I slip on the pair of well-worn leather boots, jet black and still shining from last week’s waxing. The boots are hand-me-downs from my telemark mentor, and must be nearly as old as I.
Stepping into a set of three-pin bindings, I clip the plate down and am ready to ski. The bindings, referred to as “rat traps”, are a design that is nearly 100 years old and was inspired by, of course, rat traps.
The bindings trustily hold me to my XCD BC 160 skis. These skis, with their integrated climbing skin, layers of fibers, and cutting-edge Unicoat base material are the latest evolution in Finland’s long lineage of skin-based skis. If we want to really go back to the beginning, we can start with lyly and kalhu – the name of the skis used in Finland from as early as the iron age until the 1800s. Kalhu was, as far as history can tell us, the original skin-based ski, carrying prehistoric hunters and travelers over the snowy, Nordic regions.
Micro droplets of sweat form on my brow as I breath heavily, working my way from one end of the Hetta-Pallas route towards the sun-drenched summit of Taivaskero. The clouds, filling the valley below, create a sea of water vapor, tumultuous and rolling and crashing below my feet. To the south rise the twin summits of Lommolkero through the clouds. Everything below is lost in the wash of greys, and nothing but clear, blue skies show above.
Admiring this view from the top of the fell, which stood strong against the glaciers during the last ice age, I begin to ski down, using a technique pioneered in Morgedal, Norway in 1868. One after another, the telemark turns flow in rhythmic motion, matching the ins and outs of my breath.
I pass by the lone spruce at the bottom of Vatikuru, a signal to me that the downhill is nearly over. Dropping over the last roller, the sun disappears behind Laukukero, and the temperature falls as well. At the bottom, standing still in the silent world, I am immersed in the present moment. The fells, the sky, the snow, and my slowing heartrate. A combination of equipment and techniques ranging from prehistoric to present-day has brought me to this place, to this moment. So many throughout the centuries have chased this same ethereal feeling, and it is no less relevant now than it was then - the simple joy of sliding on snow.
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