Kilpisjärvi (Roadtrip Finland)

We woke up to heavy rains and strong bursts of wind. It had been raining the whole night. It was difficult to get yourself out of the sleeping bags, knowing you would have to get out and get wet. We gathered our equipment to a cooking shelter while we packed our soaking wet tents to the car.

Our target of the day was Kilpisjärvi the northest point in western Finland in the so called hand of Finland. Our plan was to cross the boarder to Norway and drive through Kautokeino and then turn back to Hetta. Hopefully there we would have better mobile coverage, so that we could plan our next place to sleep and see the weather forecast. We needed a place to dry our tents and equipment. 

The drive along Teno river and on the Norwegian side was beautiful, even though it rained heavily the whole drive. The roads were narrow and in decent conditions. There were practically no other cars. On the first 100km we only saw 15 cars. The drive to Hetta took almost 5 hours and once we got there we stopped to the Nature Center of Pallas Ylläs National park to plan our next move.

According to the weather forecast it was raining in Kilpisjärvi and it would keep raining heavily until Sunday. In overall not the best conditions to go climbing the Saana fell or hike over 14 miles (22km) to the boarder of Norway and Sweden. We were 2 hours from Kilpisjärvi and 2 hours from Ylläs. So we studied the forecast for Ylläs. Sun shine for Thursday and Friday,  so the choice was easy, we would start for our cabin and go hiking around Ylläs. 

The remaining of the drive went very smoothly as we knew we would soon have a warm dinner, get our equipment to dry and get to sleep on beds after a relaxing sauna. 

P.S. A storm called Päivö hit Finland on Tuesday and lasted until Wednesday. Over 100 000 households were without electricity.