Winter Sports in Lapland

At 7.30am on the 30th December, 2002 I found myself with my husband and my friend from school days on board a Finnair Airbus flying from Heathrow to Helsinki. Approaching Vantaa Airport, I looked down on a landscape transformed by ice and snow into a magical fairyland.

Four and a half hours later we boarded a second plane bound for Ivalo, far north of the Arctic Circle. This plane was packed with winter sports enthusiasts on their way to the snows of Lapland.

A bus transported the passengers to their various sports centres and hotels. Our destination was Kiilopaa Fell Centre, 45 km from Ivalo, in the province of Inari, on the edge of Urho Kekkonen National Park.

On entering the well-lit, warm and welcoming centre, I ran to embrace my daughter and her fiancé. We were there for their wedding. I enjoyed my first Finnish meal and then we all set forth in the extreme cold to trudge through the frozen snow for fifteen minutes to our log cabin. A big log fire in the living-room, electric heaters and triple-glazed windows meant we could forget the sub-zero temperatures outside.

Next morning I was wakened by the snow-plough clearing the paths and tracks around the cabins. Having showered and dressed appropriately, I followed the path to the centre, guided by lights along the banks of snow.

After a hearty breakfast chosen from a sumptuous buffet, I joined others in the equipment shed where the chief guide fitted my snow-shoes. We set off for the ski slopes where we were divided into two groups. I went with the beginners. I am not an athletic person so I found snow-shoeing an extremely strenuous exercise. The clear air, however, was exhilarating and the scenery breathtakingly beautiful. I stood and gazed around, admiring the lights glinting on frozen endless stretches of pure-white snow.

After lunch that day I decided against joining the organised ski trip. I had my first sauna. In spite of dire warnings back home that I would drop dead if I went in the sauna, I sat down on the wooden bench and let the temperature rise to 77 degrees Celsius before ladling water on to the hot coals. Great waves of heat enveloped my body. Within three days I was so hooked on saunas that I visited the smoke sauna at the centre. The wooden rails were too hot to hold and the seat too hot to sit on without a towel. Then I did something on the spur of the moment that I still can't believe I did. I walked outside where the temperature was minus 34 and down into the ice pool. My body seemed to be transmogrified into one great block of ice. Having thawed out back in the sauna, I felt invigorated as if the blood had been sent freshly circulating round my body.

On our second night we had planned to join a nature trail to see the Northern Lights but the sky became overcast so an evening of dancing in the bar was substituted. The following night I did see the Aurora Borealis, shafts of greenish lights streaking across the northern sky. We had four hours of greyish light each morning and the sky would turn to inky-blue before darkness descended.

An afternoon of skiing as learners was another memorable experience and there followed a ride in a sledge driven by a snow-mobile in the hills beyond Saariselka. This was an extra charge on our bill. I inquired about a ride on a sledge with husky dogs but it was expensive. My son-in-law later arranged with his friend in Helsinki to take me with his two teams of dogs on their daily training.

The wealthier people stay in the Spa Hotel in Saariselka, an obvious tourist centre. I treated myself to a hairdo and a face make-up there on the morning of Anna’'s wedding. It was a revelation to sample the luxury enjoyed by the rich.

The wedding took place in an octagonal wooden hut, lit by candles and heated by a big log fire in the middle. The path to the entrance was marked out with burning logs on the snow. Inside, we sat on log benches covered in reindeer skins. The simple ceremony was conducted in Finnish and English by a Lutheran pastor. The reception was held in the centre, followed by dancing in the bar. The centre had been closed to other guests for that weekend. I had participated in most of the organised activities and evening entertainment while there. I had even attempted, though not very successfully, the amazing art of ice-sculpting.

Having boarded the bus for Ivalo next day, tears filled my eyes as I left behind the silence and beauty of that magical place.