Ski Touring in the Pyhä Backcountry

On Friday I received a phone call from Jaakko asking if I would be interest in ski touring in the Pyhä Backcountry. I was excited about getting out with him to the new terrain. So 7:30 in the morning we were driving through Finnish Lapland heading to the ski resort.

Starting at Pyhä ski resort

When we arrived at the Phyä ski resort the temperature was -15 so we shoved additional coats in our packs and were off.

Starting our tour from the Pyhä ski resort.

We skinned below the Phyä ski resort heading into the backcountry following a packed down trail. Soon we were at a gorge and after skiing down we finally switched to skinning.

Breaking trail to our first run with Pyhä in the background

Once on top the winds were blasting the slopes. The summit ridge went on forever as we made our way to the southern summit. Our plan was to ride the SE slope and make our way towards the next mountain to the south.

Stormy weather in the Pyhä Backcountry — Stormy weather on the summit we planned on touring

Snowboarding down our first run in the Pyhä Backcountry — Snowboarding down our first run

The first run was a bit wind scoured in the alpine but once in the trees it was great snow.

Lapping our destination Touring in the Phyä Backcountry

Pyhä Backcountry Ski tour Backcountry snowboarding Northern Finland45 — Transitioning and about to break trail up the next hill

Our planned destination was an area I had seen while hiking though Phyä in the summer. So after switching to touring mode we made our way up checking out potential slopes in great snow.

We made our way up to the tree line as all the snow up higher was wind scoured above, but bellow it was still in amazing condition.

Pyhä Backcountry Ski tour Backcountry snowboarding Northern Finland39 — Putting in the skin track with our first run in the background.

Pyhä Backcountry Ski tour Backcountry snowboarding Northern Finland 38 — Transitioning in the trees to block the wind

For our second run we stayed in the trees close to our skin track.

Once at the bottom we knew we had made a great choice of terrain so we transitioned and got back to our skin track.

Once on the top we decided to head a bit to the North riding back into the Canyon we had originally transitioned at during our first run for the next 3 laps.