2016.03.14 - Urho Kekkonen, Finland. D2: Lankojärvi - Sarvioja
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 13.35 mi
- Elevation gain
- 938 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Difficult
- Elevation loss
- 663 ft
- Max elevation
- 1,402 ft
- TrailRank
- 44
- Min elevation
- 498 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 11 hours 28 minutes
- Coordinates
- 2039
- Uploaded
- March 21, 2016
- Recorded
- March 2016
near Kakslauttanen, Lappi (Suomi)
Viewed 718 times, downloaded 40 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
|
Duration: 11.5 hours
Departure: Refuge 1 - Lankojärvi varaustupa (198 m)
Arrival: Refuge 2 - Sarvioja varaustupa (284 m)
Distances and cumulated altitude: 21.5 km; +285 m / -200 m
Difficulty: 4/5
Full route: 2016.03.13-20 - Urho Kekkonen National Park, Finland (8 days)
Monday 14.03.2016 - Stage 2: Lankojärvi - Sarvioja
Pulkeros: Francesc, Toni & Berti
Second day in the heart of the National Park of Urho Kekkonen, without doubt the hardest stage of this journey. It's 6 o'clock in the morning; the day outside has already overtaken us and the light penetrates with force through the tiny windows of the shelter: the sun will not be long out from behind the mountains. Each one is slowly waking up while in the air, a smell of coffee floats. For breakfast: bread, jam, and oat flakes with mueslis; with boiling water, so they swell. Today has not appeared dehydrated milk so what other remedy, we must do without it! The mixture of oatmeal is taking on that texture that I have often wondered if I would take it at home, taking more of the food for chickens than anything else, when in the mountains it has always tasted great.
Over there, someone sings; The good mood reigns in the refuge. And we are all happy to be here! We have all slept well: those in the upper bunk beds with some heat, those in the lower bunk beds with some cold towards the early morning: someone has forgotten to put a trunk at night or maybe even someone will He has raised! Snoring stories arise, which leaves us indifferent to those of us who go around the world with plugs. Laughs ...
At 8 o'clock we cleared the shelter and a quarter of an hour later, closed pulkas, we set off. Today's route starts with Lake Lankojärvi and then follows the river to the northeast. It is not so cold: -9ºC, without wind. The snow on the plain makes it difficult to know where the lake starts and where it ends, so after half an hour, we must rectify the address to resume the GPS trace. We continue like this all morning, advancing cautiously on one side or the other of the river so that the sledges do not overturn. From time to time, the darker tone of the snow alerts us that the ice layer on the surface is thinner and we press on to a suspicious "croc". About 4.5 km from Lankojärvi we arrive at a cabin where the fishermen in summer store firewood for camping. The place is accommodated with homes and grills to roast the meat. Shortly after, we reached the free shelter of Porttikoski (autiotupa, 172 m). There we rest and we take some bread with nuts. The shelter is of small dimension, with a bench, a table, a wood stove and against the wall two wooden bunk beds without mattresses, for 10 people.
We do not entertain ourselves: it is almost 11 o'clock and there is still a long way to go and a hill whose lack of difficulty is unknown: the critical point of the day. When we drew the route from home, we agreed that in case of need or bad weather, if the pass of the hill was problematic, we could continue down the valley to the shelter of Snellmanin (autiotupa, 139 m) for the next day reach the Muorravaarakka ( autio-varaustupa, 263 m). For now, the cold tightens, so by reducing the time we had given to rest by 5 minutes, we resume our route. We continue down the Suomujoki River until reaching the detour with the valley of Sotavaaranoja on the right, suddenly, the trace that we were following disappears. We have to open a trail in a virgin snow of about 50 cm thick, heavy, that sticks under the skis ... If we must continue in these conditions, up, this is going to be a calvary. We started to climb the valley when, luckily, we found a trace of descent. The direction is southeast at the beginning, then full south, pointing from the right bank of the river to the low point of the southern ridge (384 m) of the Kaarnepää. At first the climb is smooth, almost imperceptible, to a small plane between the Sotapää to the northeast (337 m) and the Peurapäá to the southwest (471 m). From there we left the river and began a gentle flank, steeper and steeper, through the forest. The option is smart since it allows us to progressively climb up to a first pass, that of Maantiekuru (263 m), then continue south to the crest of Kaarnepää. The summer road that runs straight at the bottom of the valley to suddenly climb the 130 m to the hill would not have allowed us to go through the pulkas.
At 15:15 h we reached the first pass (13.8 km). After a short descent, we climb back up to the south, in an increasingly steep forest. The pulkas weigh and in the difficult steps they get hooked in small trunks that are in the way. Little by little, we managed to gain height at the price of a great effort. The temperature of the air gradually decreases and the canopy of the trees is loaded with snow around us. The hill, apparently, will never arrive! In total, more than an hour we will need to overcome the 2.5 km that separate us from him, sweating in the climbs to drag the pulkas and fighting on the slopes so that they do not overturn, or get caught in the road obstacles. At the height of 415 m we can finally shout victory: the hill of Kaarnepää. It is 5:50 pm and the sun has just set on the horizon.
