long cross country skis will fit into this sub-compact Toyota Yaris? Neither did Pastori at first, but the car proved to be bigger than it looks and the skis fit. So Pastori and the Wife could start their journey. First they drove 6 km by car, then parked it and fitted skis to their boots. The primitive part of the expedition could start. There was 2 km to go.

The skiing part starts.

First over an open field and past the house, then onto the unploughed logging road. The road steadily climbed, about 80 meters on the 2 km stretch. The hashpoint was quickly found, it was located in a marshland which was drained by digging some ditches, thus it had some mixed trees. The snow cover had in some places a crust that could support weight, but mostly it fell under skis some 20 cm.

After the exhausting geodance.

By doing some geodance in the bushes they managed to get a reading showing 0,7 meters to the point, although the accuracy was actually about 5-10 meters. But Pastori really likes geodancing (see picture). Starting to head back, they noticed tracks of a wolf about 10 meters from hashpoint.

Weather was supreme; temperature minus few degrees and the sun was shining. So what else would you want to do than to ski in Finnish wilderness among some big carnivorous animals? To the end a picture of Pastori's and the Wife's skis cozily crossed in the hashpoint. They were very satisfied of their performance today, because this was the first hashpoint they reached together.

The skis.

Additional photos

A picture of the coordinates.
Temperature data from the official measurement point about 10 km away. Time of hash-visit was 9:32, so the temperature was definitely still below zero.
Pastori in the woods.
The wolf tracks.