UKC

Off to Yllas finland for a holiday soon.
Not been before and wondering about layers for piste skiing, cross country and general mouching / wandering.
The current temps are ~ -28.
In the uk in winter I have been wearing a fleece caving undersuit with a t shirt as a base layer and a pair of gortex sallopetts and a jacket on top. This has been find during day light and at night an extra thin fleece is all thats needed.

how much extra will I need ? will just a down jacket and an extra fleece layer be enough or will I need more ?

Will wandering around in phantom ultras be ok with normal socks ?

In reply to mountainpenguin:

We were in Levi a few years ago and experienced -30. We found this too cold for cross country skiing. The aerobic nature of XC means you would be breathing hard on -30 degree air. This quickly chills you from the inside out !

Clothing wise, thermals, thin fleece, thick fleece, double quilted down duvet jacket, Dachstein mitts, balaclava and scarf over mouth and nose while walking around outside in -30.

The coldest I XC skied in was minus 20, wearing thermals, Paramo Alta trousers, thick fleece, Paramo Alta jacket, balaclava, scarf over mouth and nose, Dachsteins, two pairs of thick socks. Again got cold from the inside out, requiring stops for hot drinks in the various cafes every half hour or so.

I don't know how warm phantom ultras are, but forty minutes standing around watching the Aurora Borealis in Scarpa Mantas with two pairs of thick socks, had by feet beginning to lose feeling in -30. That might give you some idea.

In reply to mountainpenguin:

You'll be fine skiing in what you have (although if it's a cotton t-shirt I'd get a proper baselayer) then you just want a really big warm puffy jacket to go on top of everything when you stop. In the towns you don't need any special shoes really, if you go snowshoeing or the like off into the woods I suspect the Scarpas will be fine.

-28 isn't that unusual a temperature up there, but it was also around freezing just over a week ago, so the temps can go up and down a lot. Looks like next week it's going to warm up a bit to the mid-teens below, and with no or little wind, that doesn't feel too bad - or at least doesn't until you need to try doing something with your hands - then fingers can get cold quickly.

BTW, you can warm up whilst XC skiing really quickly, so even when its really cold having windproof but not waterproof shell layers is generally best as they will breath better.

In reply to mountainpenguin:


Yeah I had no prob at that temp with mine but I was wearing the usual thin plus thick sock combo. But I don't think the socks make much difference compared to the boot.

I did some cross country in Canada at around -15 to and I wore pretty much the same as I did for winter in Scotland (base layer, thin fleece, thin/medium synthetic jacket) which was ok while working hard. But the moment I was stationary my down belay jacket went on or I'd be cold.

In reply to mountainpenguin:

Really depends on your own physiology.....I used to live in Norway and did a lot of long distance xc skiing. Everyone I worked with had their own system and so long as you take care of cold spots like nose, ears, fingers trial and error should work it out for you...

In reply to mountainpenguin:

I was there last year and had -28 which was too cold for comfort, though we did ski all day. Main problem is the face: I bought a face visor for XC from a local shop which helped, but still froze over [glasses and goggles were useless].

You won't be able to walk far without snowshoes. There are set tracks for XC [don't walk on these, ever!], snow shoeing and snow machine. You could walk on these, but might get run over!

We planned a café stop each day for a re-warm, but on the coldest day there was no café. Naturally. Some of the forest shelters will have small fires, good for hand and gloves.

A big duvet is essential for the stops.

In reply to top cat:

I've resort skied down to -28, the lifties were moaning that it was only me and my British friend and the Russians still skiing, all the Finns had gone inside (inc. our respective wives)! Buffalo salopettes, a good warm fleece, base layers and shell jacket worked fine. I remember being surprised how comfy that kept me.

One thing about Finnish skiing is that the resorts are all so small even the few that have chair lifts the sitting down bit isn't particularly long and most time you're on tows where you don't get as cold.

In reply to mountainpenguin:

When are you coming? After a totally miserable early winter we've had a week now of cold very stable weather and the forecasts are for that not too change for some time http://yle.fi/uutiset/cold_snap_digs_its_heels_in/7039562 so do bring your woolies! I'm sure it's fine for snow up north, but there is very little here in the south. Enough to look pretty but not enough to ski which is a bummer. The lake ice is great though - this was today youtube.com/watch?v=76xiFO24pXI&

In reply to TobyA:

next week.
Very excited

In reply to mountainpenguin:

When we were XC skiing in Yllas, our ski hire included rewaxing, which was needed after about three days.

Incidentally, they will use a different wax depending on whether you are skiing down in the forest (colder) or up on the mountain.

In reply to IPPurewater:


Of course they'll do that. Waxes are always used for a certain temp-range. So if there is inversion (quite often there is), you'll have a warmer temp wax for skiing in the fjells and a colder temp wax for the forest (cold).