The descent on the other side is not easy either and the first section, above all, is very steep. Once again the sledges force us to go down with caution: doing ladders and making detours so they do not turn around, or worse, so that they do not push us with their weight. The terrain then loses its inclination and we quickly reach the height of the Sarvijoki (320 m). There, we realize one last obstacle: with the arrival of March the bridge of snow that in winter allows to cross the river without problem has been broken: we will have to look for a step further back or later. It's 6:50 PM and it gets dark; we light the fronts. Kim and Marta come forward to find a step. In the end, we all got through and tired, we beat the rhythm. Two and a half kilometers downhill separate us from the Sarvioja refuge (autio-varaustupa, 284 m). When we reach it, it is 8:15 pm: it will have been a long day.
The shelter is small, similar to Lankojärvi where we spent the previous night: with a table, two benches, a wood stove and two bunk beds superimposed for 10 people, to narrow. We decided to form two groups and also occupy the free part of the refuge (autiotupa) to have more space. We are tired, dehydrated, and the little space makes it difficult to go back and forth as we get settled: light the fire, go to find snow for the water, cut wood for the night and find a place to dry and order all our belongings. Undo the pulkas, and prepare dinner: today, prawn risotto with frankfurters that will taste like glory! Red wine from Cisco, serrano ham, chocolate and dessert: artisan turrón from Portal del Àngel de Barcelona, to your health Rubén! All a feast. At 11:20 p.m. we clear the space and at twelve o'clock, the last candles are extinguished in the two shelters ... Tonight, we will sleep like trunks!
- - - - - - - - - -
Note on reservations: The mountain center of Kiilopää, 250 km north of the arctic circle and half an hour from the city of Ivalo, ensures reservations in the National Park shelters and delivers the keys to the varaustupa (closed shelters) . It is also the main information point in the Saariselkä.
Mountain Center of Kiilopää
Kiilopääntie, 620
FI-99830 Saariselkä - FINLAND
Tel: +358.16.670.0700
Mail: kiilopaa@suomenlatu.fi
Connections by plane, train and bus
.
Departure: Refuge 1 - Lankojärvi varaustupa (198 m)
Arrival: Refuge 2 - Sarvioja varaustupa (284 m)
Distances and cumulated altitude: 21.5 km; +285 m / -200 m
Difficulty: 4/5
Full route: 2016.03.13-20 - Urho Kekkonen National Park, Finland (8 days)
Monday 14.03.2016 - Stage 2: Lankojärvi - Sarvioja
Pulkeros: Francesc, Toni & Berti
Second day in the heart of the National Park of Urho Kekkonen, without doubt the hardest stage of this journey. It's 6 o'clock in the morning; the day outside has already overtaken us and the light penetrates with force through the tiny windows of the shelter: the sun will not be long out from behind the mountains. Each one is slowly waking up while in the air, a smell of coffee floats. For breakfast: bread, jam, and oat flakes with mueslis; with boiling water, so they swell. Today has not appeared dehydrated milk so what other remedy, we must do without it! The mixture of oatmeal is taking on that texture that I have often wondered if I would take it at home, taking more of the food for chickens than anything else, when in the mountains it has always tasted great.
Over there, someone sings; The good mood reigns in the refuge. And we are all happy to be here! We have all slept well: those in the upper bunk beds with some heat, those in the lower bunk beds with some cold towards the early morning: someone has forgotten to put a trunk at night or maybe even someone will He has raised! Snoring stories arise, which leaves us indifferent to those of us who go around the world with plugs. Laughs ...
At 8 o'clock we cleared the shelter and a quarter of an hour later, closed pulkas, we set off. Today's route starts with Lake Lankojärvi and then follows the river to the northeast. It is not so cold: -9ºC, without wind. The snow on the plain makes it difficult to know where the lake starts and where it ends, so after half an hour, we must rectify the address to resume the GPS trace. We continue like this all morning, advancing cautiously on one side or the other of the river so that the sledges do not overturn. From time to time, the darker tone of the snow alerts us that the ice layer on the surface is thinner and we press on to a suspicious "croc". About 4.5 km from Lankojärvi we arrive at a cabin where the fishermen in summer store firewood for camping. The place is accommodated with homes and grills to roast the meat. Shortly after, we reached the free shelter of Porttikoski (autiotupa, 172 m). There we rest and we take some bread with nuts. The shelter is of small dimension, with a bench, a table, a wood stove and against the wall two wooden bunk beds without mattresses, for 10 people.
