Meanwhile, in Lapland

Well, actually it was back in early March, after the Lahti World Nordic Ski Championships. We ski toured in Lapland, northern Finland, in the Pallas-Yllästunturi National Park. Basically inn-to-inn skiing, complete with northern lights and daily saunas. The park is laced with hundreds of kilometers of trails groomed for classic and skate skiing, weaving through the low, rounded Lapland mountains called tunturi. We went on a week-long guided trip with a company called Feel the Nature/Fell Trek, made some new friends, saw some beautiful country, and ate munkki, the best donuts in the world. Because the Euro was so low and we were already in Finland, it wasn’t such a big expedition, although we were far enough north to be inside the Arctic Circle. We only saw the aurora borealis once, but it was an unforgettable night, temperature about 0 F and color dancing across the sky. Click here for a gallery/slideshow. You can use the right-click arrow to speed things up or move around in the gallery.