Monday Pow
Today’s goal is to check out two resorts that no one seems to know anything about, and visit Uuperi near Kotka for some fresh powder! There ain’t much but still enough to enjoy after a long break – I’ve had the flu and some serious hassle for the last two weeks, but today even the crispy -18C / 0F weather can’t hold me back anymore!
Uuperi seems like really nice place, and I truly hope that we’ll be able to put a flag on top of their resort too – that’d be the southeasternmost resort in Finland to allow snowscoots. Remember to check out our guaranteed resort map from the sidebar, there’s a ton of resorts that we’ve been to and which are snowscoot friendly. And if there’s more, we’d be happy to hear and add them on the map!
Finally at Tampere…
Today seemed like a good day on the first glimpse, but after hearing the harsh fact that Niilo wouldn’t be heading to Tampere at all this weekend, I knew this would be a long grueling day for me. Starting off from Kotka, I was originally supposed to drive to Helsinki, pick up Taavi and head to Tampere.
Next I realised I had to pick up the Resistenza Trophy from Okkonen, but the problem was that Okkonen is in Australia right now. Quick call to Okkonen’s charming darling Minni, and the pick up was organized. I left Kotka an hour late, drove for half an hour before realizing I had left my jacket to my apartment – an hour later I was back in the business, 2 hours late.
In Helsinki I managed to miss a turn, got gridlocked and wasted another half an hour in traffic. By the time I got to Taavi’s place, we used another hour to pack the stuff to my tiny car. God damnit. Next we headed for the Prize, and the clock was ticking, 7pm. Three and a half hours late.
Mikkeli embraced us at 10pm, we switched to a bigger, sportier car and picked up the young guns. Wow, 11pm. Now it’s 4am, and we’re still chit-chatting with not-so-sober Sami, while the Rami-version of Helenius Brothers passed out before we even got here!
It’s an early wake-up for us, so we’re gonna try to get some sleep – we’ll keep you updated tomorrow!
That’s it, that’s all.
The trip is almost over, now we’re chilling and playing Monopoly. Believe it or not, that is definitely the only thing that has caused anyone to raise their voice on this trip. Only thing we’re missing is boxing gloves…
After the break and the latest post, Nasty stayed at the cabin for some beer and Nintendo Wii, so this time Henkka was the chosen one to take a beating – totally over the landing on a 12 meter box jump and cracking the visor on his brand new Fox fullface helmet. And if that wasn’t enough, a 180 spin on a rail sent him face first, without the busted helmet, right on ice. After a few shots on the evil rail we headed for the drop we scouted yesterday (you saw a photo in the gallery), and on the way there Henkka decided to ride down a set of stairs. Seemed like a good idea, but he ended up sliding back first into a tree. Add a couple of slams on that drop, and you have a really frustrated person. Check out the gallery, I’m totally out of words right now.
Trees and tortillas.
Boooooooyaka! Just as we thought, the weather cleared up for the evening and we got a few nice shots from the BatteryPark and scouted some spots for tomorrow. Nasty took a huge slam on a 14 meter box jump, but walked away almost unharmed – damages were limited to a sore wrist. It was also my time to be on the slam list, when I thought I wouldn’t have to dodge a tree – That’s just a thin branch with a thick chunks of snow on it… Surprise!!! It was a branch thicker than my thigh, topped up with a thin layer of snow on it. Nasty said it looked unbelievably stupid, and I truly believe him – it was all like *bang* aaaww s**t *thump* as I slammed and stopped from nearly light speed to stand still in just milliseconds!
Tomorrow’s gonna be our last day on the slopes, and we’ll probably try to get as much shots from different spots as possible. Today’s effort was pretty much ruined by enormous lift queues, as everybody wanted to get a piece of the better weather. But all in all it was nice, I got to use my new wide lens for the first time, and all I’m wondering now is why haven’t I bought one earlier?! Geeze, I must’ve been really stupid…
Here you go, you nosy little critters, some shots from today!
Monday is murder
So it’s definitely Monday today – Henkka ripped his pants after jumping straight into a branch, and Niilo crashed neck-first into a tree. Nasty got a busted lip and had to spit some blood for a while…
Came back to the apartment for a break while waiting for the weather to calm down – 13 m/s wind on the top ain’t no funny shit boys and girls! It’s been a nice little blizzard, but it’s soothing down and we’re heading to the BatteryPark for a little session.
Sunday jam…
Howdy-ho, all you readers, if we have any! Friday’s long, grueling 700km drive in an awful weather combined with a full-of-action day in a slightly arctic -15 celsius frost took it’s toll, and as the temperature dropped to -25°C in the evening and stayed that low even today, I wasn’t too psyched to drag the camera gear out to the cold. The cameras would stand that, of course, but my old and snappy fingers would pop right out of the socket after five minutes of holding those lovely little digital thingies.
After freezing our asses off, what could possibly be better than relaxing in a spa – Kuusamon Tropiikki – in hot bubbly water crowded with russian tourists behaving badly. You’re right, take that hot bubbly water, water slides and that jacuzzi, but leave that russian part out of the equasion. On this roadtrip, the only russian things I’m in for are vodka russian and white russian.
Tomorrow’s supposed to be a bit warmer, -10°C, so we’ll try to get a photo session up and running! But hey, I thought of you a bit, we’re not that bad – here’s some taste of the views and the weather. Sorry, you can’t see the -7 m/s brain-numbing wind in this shot, but it’s better than nothing.
-20°C and 7m/s wind
Resistenza Troops at Ruka
Hello to everybody from Ruka!
We arrived here last night after too many hours of driving. Our friends Pekko and Noora are providing a home to us for next few days! Manymany thanks to them!
Today was our first day at the slopes and it was pretty good. Antti was teaching Hanna to snowscoot and I was with Nasty checking out some tracks in the woods and street. Both were really good and we already tested all the jumps. In the woods Nasty made some closer contact with couple of trees. Luckly nothing bad happened… Just small hits.
Tomorrow we’re gonna give you some pics from here and a full report from day two. So stay tuned!
