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Trekking the Land of the Midnight Sun
This story is based on the series Treks in a Wild World: Trekking in Lapland

Holly Morris enters the annual reindeer racing competition at the Easter Festival in Kautokeino

Where It's At

The Norwegian Arctic - frozen, barren, empty, still - all these things AND one of the hottest winter adventure spots on the planet. Treks in a Wild World travel to Finnmark, Norway’s northernmost region, At three hundred miles north of the arctic circle at a frosty minus 25 degrees centigrade, this is the land of the Midnight Sun. This frozen wilderness is home to the Sami people – the indigenous population of the European arctic. If you think winter is time for curling up in front of the fire and hibernating for five months, think again. Winter sports in northern Norway is a challenge like no other. Here in Lapland you can go dog-sledding, cross-country skiing, reindeer herding and snowmobiling – who says Christmas is the only good thing about winter?

When to go

The best time to go trekking in Lapland is late March or April. Time it to coincide with the Sami Easter Festival. There is still plenty of snow on the ground, but the temperature has warmed up enough so that it’s not so unbearably chilly.

Our journey path

Holly Morris’s arctic journey starts in the northern Norwegian town of Alta, the gateway to Finnmark. She meets up with Roger Dahl, one of the country’s most revered dog mushers and together they head east across the frozen Arctic. They spend the night in a warm hut (complete with a sauna!), then next day it’s time to teach Holly some arctic survival techniques. Roger shows her how to build a snow cave, which is essential if you’re going to spend anytime in arctic conditions – that it if you can handle being underneath fifteen feet of snow the entire night!

Holly says goodbye to Roger and carries on to the Sami town of Kautokeino, where she attends their annual Easter festival. This is one of the most important days on the Sami calendar and is a chance to see the amazingly bright costumes and religious traditions that take place over the Easter weekend. With reindeer racing as the highlight, Holly finds herself an unwitting contestant in the race. Traditionally, this is the beginning of the migration season, and Holly joins the Kemi family as they move their reindeer herd north to the summer pastures.

Highlights

- Watching the Aurora Borealis – the Northern Lights – beaming across the frozen Arctic sky as you bed down for a cozy night in your snow cave.

- Leading a team of six sled dogs through Sami country.

- Attending the Sami Easter Festival in Kautokeino

- Stopping off for a hot sauna to warm up in one of the many huts built for travellers to stay in all along the route.

People in traditional costume at a wedding in Norwegian Lapland

Survival tips

- Before you leave for your trek, read up about winter survival and teach yourself how to build a snow cave. Remember the type of snow determines the type of cave you’ll build.

- Always carry a small shovel with you!

- It's obvious that you'll need to wrap up in warm winter clothing, but it's important to remember is to layer up. This allows you to remove clothes once you start sweating while you are building your snow cave or cross-country skiing.

- The Sami are quiet and reserved people, but that doesn’t mean they’re not friendly. One very important tip for good cultural etiquette is never ask a Sami reindeer herder how many reindeer they own. This is like asking someone how much they make or how much they have in their savings account.

Did you know?

- The Easter Festival also takes place in other Sami villages, including Kautokeino and Karasjok.

- Dog sledding is actually not indigenous to Scandinavia – it originated in the Canadian Arctic, where it was practiced by the Inuit people.

- You’d expect that this area, 200 miles within the frozen Arctic Circle to be like stepping into a freezer. You would be not far wrong but it is a actually a little warmer than that. Temperatures reach a comfortable –5 degrees centigrade because of the good old Gulf Stream, warm and temperate air drifting over from the Caribbean.

- The area around Alta has been populated for some 10,000 years and has long been a metting place for tribes from the coast and the interior. Rock carvings near Alta, discovered only in 1973 depict life in the stone age and are now included on the UNESCO World Heritage List.

- The Sami people are indigenous not only to Norway, but rather to the whole of northern Scandinavia. ‘Samiland’ extends over four national borders of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia. The Sami are one of the world’s oldest races, and because they have always lived in such an extreme climate, their culture is closely linked with the land and nature. Since the 16th century, the Sami way of life has diversified into three main areas – reindeer herding, traditional farming and fishing. Today the Sami people have their own flag and national anthem. The Sami nation has a population of 70,000, 50 percent of whom, live in Norway.

Wooden stave church in Finnmark, on the Norwegian Lapland coast populated by nomadic Sami people