They say that planning takes the fun out of traveling and that spontaneous adventures make better memories. Not for us, we thought, not for us… We wanted to spend a few weeks with eight people in a foreign country with the pressure to be productive. That’s why we planned quite a lot. Extensive spot maps were created, Airbnbs were scouted and off we went – only to see that Helsinki, our chosen destination, was as rainy as it could be.

The first evening, we dropped all of our stuff off at the Airbnb and went scouting. Nope, not one single spot that we had in mind was possible. OK, up north, then! After checking the weather and snow reports, the best solution was to go up to Kuopio. Best thing was that we already knew some guys there who had already helped us a lot the year before (shout outs to Niklas, Heikki and Veikka!).

Some impressions from the first part of the trip © Arda Serce

After a few productive days spent in a huge mansion, including the famous Kuopio monster kebabs, countless Hesburger visits, Flo’s 27^th birthday party, a car crash that didn’t happen because rally divers don’t have accidents, shooting everything with our air rifle, trying to order Chinese food with the help of the “Read out loud” function of Google translate and a few inevitable injuries, the Finnish weather god decided it was time for some rain again. Bummer.

We knew of some spots in Oulu, which is almost where Finland and Sweden connect, so that shouldn’t be a problem in terms of weather, we thought. Thanks to some local help we were even able to locate a spot for the first day in advance. A couple of hours in the car later, we were proven wrong. Rain again, no chance to do ANYTHING!

The mood slowly began to get darker as our options grew smaller and smaller. The last idea we had was Rovaniemi: Far up in Lapland, right at the Arctic Circle – our trip started to turn into an adventure. Finally!

After another long drive, we finally arrived and got extremely lucky: Not only did we see an elk on the way, but as a first time for everyone, we actually saw northern lights. This, of course, meant almost no sleep for everyone capable of holding a camera – once in a lifetime shots were waiting for us.

More impressions © Arda Serce

We were a lot more productive up there than the days before and encountered perfect snow conditions and some very nice spots, including Santa’s residence and a trip into the backcountry.

We unfortunately encountered some bad situations, too. First, Lou busted his freshly healed knee and just shortly after, we had a run-in with an older, not-so-nice Finnish gentleman and the police. Apparently, we were responsible for the injury of a million-Euro race horse (for the full story, read Lou Staub’s interview). Boy, were we scared every time our phones rang afterwards. Not sure how the insurance would react to a call that begins with “I might have caused a million Euro damage to a race horse. Snowboarding.”

Another incident involving the police was when Cédi and Andy were doing a wallride. The in-run of the spot started with a drop from a highway bridge. In the middle of the session, multiple police cars and ambulances showed up. After a lot of confusion on both sides we learned that someone had called the medics after seeing Cédi drop in because he thought that Cédi jumped off the bridge to commit suicide. Pretty awkward situation, and the session was over after that, of course.

The rest of the trip went really well. After a few days with our friend Niklas in Iisalmi we headed back south and caught our plane home.

When watching the results of all the trouble and good times in a condensed form called “CREAMY”, I can say that we are all very happy! In the end, it may very well be true what they say about planning trips.

Big thanks to Arda Serce for the story and shots! If you haven’t seen the full movie yet, be sure to check it in our “Now Playing” section.