First time Snowshoeing Salmivaara Fell in Kilpisjarvi, Finland

It was our first trip snowshoeing and what better place to do it than Kilpisjärvi, Finland. Our guide, Gareth from Adventure By Design, was excited to take us out for our first time doing this sport. We hopped in the car for a short ride to where we would start our adventure.

Gareth helped us put on our snowshoes and demonstrated the proper technique to walking in the snow with them. He explained that they are helpful while walking in the deep snow as they increase surface area making it easy to walk in the snow.

Gareth chose the Salmivaara Fell to hike up as one can see three countries from its summit; Finland, Sweden, and Norway.

After walking up a hill, not far from where we started, I was already feeling like snowshoeing wasn’t my sport. I kept climbing as we entered into deeper snow. As we climbed, the views of the town below and the white trees were breathtaking.

It was important to walk on my toes in small steps as I climbed the steep snow covered slopes. My legs felt like they were getting heavy as we trampled in the snow that came up to our knees. Gareth kept motivating me to keep going. When he said that he takes everyone to the top, I knew I could do it. And, I wanted to!

After about 45 minutes, we made it to the top. The summit gave way to beautiful views of the countries of Finland, Norway, and Sweden.

While on the summit, Gareth offered us some hot berry juice and a Finnish cinnamon roll made fresh from the local bakery. They were quite delish!

I wanted to just sled my way down, or roll. 🙂 Gareth demonstrated how to walk on my heels with my knees slightly bent. That way, if I fell, I would go backwards and not roll forward.

We started off down the mountain, but surprisingly, instead of going back the way we had come, Gareth started down a steep hill with snow that went up past my knees!

I have to admit, this is where the fun began and the climb felt like it was worth it. Even Chris was laughing as we struggled to keep from falling. Each step the snowshoe sank into the deep snow. We kept our heels down and our toes up.

Sometimes, our snowshoes would just slide us down. Other times, we were stepping deep into the snow that went up to my waste at times.

When he tried to get up, he fell again. It was hilarious and I couldn’t stop laughing!

Then, it was my turn to fall again. The snowshoes got stuck in a deep pile of snow when I had my momentum going, I forgot to bend my knees slightly, and ended up face first in the snow. I was thankful that Gareth was there as he helped me figure what I needed to do to get my left leg out of the deep snow bank and stand back up. The whole time, Chris was getting his turn to laugh.

I fell a couple more times on the way down. It was the most fun I have spent falling my entire life!