We do not entertain ourselves: it is almost 11 o'clock and there is still a long way to go and a hill whose lack of difficulty is unknown: the critical point of the day. When we drew the route from home, we agreed that in case of need or bad weather, if the pass of the hill was problematic, we could continue down the valley to the shelter of Snellmanin (autiotupa, 139 m) for the next day reach the Muorravaarakka ( autio-varaustupa, 263 m). For now, the cold tightens, so by reducing the time we had given to rest by 5 minutes, we resume our route. We continue down the Suomujoki River until reaching the detour with the valley of Sotavaaranoja on the right, suddenly, the trace that we were following disappears. We have to open a trail in a virgin snow of about 50 cm thick, heavy, that sticks under the skis ... If we must continue in these conditions, up, this is going to be a calvary. We started to climb the valley when, luckily, we found a trace of descent. The direction is southeast at the beginning, then full south, pointing from the right bank of the river to the low point of the southern ridge (384 m) of the Kaarnepää. At first the climb is smooth, almost imperceptible, to a small plane between the Sotapää to the northeast (337 m) and the Peurapäá to the southwest (471 m). From there we left the river and began a gentle flank, steeper and steeper, through the forest. The option is smart since it allows us to progressively climb up to a first pass, that of Maantiekuru (263 m), then continue south to the crest of Kaarnepää. The summer road that runs straight at the bottom of the valley to suddenly climb the 130 m to the hill would not have allowed us to go through the pulkas.
At 15:15 h we reached the first pass (13.8 km). After a short descent, we climb back up to the south, in an increasingly steep forest. The pulkas weigh and in the difficult steps they get hooked in small trunks that are in the way. Little by little, we managed to gain height at the price of a great effort. The temperature of the air gradually decreases and the canopy of the trees is loaded with snow around us. The hill, apparently, will never arrive! In total, more than an hour we will need to overcome the 2.5 km that separate us from him, sweating in the climbs to drag the pulkas and fighting on the slopes so that they do not overturn, or get caught in the road obstacles. At the height of 415 m we can finally shout victory: the hill of Kaarnepää. It is 5:50 pm and the sun has just set on the horizon.
The descent on the other side is not easy either and the first section, above all, is very steep. Once again the sledges force us to go down with caution: doing ladders and making detours so they do not turn around, or worse, so that they do not push us with their weight. The terrain then loses its inclination and we quickly reach the height of the Sarvijoki (320 m). There, we realize one last obstacle: with the arrival of March the bridge of snow that in winter allows to cross the river without problem has been broken: we will have to look for a step further back or later. It's 6:50 PM and it gets dark; we light the fronts. Kim and Marta come forward to find a step. In the end, we all got through and tired, we beat the rhythm. Two and a half kilometers downhill separate us from the Sarvioja refuge (autio-varaustupa, 284 m). When we reach it, it is 8:15 pm: it will have been a long day.
The shelter is small, similar to Lankojärvi where we spent the previous night: with a table, two benches, a wood stove and two bunk beds superimposed for 10 people, to narrow. We decided to form two groups and also occupy the free part of the refuge (autiotupa) to have more space. We are tired, dehydrated, and the little space makes it difficult to go back and forth as we get settled: light the fire, go to find snow for the water, cut wood for the night and find a place to dry and order all our belongings. Undo the pulkas, and prepare dinner: today, prawn risotto with frankfurters that will taste like glory! Red wine from Cisco, serrano ham, chocolate and dessert: artisan turrón from Portal del Àngel de Barcelona, to your health Rubén! All a feast. At 11:20 p.m. we clear the space and at twelve o'clock, the last candles are extinguished in the two shelters ... Tonight, we will sleep like trunks!
- - - - - - - - - -
Note on reservations: The mountain center of Kiilopää, 250 km north of the arctic circle and half an hour from the city of Ivalo, ensures reservations in the National Park shelters and delivers the keys to the varaustupa (closed shelters) . It is also the main information point in the Saariselkä.
Mountain Center of Kiilopää
Kiilopääntie, 620
FI-99830 Saariselkä - FINLAND
Tel: +358.16.670.0700
Mail: kiilopaa@suomenlatu.fi
Connections by plane, train and bus
.
Waypoints
Waypoint
570 ft
Cabaña de leña (174 m)
Mountain hut
1,028 ft
Cabañas - Sudenpesä varaustupa (314 m)
Intersection
504 ft
Cambio de valle derecha (154 m)
Mountain pass
Intersection
587 ft
Cruce del río (179 m)
Mountain hut
656 ft
Refugio 1. Lankojärvi varaustupa (198 m)
Mountain hut
931 ft
Refugio 2. Sarvioja autio-varaustupa (284 m)
Wilderness hut
564 ft
Refugio Porttikoski autiotupa (172 m)
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