Feel Levi – The tender bite of frost
Picture frost leaving its impression on your body: a white tiara on your lashes, a startling coolness in your lungs, a red that burns on your cheeks.
The silence is bewildering. Listen carefully to what stories the snow has to tell you. Snowflakes break and crumble beneath your feet. Every step makes a new sound.
Trees rise from the ground like heavy white pillars. Freezing cold air polishes thousands of tiny gems sprinkled amongst the snow. Exhale warm air onto a window and watch it freeze into a frost flower. These are the kind of treasures that stay with you.
The air is filled with invisible ice fog, diamond dust. When the sun’s rays hit the fog, they burst into all the colours of the spectrum, creating wintery rainbows.
Polar Bear Swim. The cold washes over you as you descend into the water. Afterwards all you feel is euphoria.
The warmth of the cabin. On the coldest days, the world outside the cabin walls cease to exist. Everything except what’s inside seems remote.
Snowshoeing. Let the snow carry you.
By the fire up high. Feel the pins and needles in your fingers as they begin to thaw.
Hot drink from a kuksa. Fill your kuksa, a traditional Lappish wooden cup, with hot blackcurrant juice and let it warm you from the inside.
The cold commands respect
Cold weather doesn’t need to limit you, as long as you prepare properly. Dress in layers and you will be quite comfortable.
The human eye can confuse the sensation of cold with that of pain and produce tears. Or are tears of joy?
Reindeer fur feels smooth and warm to the touch. Reindeer are masters of tolerating cold and can even survive in temperatures of -50 degrees celsius.
Snow sparkles as it flies through the air at the last curve of the ride. Soon, the huskies will be free. The cold does not bother these arctic heroes.
A few degrees below freezing is child’s play after experiencing extreme cold. The coldest temperature recorded in Finland is -51.5 degrees celsius, at Kittilä, near Levi.
A long day is followed by a pleasant evening. The cold has brightened up the sky. The clouds make way for something magical.
Orion’s twinkling constellation is up high. This is the view people witnessed thousands of years ago. You are a link in the endless chain of human generations.
