Arrive at Ivalo airport around 6 pm, where your guide will welcome you. Visit the Ivalo town center for a chance to buy final snacks for the week. Take a 1,5h drive to Ahkun tupa, a camping area and restaurant operated by a local Sami family that has been living there for generations. It is also the final habitated shore by the river Lemmenjoki, before entering the vast wilderness. Check-in, meet the others, and go through the gear for the week before dinner at the restaurant. First sauna visit!
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Spend 8 days exploring the remote Boreal wonderland of Lemmenjoki NP in Northern Finland. Learn the basics of Arctic wilderness survival, ski across lone landscapes, experience absolute solitude and sleep in traditional Finnish huts.
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Today after breakfast at Ahkun tupa and leaving your unnecessary gear behind,l set off to the ski tour following the frozen Lemmenjoki river. Enjoy lunch from the food thermos (provided by the guide) along the way. Get ready to lose cell reception for the whole of the week! Follow a snowmobile track to Hirvikoski rental hut, a simple Finnish wilderness hut with bunk beds, where you’ll spend the night.
Distance: 17 km/10.5 mi
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After a tasty breakfast, continue your journey for about 4 km (2.4 mi) to a traditional Finnish Kota at the Morgam-Viibus mountain, the highest one in the area. You will then climb it with snowshoes, leaving most of your gear behind. Going up is hard work, but definitely worth it, as you feel the wind blow on your face. On clear days you can see 100 kilometers of wilderness with no sight of human touch. After the tour, return to the Kota-hut and spend a traditional night inside along an open fire. The experience of a lifetime!
Distance: 12 km/7.5 mi
Elevation change: +500m/1,640 ft
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On day 4, you will only ski 5 km (3 mi), on soft snow. You will be staying at Morgamojan Kultala rental hut, which offers a warm welcome sauna! Before hitting the sauna, you will start preparing the quinzees by making a nice big pile of snow to hollow out the next day. The Morgamojan Kultala wilderness hut is again a simple log hut with one shared room and a separate sauna building. There is a wood stove, gas cooker, and an outhouse (dry toilet) – but no electricity. No additional luxuries, other than the peace & quiet of the surrounding wilderness.
Distance: 5 km/3 mi
Elevation change: +200m/650 ft
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Today, you will stay at the Morgamojan Kultala hut to hollow out the quinzees and have a peaceful fell skiing tour on the nearby fells. After another sauna opportunity, you get to try sleeping in the quinzees! This is not mandatory, though, as you can also choose to stay in the cabin for the night if you prefer.
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Pack your gear and head back to Hirvikoski, where you spent the second night of the tour – but this time through the fells covered with powder. This is the toughest day of the tour as you need to make the trail yourselves, shifting the trail breaker often so no one gets too exhausted. The guide will show you various wilderness survival skills along the way, and tell you about the unique nature of the area. The effort will be well justified as, at the end of the day, you get to see the magnificent Ravadasköngäs frozen waterfalls. Lunch will again be served in lunch thermoses along the way.
Distance: 13 km/8 mi
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Start slowly moving back to civilization, following an easy and flat snowmobile track back to Ahkun tupa. Like all other touring days, the lunch is served on the way. Once back to the base camp at Ahkun tupa, you’ll enjoy a tasty concluding dinner and have the chance to visit the final sauna of the tour, washing away all the dirt accumulated during heavy ski touring. Take the chance to pet the reindeer and feed them. Learn about Sami tradition and reindeer herding from the people at Ahkun Tupa.
Distance: 17 km/10.5 mi
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After a final breakfast at Ahkun Tupa, your guide will escort you back to the Ivalo airport to meet your departure to Helsinki. Take the chance to visit the Ivalo shop and get some souvenirs!
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What you get on this adventure:
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- An experienced, local ski guide with extensive knowledge of the area
- Six days of skiing
- Transfer to and from Ivalo Airport
- All meals for the duration of the tour
- Accommodations in wilderness log cabins during ski days
- Accommodations in hotel-level log huts at the beginning and end of the tour
- All ski gear needed during the tour
What’s not included:
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- Accommodations before and after the tour
- Meals
- Entry tickets/parking
- Guide gratuities — optional
- Travel insurance (mandatory)
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This tour is meant for adventurers with high levels of fitness. You will be skiing for 4-8 hours a day, covering daily distances of 5 to 17 km (3-10 mi), averaging 13 km (8 mi) on ski days. While skiing, you will also be carrying all of your clothes and gear on sledges and in backpacks.
