Finland: skiing in Pallas-Yllästunturi national park

The weather in Tromsø hasn't been the greatest lately so we decided to go to Finland for a few days with Easter to get some sunshine. We packed our camping gear and some food and went skiing in Pallas-Yllästunturi national park in northern Finland. This national park has excellent facilities with many kilometres of groomed ski trails and open wilderness huts. We mostly stayed on the trails as the snow off the trails was so soft now in spring that even with skis we sank ankle to knee deep (nearly waist deep without skis). As we had expected the huts to be busy with Easter we carried a tent with us, but it looked like there were actually very few overnight guests. The huts are nice and well equipped with plenty of wood for heating and gas for cooking, I can highly recommend them.

Het was nat en bewolkt in Tromsø in de paasvakantie, dus we besloten om een paar dagen naar Finland te gaan om de zon op te zoeken. Met de tent en genoeg eten in de rugzak zijn we 4 dagen gaan skien in het nationale park Pallas-Yllästunturi in noord Finland. Dit park heeft uitstekende faciliteiten voor toeristen met vele kilometers met geprepareerde skiløypes en verschillende open hutten. We hebben voornamelijk de løypes gevolgd, want de sneeuw buiten de løypes was zo zacht nu in het voorjaar dat we er ook met skies nog enkel tot kniediep wegzakten. We hadden verwacht dat de hutten vrij druk zouden zijn met pasen, vandaar dat we een tent mee hadden, maar de hutten die we tegenkwamen hadden wel veel dagtoeristen, maar maar weinig gasten die overnachtten. De hutten zijn eenvoudig maar mooi, en goed voorzien van hout voor de kachel en gas om op te koken. Ik kan ze van harte aanbevelen.

Crossing the lake from Enontekiö. A grey and slightly damp start of the trip.

It was raining when we arrived at the first hut and there were no other visitors, so we decided to sleep in the hut that night.

Early start in beautiful weather on day 2.

Lunch stop at the second hut. Quite busy here, with a steady stream of skiers, mostly on day trips.

Sun lighting up the top of a mountain

Well marked trails over the mountains.

Our campsite for the second night.

The third night we camped ca 100 m from an open lavvo, so we could have a campfire in the evening.

Inside the lavvo.

Early morning view from our tent on day 4, nice and sunny again.