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| Photo: Rami Valonen |
NUTS Distance 300 by Black Diamond is a new ultra trail event in Northern Finland. The distance is 323 km or 200 miles. The maximum time is 126 hours. There are only three lifebases along the way. The course is unmarked. The phones won't work in the wilderness. There is not even a trail on some parts of the GPS track the participants are required to follow with their GPS watches or handheld devices. This seemed more like an adventure challenege than trailrunning race, but I signed in.
We traveled to Äkäslompolo in Lapland with my son four days before my event. Jon would participate in NUTS Ylläs Pallas 37 km for the first time. It's the shortest race distance available and belongs to Buff Trail Tour Finland series. We rented e-fatbikes to explore Kukastunturi and the race courses.
Jon's race went well on Saturday. He returned home on Sunday, On Monday morning I took a bus with other 69 participants to Lemmenjoki National Park. I had teamed up with Mikki and wen had a crew of four hard-core enthusiasts to assist us; Jari, Arto, Tiina and Markku. The race started at 12 noon in Njurkulahti. The weather was pretty good with occasional light rain.
The first 88K leg to Kalmankaltio started easy enough along Lemmenjoki National Park hiking trails. We crossed the river by boat and ran through the old gold mining spots. We ran up to an old airfield featuring Finland's most remote library. I ran with my buddy Mikki all the way, as planned. We both had Garmin fenix 6X Pro Solar titanium watches for main navigation. In addition, I had Garmin GPSMAP 65s handheld device and Mikki had Garmin Inreach satellite phone.
Next up was the dreaded 25K wilderness section with Mikki and Heli, who wanted to stay with us. It was very technical and slow going for us, who visited this wild place without any trail for the first time. Our shoes and socks were soaking wet all day long, There were lots of mosquitos, so we wore nets over our upper body. The river crossings were very difficult and slippery. We struggled ahead as Churchill suggested, "If you are going through hell, keep going."
The last section to Kalmankaltio was on dirt road or ATV tracks. It was easy to follow, but our soaked feet were already showing serious signs of damage. The misty morning atmosphere and flat terrain felt like a scifi movie on some spooky planet. We reached the modest lifebase around 8am on Tuesday, in about 20 hours after the start. Our super crew put me through a warm shower and served a warm pasta meal, I drank non-alcoholic beer while resting on the grass beside our crew car. I felt good enough to go on, but Mikki had to DNF as his feet were in pretty horrible condition.
The second 103 km leg to Hetta was the longest, It started with huge sand dunes. This fine white sand proved to be kryptonite for my feet. I stopped occasionally to clean my shoes and socks, but it wasn't enough. I should have changed my socks. I should have washed them and my feet and my shoes thoroughly in the streams. But I failed to do so. The sand went everywhere and slowly destroyed my soles. From that point on, I was doomed.
I power-napped by the trail while several mountain bikers apparently in a race of their own passed me. Then a couple of thunderstorms hit us and made me shiver in cold wind despite wearing rain jacket and pants. The trees were too small to provide shelter, so I just pushed onwards. Mostly I hiked alone, but sometimes I chatted with my fellow competitors like Kati, Jaana, Karitsa and Heli.
Ascending Valkamapää at midnight between Tuesday and Wednesday was definitely one of the highlights of this crazy adventure. I was climbing up with Heli, who complained about lack of energy and the busted knee she had twisted between slippery rocks while we were river crossing the previous night. I gave her a packet of Clif Shot Bloks, Karitsa caught us on the way up and also gave her some of his energy reserves. It was raining with a very strong cold wind blowing. At the same time the midnight sun was somehow shining brightly below the clouds, creating an enormously beautuful rainbow. Karitsa kicked a rock, declaring it a jewel. He showed it to me, and indeed it seemed to emit a colorful glare in the light. Karitsa carefully stored the magical stone in his vest pocket, intending to carry it to the finish. "It's way too heavy", I observed while he just grinned and laughed,
At the top Heli declared she won't be able to descend the mountain. She was freezing in the storm, so I left Karitsa with her and ran down to get some help while they attempted to call the race HQ emergency center. I spotted an orange jacket far below and headed towards it. The person inside the orange jacket happened to be none other than Milja, the race security official. I quickly explained to her that we were getting cold helping Heli and required assistance immediately. Milja ran up to Heli right away and put her in a tent for the rest of the night. We continued forward with Karitsa feeling happy about the rescue operation.
The trail to Hetta continued with three fells to climb. We kept going taking 5-10 minute naps in our Rab Ark Emergency Bivy bags. Wednesday was a sunny warm day. We were informed just before the start about this Plan B Course we were required to follow. Unfortunately this meant we had to take a hot asphalt road to Hetta. I ran the whole way without a shirt, but my feet were burning and killing me. I arrived to CP2 in the afternoon. After a shower, foot treatment by an expert and tasty dinner I slept for a while and felt good enough to continue at 8pm. The cut-off was on Thursday 1pm, so I had plenty of time and was ahead of my schedule.
My crew had been following my GPS dot online and asked if I was ok. We agreed to ask for a rescue operation at Montelli Hut, 14K from Pallas. Soon the rescue team lead by Anna brought two electric fat mountain bikes for me and Satu, who was also quitting. We descended 8K downhill to the medical van, which drove us to Äkäslompolo. My friends Juha, Juupe and Ville from the DNF Club gave me kindly a bed to sleep in. Friday morning my feet were examined by the head doctor Päivi, who told me not to worry, as "Nature heals."
My GPS watch logged 261 km with 4,664 meters of elevation gain in 77 hours. Was all this effort in vain? I don't think so. I still managed to see all those new places I wanted to visit. I had plenty of fun with my friends. I enjoyed amazing natural beauty and watched incredible sceneries unfold before my eyes. I failed to finish in 99:00 hours as planned, but luckily I had shared my plan with Karitsa, who sprinted on Friday afternoon with a huge grin and superpowers in his steps across the finish line in Äkäslompolo - still carrying the magic stone he found with me on the top of Valkamapää. Karitsa's official finish time was exactly 99:00 hours.