Timeless Magic Under the Midnight Sun in Finnish Lapland

Climbing up Levi Fell

I was just 30 hours taken off from a summer season of sheltering inside of to stay clear of the Alabama heat, so I wasn’t going to miss out on climbing with the temperature in the mid-60s when the sunlight was out. Finland has the cleanest air in the planet, with only 6 micrograms of airborne particles for every cubic meter. This much north, I was absolutely sure it was even purer. I inhaled a deep breath that tasted like champagne, but the sweltering southern humidity may perhaps have disqualified me as a respiratory sommelier.

The hiking situations ended up suitable, other than the swarms of mosquitoes that descended upon us like a parasitic fog each time we slowed down. We tried out to restrict our stops but felt compelled to quit and look beneath the tarps we noticed from the parking large amount. Interesting air rushed previous our faces as we noticed a thing fully discordant with a 60-diploma summer time night. A mound of snow just about 20′ substantial and the measurement of a football subject was hidden underneath the material.

Previously that day, Maarit, our host from Pay a visit to Levi, explained why they saved the snow. It ensured a excellent base for the Levi World Cup, which opens the FIS’s Globe Cup’s slalom time. Jenn, a 20-calendar year ski expert, was floored when she listened to this tale. All over the place she ever worked, they jokingly informed their summer company about ‘that a single tent’ exactly where they stored the moguls for the pursuing year. Her American ski joke came to lifetime in Levi to jumpstart the ski time.

I couldn’t halt wondering about when I was seven and stored an complete snowman in the freezer all summer months. On Xmas Eve, I moved him to the wintertime-brown grass of my Ohio house, hoping that Santa would value my efforts to create a white Xmas. I shut the flap to the tarp, smacked four mosquitos on my neck, and commenced heading up the hill in advance of any much more could land.