THE STORY:
 
Even without the Northern Lights, this was a truly jaw dropping landscape. The snow covered spruces in different sizes and shapes created a landscape of silent figures. This is Riisitunturi National Park in northern Finland.
I went there with a group and we spent three days and three nights outdoors. We spent days hiking and skiing, melted snow for our cooking and slept in tents. Well, one of us—me—slept all three nights under a spruce.
It was cold with temperatures dropping down to –25° Celsius (–13°F) in the night and peaking at –15°C (5°F) during the day. We struggled constantly with the cold weather. Hot food and drinks, warm clothes and constantly moving kept us warm so it was not a big problem although everyone in the group felt cold every now and then.
But this was the only downside. Apart from the temperature this was a marvelous experience. The mountain where we had our base camp was absolutely fantastic. I mean visually. Everything was covered in snow so there was really only one colour. No, wait, that’s not true. The snow reflected what happened on the sky. The nights were blue and white. The days had this purple colour which is typical for the arctic region. The colours reflected in the snow. It looked awesome!
On the first night the northern lights appeared at 9 pm and did a faint and very brief dance for us. At 10 pm the aurora came back, formed a typical green arch. I walked away from the camp into this strange looking landscape of snow covered trees. Now I could see three colours only: white, blue and green. The auroral activity was more like a whisper rather than a roar …
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THE COMPLETE STORY COMES WITH THE DELUXE PRINT.