Riisitunturi National Park Finnish Lapland

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I had always dreamed of going to Finnish Lapland to see this area that had popped up on, blog posts I was reading or in magazines where it was so cold and so heavily snowed in, that complete forests are getting buried in snow. And in 2020, we’d booked to go to Finland, with some of our really good friends and we all know what happened next in 2020.

And it turned out that we were due to fly on the 15th of March and at midnight on like the 14th into the 15th, Finland closed their borders and it was a mixture of like it was stressful, but it was also a relief because we felt at that moment that we were going to have to either make the decision to not go, and it would be our own decision. Or if we went, we might be in that situation where we’re in a country that we then can’t get home from, with how everything looked like it was going to be unfolding. So the fact that then the borders closed meant that we didn’t have to make that decision, which was a huge relief, but it meant that the trip that we planned then wasn’t going ahead.

And it took us nearly, well it did take us four years to get the trip rebooked and we went at the start of 2014, no, where are we now, 2024? Gosh, I’ve lost a decade. And so we stayed in this really, really beautiful cabin, and our hosts were incredible. And I’d asked about whether there was anywhere that we could hire snowshoes, because I assumed that we would probably need that for the amount of snow they had.

And, she said it wouldn’t be a problem for us to borrow theirs. So when we got in, to check in by the front door, she had such a lovely smile and just, like, pointed to all of these snow shoes that she had got ready and the snow poles. So, and she was into, or she’s a photographer as well. So she was into the nature side of photography. And so suggested that we go to visit, …I can’t ever say this, there’s too many ‘I’s with this, it confuses me, Riisitunturi National Park, I can’t say it. And this is the area where the, the trees would, potentially be, really, really snow covered.

And so we set off on a day when it was -20°, and we weren’t expecting to have good weather. It was forecast to be overcast all day and as we started hiking this mountain, the clouds started to part. And then not only did the clouds part, but this incredible golden light started cascading through the trees.

And it was really like kind of juxtaposed against the very, very north side that we were on, where the trees look so blue versus then this golden light that was bursting through, but it was still snowing. And so then the snowfall was just gently, gently coming down. There wasn’t any wind and just with the depth of field that I was shooting, all of those little individual snowdrops are forming these delicious, bouquet effect across the frame.

And I just, I shot so many images across this hike and we actually got quite hot. So although it was -20 something, because we’ve got so many layers on with like merino base layers, wooly jumpers and then Arctic layers on the outside. I got so hot I took my hat off and then needed kind of like coat unzipped. By the time we finished the hike, I hadn’t realised that my hair had completely frozen, so any humidity that I was losing through my head had made my hair freeze. And it was the most majestic thing to see because I was sort of like stepping into what I may look like in however long it takes for those incredible silvers to come through.

And I’m greying naturally, and I love it but just to see my hair so white that day was just so exciting to see. And I can’t wait to be that woman in the, in the future. And so this whole day was just absolutely magical, bathed in light, all that snow around us, and the surreal experience of having my hair and my eyelashes and everything freezing, from, you know, the heat you’re losing from your body or the breath that you’re breathing is just then all just being frozen in time, in that absolutely enchanting land.