Category: General

DIY: Compass Stand for Winter Expeditions

On By fridapelinIn DIY, GeneralLeave a comment

Many of you have asked details about the compass stand that we used during our Greenland crossing. Finally, I will give you details and drawings, so you can build your own! We (our expedition) think that it is the best compass stand there is! And it’s also a nice DIY project!

The most important thing is that you have the compass stand attached to the harness high enough, at chest height. (See the pictures below.) In this way, you don’t have to ski with a bent neck, and at the same time you can see ahead and clearly the compass itself. It’s also really easy to build and lightweight! We used Fjellpulken’s harnesses and the carabiners of our compass stand were a perfect fit for the harness! The cord lock allows you to lower the compass stand down if you have a break, and you don’t want the compass to be in you way.

What you need:
– 74 cm plastic tube (I used 16 mm in diameter, electrical PVC pipe)
– 2 x carabiner (I used the Edelrid Wiregate Accessory Carabiner 40 mm)
– paracord 2-3 mm
– rubber band 3 mm
– cord lock (I used a cord lock like this)
– and of course the compass… 😉

In the drawings the rubber bands are marked with blue, red and green, and the paracord is black.

You can download the drawing as pdf here:

compass-stand-diy-1Download

Kaldoaivi 2021

On By fridapelinIn General, videoLeave a comment

Viikon hiihtovaellus Kaldoaivin erämaa-alueella, Utsjoelta Näätämöön (120 km) huhtikuussa 2021. Välikohteina Junkers JU-52 -lentokoneen hylky ja Adolfin kammi. Pääkohteena Norjan raja idässä.

Tämä oli viimeinen etappi Ankarat Avotuntureiden järjestämästä “Lapin halki 2021” -hiihtovaelluksesta. Blogikirjoituksia reissusta: https://avotunturit.fi/aiheet/lapin-h…​

Pahoittelut äänenlaadusta! Mikin tuulisuoja hävisi juuri ennen matkaa…
Reitti Utsjoelta Näätämöön, 120 km (Linkki Google Mapsiin)


Valokuvia reissusta:

Prepping & packing for Kebnekaise

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Nokka kohti Pohjois-Ruotsia! Suunnitelmissa on viiden päivän kesävaellus Ruotsin korkeimman vuoren ympäristössä. Jos säät sallii on myös vuorenhuiputus ohjelmassa, mutta tämän blogitekstin kirjoitushetkellä sääennuste näyttää aika vetistä taivalta… Saa nähdä jos suunnitelmat tulee muuttumaan…

Reissua varten olen tehnyt erilaisia valmisteluja. Ruoan puolesta olen paistanut hirvenjauhelihaa, ja sen jälkeen kuivannut sitä kuivurissa. Saman proseduurin pystyy myös tekemään uunissa jos ei omista kuivuria, vaikka se onkin hitaampi tapa saada liha rutikuivaksi. Ja hirveä siksi, koska mitä vähärasvaisempi liha, sitä parempi se kestää säilytystä. En myöskään käytä yhtään rasvaa paistamiseen. Olen myös kuivannut mangoa, mikä mielestäni on loistava snacksi pitkiä vaelluspäiviä ajatellen.

Valmisteluihin kuuluu myös kamppeiden pakkaaminen. Minulla on yleensä seuraavaa systeemi, jotta mikään ei unohtuisi: Teen listan kaikista varusteista ja vaatteista, jonka jälkeen kerään ne yhteen paikkaan. Pakkaan varusteet vesitiiviisiin pusseihin, jonka jälkeen pakkaan ne rinkkaan. Siten ei haittaa vaikka kaivaisi rinkasta jotain kaatosateella, kun kaikki on vesitiiviisti pakattu.

We are soon heading towards the north of Sweden! The plan is to do a 5-day hike in the surroundings of Sweden’s highest mountain. If the weather is on our side, we are going to try summit Kebnekaise, but at the time of writing this blog, the weather forecast seems to be quite wet… Let’s see if the plans are going to change…

For the trip I have done a variety of preparations. For food preparations I have baked minced elk, and then dried it up in the food dehydrator. The same procedure can also be done in the oven if you do not own a dehydrator, even though it is a slower way to make the meat dry. And elk because low-fat meat is better for preservation. I do not even use any fat for frying. I also have dried some mango, which I think is a great snack for long hiking days.

Preparations also include equipment and clothes packing. I usually have the following system so that nothing will be forgotten: I will make a list of all the equipment and clothing, and then collect them in one place. I pack the equipment into watertight bags, and then pack them into the backpack. So, it does not matter if have to, for some reason, empty my backpack in pouring water when everything is watertight packed.

 

Kayaking in Espoo/H:ki Archipelago

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Tällä kertaa suuntasimme Espoon ja Helsingin merille. Espoon Otsolahdessa toimii Otsolahden Melontakeskus, mistä vuokrasimme kajakit. Päiväksi oli luvattu aika tyyntä, joten päätimme suunnata ulos merelle katsastamaan eri retkisaaria. Sää ei ollutkaan niin tyyni mitä oltiin odotettu, mutta muutama aalto ei meitä haittaisi lainkaan. Otimme suunnaksi Tvijälp-saaren, mistä kartan mukaan löytyisi tuulelta ja aalloilta suojattu poukama. Kaisla oli kuitenkin valloittanut koko lahden, ja ainoa hyväksi havaittu kalliomainen maihinnousupaikka ja taukopaikka oli jo muiden retkeiljöiden käytössä.

