Freedom in deep-freeze

I was headed for a small dot on the map called Levi about 350 kms deep into the Artic Circle in Lapland. The captain cheerily announced a day of good skiing with the
outside temperature a pleasant -14°C

Mohan Guruswamy, Lapland, Hardnews

The night before I left Delhi for Finland, the temperature had plunged to 2°C. The weather girl on NDTV somberly predicted another freezing night. The airport was as usual a mess. People milled around trying to get in past people seeing off as the cold wind from the north swished in. It was cold. And I was headed for a small dot on the map called Levi about 350 kms deep into the Artic Circle in Lapland.
My Finnair flight departed on the dot at 0235 and six-and-a-half hours later touched down in Helsinki. Helsinki had a mild winter and it was more brown than white outside. A quick change and I was flying on to Kittila. It was a clear day and morning had just broken out over Lapland. The captain cheerily announced a day of good skiing with the outside temperature a pleasant -14°C. I was going from the frying pan into the fire.
Many on the aircraft were bound straight for the Levi Fell, a low hill on the Lappish plain lit up with huge lights on towers to stretch the winter day long and with a ski lift that ferried skiers in gondolas to the top of the slope. But skiing was not on my itinerary, not after having twisted an ankle on another much smaller and gentler hill just north of Helsinki many years ago. In any case my host in Levi, Paivikki Palosaari, the legendary owner of the Hullu Poro (Laughing Reindeer) resort had other plans made for me.
No sooner had I taken my bags into my room in the Hullu Poro hotel, I got my thermals out and my warm goose down jacket bought for a Boston winter a couple of decades earlier. I then headed out for the sauna to expunge the soot, grime and cold of Gurgaon out of my system. A real Finnish sauna is not just about a dry heated pinewood room. It is a series of temperature switches from icy cold water into the 70°C plus hotbox of the sauna, but not before a good scrub under the shower. The alternation between extreme cold and heat jolts the soreness and languor out of the body. Within an hour I was a new person ready for a long night out.
It was dark when I was driven out to my friend Paivikki Palosaari's home near the village of Kongas, about eight kilometres from Levi. The Fell was now brightly lit, with skiers racing down it was a pretty sight. Paivikki's home is a grand mansion on the banks of the Ounasjoki river. The river was frozen solid and you could drive a car over it or even go driving downstream to the lake where intrepid fishermen were dangling bait from sawed holes.
Paivikki's home is near her favourite Taivaanvalkeat resort which provides the most unique Lappish experience with rustic style accommodation and superb Lappish food. It has the most wonderful riverbank sauna and you can choose either the peat or honey sauna. The hosts will cut the ice over the river for ice swimming. As we drove through Taivaanvalkeat, I saw her heavily set Icelandic horses just horsing it in the cold. Kongas village was where Paivikki was born. She is the daughter of a Sami (Laplander) mother and a Finnish father. Paivikki began life as a hamburger vendor and is now among northern Finland's biggest employers. Her blue fronted mansion stands as much a testimony to her success as to her taste.
Paivikki, apart from being a successful businesswoman, is a noted chef and is author of the popular cook book Lappish Cooking: From Fire and Fell (fell in Finnish means low hill). She was going to whip the February recipes from her book and probably out of consideration for my culinary preferences added a salmon grilled over an open fire.
The reindeer is the primary source of sustenance in Lapland and not surprisingly the meal began with Garden Angelica Soup made of a bouillon of reindeer bones, wheat flour, double cream and stems and leaves of garden angelica. The soup was accompanied by thick slices of oatmeal bread. For starters there was luikut or reindeer thigh bones sawed off at both ends, browned in butter and cooked with salt and parsley. The core is meant to be removed from inside with a marrow spoon and spread over rye bread. By now there wasn't room for much else, so I steered clear of the other reindeer dishes and made for the salmon.
It was a simple dish. Large fillets of fresh salmon were tacked on to a flat wooden board and sea salt was rubbed in. The wooden boards were then stood up facing the open fire with the salmon looking in. It was a simple dish but fish had never tasted better. Dessert was the Meringue Willow Grouse made of vanilla ice cream, meringue of beaten egg yolk and lingonberry sauce.
If you are in Lapland you are never far from Lingonberry which seems the basic building block for any sauce, jelly or jam in the cold regions. Dinner was accompanied with unending quantities of Finlandia vodka, Koff beer and two fine French wines from Choix du Patron. It was a truly memorable introduction to Lapland, its fine people and its fresh foods.
On the second day I drove down to Kongas village to the Levi Huskypark owned by Reijo Jaaskelainen, a wolf dog breeder. He also breeds huskies and makes a living organising husky sled trips. In Lapland these days husky dog teams are used mostly for tourism but in the northern regions of Canada, where the Inuit live, the husky is a part of every day life and a primary provider of horsepower. Reijo has over eighty dogs, wolves and wolf dogs. Only the dogs bark and they put up quite a clamor. The husky is a work dog and is happiest only when pulling a sled.
