First, we got theoretic instructions. Not everyone from the participants had winter hiking experience!
This is the beginning: parking ground, taking stuff out.
There were bits of orienteering on the way (I had my own old soapbox-type camera and managed to make several shots, after which the film was over):
We have arrived to the destination point: a lake.
Of course, the first thing upon arrival is to get something to eat!
Now, the most interesting part. Various options of winter accomodations! The most intriguing was igloo. I never have built one before. From what I heard, show blocks should be sawed and put one on top of another. Here we did not have any show from which anything could be sawed, the snow was light and dry. Following the instructions, people started making a big snow pile. I did not belive that it will stay, and honestly thought that instructors are making fun! But it worked very nicely in the end.
When the appropriate size pile was made and pumped on top, small sticks of about 40-50 cm were stubbed there - to see, how much snow could be taken away from the inside. Then the digging part began.
When everything was ready, spiritual dance around the new house was performed:
Morning. Igloo was in place.
A more known (to me) is the large canvas tent with a stove inside. In my previous winter trips, I used constructions with stove standing firmly on props, but here we had one hanging from the top. Quite interesting.
This was one more new thing to me: slanting tent with opening towards the fire. It is claimed that it's warmer "inside". I did not check, but people slept there and did not complain.
And here is that overnight-lasting fire, built at that tent. "Rakovalkea" in Finnish.
Our instructor, Tomi Mandelin, demonstrated, that tents, fires, or anything else is not necessary at all. He spent night just in his sleeping bag. Nice idea - you save a lot of weight on the tent. But may be hard psycologically for beginners, as you do not have a "home".
There were two common tents. One tunnel-type, and another one, my semisphere, which served me faithfully so many times. I slept there alone, stuck myself in the feather jacket into the really thick sleeping bag, and was not cold during the night.
Dinner...
Morning. Organizers made a small orienteering distance for us.
Breakfast...
And here we are leaving. Piles of snow are left behind on the lake ice. What a great day that was!
big thanks to Petteri Mandelin, who (AFAIK) organized all this trip, made lots of good pictures (in -25°C frost), and later gave me these pictures one more time — 5 years later since I've lost them.
