My ski partner and I have been making list after list for our upcoming tour of Finnish Lapland, as well as crossing off each day until our respective departure dates; our own personalized advent calendars. After purchasing our plane tickets adapted perfectly to our planned start date and strict visa duration, research indicated delaying our trip in order to enjoy more tolerable weather conditions would be a most wise decision.
Meet my trip partner, checking and double checking his layering system, both inside and out…
A morning walk to put some layering principles to the test (and to retrieve car from ditch)
Our new start date is March 15, meaning my partner and I have two and three weeks of Finnish style binge drinking, sauna sitting, ice fishing and good old fashioned reindeer racing. The schedule change affords us a bit more staging time but forces us to exit the country as quickly as possible in order to avoid visa violations.
Trying on the brand new -20 F sleeping bag
While we impatiently await our departures, we are testing, trying on, fitting and preparing kits, clothing systems, and food stuffs.
The accumulation of gear, new and old
The gear has begun invading our usable living space.
For our bodies; Alan is attempting to be as sedentary and as gluttonous as comfortably possible in order to gain some weight for insulation purposes while I swim my sluggish heart out at 6 AM every other morning. Alan has a goal of at least five pounds. I have a goal of at least five miles a week. We are both experiencing mild struggles.
Currently, we are bundled up beneath our first snow with all of our fingers crossed with hopes of enough accumulation to permit us to test out some of the new gear that requires weather. In the meantime, we dream of Finland and we dream of snow.
Finnish Dreams
