Each week, our entertainments reporter tries out a new activity. This time, Duncan Hall experiences sub-zero temperatures in Finland.
How to.. survive arctic conditions
IT’S about 10pm at night, minus 12 degrees Celcius and I’m in my swimming trunks about to climb into a hole cut into a frozen lake.
And I’m on holiday.
Just in case you thought your Guide daredevil (Scrabble and folk-dancing a speciality) took it easy when he was away from the office, this should prove to you that adventure – or possibly stupidity – is in my blood.
The jaunt to Finland at the height of February, when temperatures seldom climb above 0C, was essentially my girlfriend’s idea – as strange ideas frequently are.
But it was such an experience I felt that, rather than just bore my colleagues with holiday snaps and tall tales, I ought to share the experience with faithful Guide readers.
Because this isn’t some expensive package jaunt organised through a travel agent with huge swinging fees. We flew over to Tampere airport from Stansted for less than £50 each on Ryanair. Our accommodation averaged at about £25 each a night for four of us, and one dog, to stay in a beautiful log cabin up in Levi, a ski resort two hours above the Arctic Circle.
We travelled to Lapland by an overnight train which cost less than a return to Leeds from Peterborough.
And all the activites we took part in cost less than 30 euros each – pretty impressive when you think that includes once in a lifetime experiences such as riding reindeer and huskie sledge rides.
And it is a breathtaking place to visit in the winter – with its sublime views, extensive forests and national parks and frozen lakes – and no sign of the dreaded “Finnish Air Force”, the mosquitoes which take over the country’s summer evenings.
Finland in February is easily accessible on a low budget – especially if you time it as we did to just before the main season starts at February half-term - although it does take a little bit of pre-spending to get there.
With temperatures dropping as low as -30C, it is essential you get properly kitted out before you go. For us, this meant buying warm coats, ski trousers, hats, mittens, thermal underwear and proper walking boots - trainers just won’t cut it when you’re walking through foot-high snow drifts.
The temperature was -20C when we arrived - which is enough to make ice-crystals form inside your nose once you have been out in it for a few seconds, and turn any facial hair into strands of ice after a few minutes.
There is no getting away from the snow when you’re outside, but the temperatures are so cold you can forget about making snowballs or snowmen.
The snow is more like a white powder - almost like washing powder or flour - that easily brushes off you when you walk indoors without soaking you through.
But it is great for making snow angels, sledging and cross-country skiing, which we all did.
There is the skiing itself too - which the majority of the other holiday makers we met up in Levi were up to, with lots of resort facilities, including supermarkets, spas and bars on offer.
Communication is no problem, with most of the Finns we met happy to practise their perfect English on us.
The aspect of Finnish culture that I really took to though was the sauna – which is a bit of an institution in
Finland. It is where a lot of business deals are made as well as offering a relaxing and very cleansing break from the stresses of everyday life.
We were lucky enough to experience a traditional smoke sauna – which has to be heated all day before it can be used.
The wooden building was a world away from the tiled steamrooms that you might see in leisure centres – the heat is not nearly as oppressive and the steam tastes sweet and cleansing, despite the fact the heat can soar above 80C. The heat increases depending on how much water you put on the hot stones which heat the room.
After a good 10 or 20 minutes sweating in the sauna we were offered the chance to enjoy another Finnish tradition – ice-swimming – which was where my dip into the frozen lake came in.
The ice-hole was only about a metre square cut into the frozen lake a few yards outside the sauna, with a ladder leading us down into the water.
When you realise that the temperature of the water is actually warmer than the air around you, it doesn’t seem quite so bad.
But climbing down into the murky depths up to my chest was an experience I am unlikely to forget.
Although everyone I met described it as ice-swimming, you wouldn’t get a chance to swim – in fact you’re in there less than 10 seconds before the cold gets too much and you have to hightail it to the sauna again, and nobody is stupid enough to put their head under the water.
It may seem strange but it was a very cleansing and invigorating experience, and I happily did it again 20 minutes later.
And the feeling of almost complete relaxation you had after leaving the steamy environs of the sauna was fantastic – and a brilliant end to an exciting holiday.