You will mostly traverse fairly easy terrain, including forests, rivers, and bogs, with no big inclines or declines apart from the climb to Morgam Viibus. This trip is done with snowshoes, and the group will leave most of the gear behind to make the ascent a bit easier. Note that the route can vary according to the guide’s judgment depending on the conditions and the group’s capabilities. The safety of the group is your guide’s number one priority.
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While this tour is highly physically demanding, you don’t need to be an experienced backcountry skier to join. However, you do need to have some prior skiing experience (not necessarily in the backcountry) and excellent fitness levels. If you can handle a strenuous multi-day hike, you should be able to handle this tour.
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You will traverse an 870 square mile area (2,250 square km) with no inhabitants or cellphone reception. From the start of the tour, you need to be self-sufficient. Your guide will carry an emergency satellite communicator and teach you how to use it to call for help. However, due to the remoteness, it takes a long time for the help to arrive, and it should only be used in real emergencies.
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Here’s a list of the personal equipment you need to bring:
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- A jacket or light anorak
- Long shell pants
- Gaiters to cover your footwear — optional
- Skiing mittens (preferably unlined over-mittens with loose wool or
- fleece inner mitten)
- Wool hat (windproof if you have a jacket with no hood)
- Sunglasses or skiing goggles
- Winter boots or warm hiking boots, ideally with removable felt lining
- Pullover or similar warm garment
- Sun hat — optional
- Extra socks
- Undershirt
- Briefs
- Long johns
- Mittens
- Down jacket — optional
- Insulated or down overpants
- Bivy booties — optional
- Binoculars — optional
- Backpack
- Headlamp or torch
- Thermos flask
- Small towel for saunas
- Personal medication
- Camera — optional (but recommended)
The following will be provided by your guides:
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- Sleeping bags, liners, and closed cell mattresses
- Skiing equipment, including pulkas and backpacks
- Toilet paper
- Cutlery
- Cups
- Plate or bowl
All the skiing equipment you’ll need will be provided by your guides. If you wish to use your own gear, please notify your guides in advance so they can confirm their suitability for the demanding winter conditions.
If you don’t have your own backpack, let your guides know in advance, and they’ll provide one for you at no extra cost.
Note: Unfortunately, sometimes the luggage doesn’t arrive as the passengers do. This is quite a regular occurrence here. Your guides recommend that you pack the things you’ll need on your first tour day in your hand luggage, so you can participate in the tour even if the rest of your luggage doesn’t arrive with you on Day 1.
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Ski boots can be rented on notice before booking with the additional price of 50 EUR ($55 USD) per person. The rest of the necessary ski equipment will be provided by your guides.
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Group sizes and pricing
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- For this private adventure, the max client-to-guide ratio is 8:1.
- The cost is per person and doesn’t decrease as the group grows.
Backcountry skiing in Lemmenjoki can be arranged for larger groups. Contact us to make arrangements.
Min. age requirements
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- If you are older than 18, you’re good to go.
- Minors are not permitted to join these tours.
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To get to Lemmenjoki, Finland, most people fly into Helsinki Airport 15 hours away. From there, you can take a direct flight to the Ivalo Airport in Ivalo, Inari, Finland. You can use also the Kittilä and Rovaniemi airports, with more inbound options. Both of these airports offer bus connections to Ivalo.
Your guide requests you to arrive at the Ivalo airport by 6:45 pm in order to meet the pre-arranged transport. Please note that your guides only organize one transport per group. Before making any flight reservations, check the transfer schedules with them.
You will meet your guide at the Ivalo airport at the designated time. They have arranged a 1,5hr transfer to the Akhun Tupa restaurant, the starting point of the tour.
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We highly recommend that you cover all your bases with both emergency medical and travel insurance. With medical insurance, if you have an accident or medical emergency on or off the mountain, you’ll avoid paying out of pocket for costly expenses. This covers everything from hospital treatments to emergency air transportation and more.
Travel insurance covers canceled flights, natural disasters, and other scenarios that may interrupt your travel plans.
We also expect you to respect local regulations and take measures to protect yourselves, your guides, and the communities you’re traveling to. For more information on travel recommendations and restrictions in Halti, Finland, please refer to the Finnish government’s official COVID-19 guidelines.
If you need assistance selecting the right insurance for your group, let us know and we will be happy to help!
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Have more questions?