The longest 'hike' ever.

Me, guide, and a good night sleep. Which does not belong to the group? We went to bed after midnight. I fell asleep around 3am. We had a wake-up at 5am for the others and 4:30am for me. I started the day with working with the thermoses (boiling hot water for us) and morning porridge. With the help of my little preparations, We managed to leave the hut only 15 minutes late from the schedule.

The day started as cloudy with very heavy wind. The first 2,5km were a blast - skiing on a lake surface which sank only few cm beneath our skis. Then we were to start the real work - 14km of knee-deep snow and an own track.

It took time. And energy. And time. And energy. And tolerance.

We worked the normal way - two first making a track without a sledge. Then they go back and the next two leave the sledges and continue with the track. It went rather smoothly.

We had two excellent breaks on my turn - the first at lunch time and the second when crossing the saddle. Both were successful in a sense that the sun was shining and we were totally protected from wind. The wind was heavy.

On our second longer (lunch) break we boiled water from the snow. It took a while, but luckily I had better than good equipment for that (thanks Primus) - I did not fill only my own bottles, but also a bunch of others. A strange thing to see how a team works on a situation like this. No-one having any water left and how we're making the world to share the little resources we're blessed with.

Some left with all bottles filled, some with a little less. I have a feeling being on the latter group.

The last few hours on the snow were rather hard. Getting dark, knowing that when seeing the snowmobile track there's still 5km left. And we were many kilometers from that spot.

At one point, 1,5km off the snowmobile track, the trainers took control and guided us to the hut. I had a gut feeling (when sensing the energy level of the group), which I told to one of them - If we were going to build the snow cave the following day, we'd supposed to leave at 6am the latest. That would've meant a wakeup at 4am. A gut feeling like that on 9pm with at least 2h skiing to go made me realize that this wouldn't happen if I were a guide for a real group.

I was rather right.

I don't know what went to me during the night. We had one small break on our way on the snowmobile track. I gave all my chocolate and biscuits for the others. A little more to people I felt needed the most and a little less to others (me). Also my water supplies got emptied rather fast.

Someone said to me: Aki please, take care of yourself too. Remember to take care of yourself.
It felt good - someone cares for me. With all the energy I had preserved, I decided to concentrate on the others. Had I been a guide (a role I had dropped when the trainers took the lead), that would've been the thing I would've done anyway. Now I did it as a friend.

I would've acted the same for my wife, for my parents, for my friends. [Later I had interesting discussion regarding to this]

After 16h and 5min we arrived to the hut, at 11pm. 2hours for feeling home and safe and 1hour for the discussion of the day.

Duracell Rabbit, that's what I remember from the feedback.

Off to bed after 2am. Don't know when the sandman arrived. Lovely night after a heavy day.

Ah, almost forgot. A thing I think the rest of the group would never forgive me had I not mentioned it - namely the Norther Lights. I've never seen anything like that in my whole life.