Meloimme siis etelään, kohti Varsasaarta. Saaren etelärannalla on iso hiekkaranta, mikä varmaan houkuttelee kävijöitä helteisinä kesäpäivinä. Meitä ei kuitenkaan kiinnostanut jäädä pidemmäksi aikaa, koska eteläinen tuuli puhalsi suoraan rannalle. Jatkoimme matkaa melkein suoraan itäänpäin, kohti Käärmeluotoja. Rantauduimme Läntiselle Käärmeluodolle, jonka pohjoisrannalta löytyi hyvä hiekkaranta rantautumiseen. Lähellä rantaa sijatsi myös keittokatos, mutta tämä oli tällä hetkellä poissa käytösta palovaurion takia. Muuten saari on korkea kalliosaari, joten hyviä paikkoja maisemien ikuistamiseen löytyy monta. Pidimme ruokatauon jonka jälkeen paluumatka kohti Otsolahtea alkoi.

This time we headed to the sea in the Espoo and Helsinki area. We rented our kayaks from Otsolahti Canoe Center in Espoo. The weather forecast said the wind was going to be quite calm, so we decided to head out to the sea to look at the various islands. The wind was not so calm what we had expected, but little waves and wind would not hurt at all. We took the direction of Tvijälp Island where we, according to the map, could find a bay protected from wind and wave. However the reed had conquered the whole bay, and the only good landing and resting place was already in use.

So, we steered south to Varsasaari. The southern shore of the island has a large sandy beach, which is sure to tempt you in hot summer days. However, we were not interested in staying longer, because the southern wind blew directly into the beach. We continued our journey almost straight eastward, towards Käärmeluodot. We paddles to the Läntinen Käärmeluoto. On the north shore there was a good sandy beach to go ashore. Near the beach there was also a cooking shelter, but it was currently out of use due to a fire damage. The island is a high rocky island, so there are plenty of places to admire the landscapes. We had a lunch break, after which the return journey towards Otsolahti started.

 

A Bunker From the Past

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meiko-4

Meiko is a nature reserve in Kirkkonummi, Southern Finland. The surroundings of the lake Meiko are popular for day trip hikers. We took a short trip in the sunny winter weather. The aim was to find the bunker located at Meiko’s southwest shore.

We were initially uncertain to take us out on the ice, but after we found an open fishing hole, we found that the ice was thick enough to hold our weight. We took a coffee break before we walked away west across the ice.

Because we knew there was a Geocache near the bunker, it was easy to navigate to the right place with the help of the Geocaching app, even though we didn’t follow any official trail. We were a bit unsure when we arrived, because the snow covered the ground, and we didn’t at first got a sight of the bunker. But the unnatural shapes of stones turned out to be concrete! So, we had found the bunker we were looking for!

The narrow vertical drop, which wasn’t the actual entrance.

At first we found some round concrete structures, and then we found the entrance, which was a narrow vertical drop with steel bars as a ladder. The odd thing was, that it wasn’t pitch dark in there. It turned out that the light came from the actual entrance, which was at the end of a long corridor. So we had taken us in the hard way …

The actual entrance
Getting out from the bunker (Photo: Emilia Grönholm)

There are several bunkers in the area of Meiko, and they are all from the Porkkala parenthesis period. The area was leased to the Soviet Union in 1944, and was returned to Finland in 1956.

A Mouse Problem in Nuuksio

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noux-23

In mid Oktober, it was time for our annual autumn hike with Emmi, Henrik and Lisa. This time we headed for Nuuksio National Park, not far from home, simply for not having to sit in the car for so long. Our plan was to stay for two nights. The focus was on good food and enjoyment. Besides the usual breakfast we had packed pork fillet, vegetables, sausages and ingredients for hot sandwiches in our backpacks.

On Friday, we arrived quite late to Nuuksio. We left our car in Solvalla, where we threw our bags on our backs and walked away to the east. We had aimed to hit up camp at Urja or Valkialampi. After an hour of hiking the sun set down, and our walk turned into night orienteering. After wandering through rough bushes and shrubs, hills and valleys we found the first campsites. There was a full house, and we decided to go ahead. At Kattilajärvi we finally found an empty fireplace. In the darkness it was still pretty challenging to find the perfect tent place in the bumpy terrain. The dinner, or rather supper,  was the big program number for the evening. Another program number was the little mouse that ran around our tents, but even at that stage we did not know how much attention the mouse would finally get…

At breakfast the next morning, Emmi claimed that something had chewed on the cheese container. The rest of us were convinced that the chewing marks were not caused by any rodent or any animal in general. The food had been inside a closed backpack for the whole night! Well, this will continue later … Sadly… So read on!

We wandered off against Luukkaa area and took a lunch break at Kaitalampi west side. We went ahead and rounded the lake from the north and camped at a fireplace by the eastern shore. The tents we pitched on a hill with a nice view over the lake. We spent the evening  cooking hot sandwiches and grilled sausages. Then it was time to seek out the sleeping bags for the night.

04:50 a.m. it happened! There was a hard rustling in our vestibule! Drowsy, we tried to find out the origin for the rustle. When we opened the zipper to the vestibule it went quiet, and when we put our heads back on our pillows the mysterious rustle started again. We woke even our tent neighbours when our detective maneuvers became too loud. But in the end we got the culprit in the act! A mouse was standing in the spotlight of the headlamp on my backpack! We started to check our bags, and it was at that moment we noticed the devastation! The mouse had gotten into Lisa’s backpack through an opening with velcro and then chewed through a thick waterproof bag! The mouse had found our breakfast bread and it was like someone had taken a mega bite from each slice of the bread! The whole bread package flew out of the tent, and in the end we managed to sleep undisturbed the rest of the night.

In the morning we ate breakfast without any bread … Only cold cuts and porridge … It had clearly been a mouse also the first night when someone had chewed on the cheese container. What we do not know, is if it had been the same mouse that had traveled around in some of our backpack?  This was the first time I experienced an animal thief on a hike. Maybe I should be more hawk-eyed next time!