Week Two - Double Decades!
26 February 2019
Hello again friends! Welcome back. This week has been amazing, my birthday week in fact! As of the 20th of February, I am a 20 year old, feels strange to say, but finally I got to turn 20 on the 20th! (always wanted to do that). Thanks for all the birthday messages, it was a pretty cool experience to have an almost 48hr birthday with the time differences. And an even cooler experience (literally) to celebrate in winter!
My birthday wasn't too eventful, but it started with waking up in the morning to it snowing outside (overjoyed with happiness, almost cried), then heading out to the gym for skill training. During the day I did a food shop, bought and consumed some donuts of course... Spoke with family and friends over video chat and then went skiing from the afternoon on wards.
Temperatures dropped to some chilly numbers (-17'c being the lowest), add some high wind and you've got the perfect day! ;) . The Finnish school holiday period also started which made the slopes much busier than usual, but nothing compared to the lines on a bluebird Mt Ruapehu day (thank goodness). Training on the snow was great this week, despite the wind and cold, I had lots of fun focusing on getting used to jumps again and hitting some bigger jumps too. Small steps, but really proud of myself.
A massive highlight this week was going out on a snow shoeing adventure with my friend Kian and our Coach/Finnish local guide/nature enthusiast - Jussi (for the non Euro's its pronounced 'you see'). We went to a hill called Pyhävaara which is a sacred place to the Native people of Finland, known as Sámi people or Laplanders. "The Sámi people (also spelled Saami) are a Finno-Ugric people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses large parts of Norway and Sweden, northern parts of Finland, and the Murmansk Oblast of Russia." - Wikipedia, i'll put a link at the bottom to the page for further information. Pyhävaara is a popular snow shoe track so upon arrival, we expected there to be tracks to follow... There wasn't. So our journey up the hill began with a 3 hour hike through knee deep, thigh deep and waist deep snow, it was footstep roulette really, will you fall through the snow? stay on top? who knows. It was a testing and challenging climb that's for sure, but determination pulled us through. On the way up we trekked through beautiful trees and watched the sunset. When we reached the top it was dark.
To get down the hill was a whole other crazy experience. Jussi brought 3 pow surf boards from home for us to ride. A combination between snowboard and surfboard, no bindings to strap into, just a shaped plank with no edges, a slippery base and some grip pads on top to stand on. To ensure the boards don't disappear when you fall over, they've got a leash to attach to your pants. Jussi went first to create a track for us to follow, about 30cms or more deep we'd be weaving through the trees. I found this experience absolutely hilarious, mainly laughing at myself and how fun it was. We had head torches on so we could see, a limited view in the pitch black, with a constant thought of "when am I going to hit a tree". I tried surfing a few times on my feet but would quickly gain too much speed, get the wobbles and crash into waist deep snow, definitely a few face plants in the mix. Eventually I found the best technique for me was to kneel on the back of the board and my hands hold the front grip pad. Overall this was a truly thrilling experience, when I wasn't crashing, I was zooming on the track through the trees, leaning side to side for turns (laughing hysterically) and having the time of my life. I would compare the feeling to riding the Luge in Rotorua. Back at the car I was covered in snow, sopping wet but had the biggest grin on my face. couldn't stop smiling the whole drive home.
Just yesterday we visited a neighboring ski field - Iso Syöte ski resort, about an hour drive from Kuusamo. They had such an awesome park filled with heaps of rails. I thoroughly enjoyed skiing there, seeing a new place and getting back on some metal rails. Not to mention, they had two reindeer hanging out in a pen who I just had to be friends with. Can't get enough!
Thanks again for reading, and to everyone who has donated! We almost have enough to cover both my training and living expenses! I'm so grateful for your generosity.
Stay tuned.
Love from,
Laura Molly Jane Wotton.
Link to wikipedia page on Sámi people - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%A1mi_people