As Reijo's team puts together a train, I take a closer look at the wolves. He has a pair of huge Alaskan black wolves who pace relentlessly in circles. The keeper fixes bits of sausage high on the tree trunks for the wolves to jump and snap them off. You wouldn't want to meet these wolves in the forest. But not really, because as Reijo tells us, the wolf is indeed man's best friend in the wilds. It is the first animal man became close to. Wolf packs are still known to drive a prey animal for people to catch. Even today, Eskimo's prefer to sleep among the wolves on their glacier trips because wolves have an unerring sense about dangers and pitfalls.
The huskies are now barking up a large crescendo which means that the sled train is ready to embark on its journey. Reijo takes the lead position. We follow. The sled has only one control. A foot-operated brake that you press into the snow to slow down or stop the sled. As Reijo races away, we follow in a mad dash. In the beginning one can barely keep steady on the rear end of the sled's skis. You can forget about lifting a foot to operate the brake. You have to just leave your fate to the good sense of the dogs who are happily barking away and want to get as close as possible to Reijo. Since he is the leader of the pack, they won't go past him either. Just trust them and me.
Before we know what, we are out several kilometers from the Huskypark and the dogs are still not slowing down. I am dressed out for the sub zero temperature in thick and fleece lined rubber skin overalls tucked into fleece- lined knee high rubber boots. Without them one can last about 15 minutes before hypothermia sets in, and then the short voyage to the happy hunting grounds. The dogs are different. They hate being inside the heated rooms. They prefer the outside and curl into holes they dig in the snow. Reijo offers a five day or seven day trip into the wilderness with nights out in the open. Many of his more intrepid clients do that. But just a full day, a short Lapland day, is good enough for me. We pull into a wayside station for coffee and biscuits. Then the run back home.
Later that evening I am taken to the Taivaanvalkeat's riverside sauna to have the tiredness beaten out of me with birch branches. As if that was not enough, I then head outdoors for hot whirlpool bath for warm water jets massage. It's wonderful, but while the body warms up the head freezes. The only solution is to keep ducking into the water to unfreeze the head. It's so cold that when you toss a mug of water into the air, it becomes a dense cloud by the time it hits the ground.
In 1999, the village of Pokka nearby recorded a temperature of -55.5°C. Today I am assured it's much warmer in the mid-20s below. Fell Lapland is considered the more temperate regions in the Artic Circle, even if it is at the same level as northernmost Alaska, because the warm Gulf Stream ensures that the nearby Artic Sea doesn't freeze over. But soon we are in for a treat. The skies light up brilliantly. The northern lights are running wild today. The Taivaanvalkeat is lit up and the accompanying picture is worth more than a thousand words.
A gorgeous day like this must have a truly deserving end and so we wind up in the Kammi restaurant that serves Lappish delicacies, mostly reindeer meat. Reindeer sausages, smoked reindeer roast, striped reindeer fry and an accompaniment of salad, slowly flamed salmon, baked potatoes topped with crepes, cloudberries and whipped cream. Can you think of a better way to end the day? I hope my doctor is not reading this.
The next two days I am by myself. I am tempted to take the snowmobile safari to the Lainio Snow Village. It's a seven hour programme and we have to drive about 90 kms. The Lainio Snow Village consists of the famous snow hotel sculpted out of ice with a fabulous snow bar decorated with snow sculpture. The other option is to take the snowmobile safari to the Reindeer Farm 60 kms away. Both the routes take you through a landscape filled with lakes and forests.
But I need to work. So I chopper down to see a site for a wind power project. The scenery from the air is truly spectacular. That night we dine at Paivikki's celebrated Steakhouse Restaurant. Dinner consists of a selection of beef, reindeer or lamb steaks with a choice of sauces. The manager assures me that I cannot do better than the garlic mousse for sauce. Starters are fish from an ice bucket. The steaks are accompanied by vegetables and country style wedge potatoes. Dessert is a delicious white chocolate mousse with wild Lappish berries. This was truly the last meal for me.
Now I am back in Gurgaon, sweating it out in health club and its small sauna to lose all that happened to that marvelous Lappish food. Soon, it will be summer with the power cuts and Lapland will be a cherished memory to recall. I strongly recommend Lapland to you to beat the north Indian winter. A summer escape to Lapland is a great idea as the average summer temperature is less than 16°C. This too is recommended.
Just email my friend Paivikki Palosaari at hullu.poro@levi.fi and plan your next escape out of India. Now. If you want to plan a holiday in Finland and Lapland, email: maarit.wallasvaara@welho.com.