11-Jul-2015 -- For geographic details we refer to the Finnish outdoor map “Käsivarsi”, alternatively to the Swedish “Fjellkartan” BD1 (Treriksröset-Rostojavri), both 1:100,000.

It was on a lovely day in Kilpisjärvi (Finnland) when we decided to begin with a little hike around, this in preparation for a longer tour to CP 69°N 22°E. We started at hikers parking place on the road E8, ten minutes to walk SE from the filling station. Here the famous three countries trail Kalottireitti (Finnish), established in the area north of the arctic circle, continues north to Kautokeino in Norway. There the trail is called Nordkalottruta, whereas in Sweden the denotation reads Nordkalott Leden.

First the 559 m lake Tsahkaljavri is passed on its east side, just by hiking the trail EEN. After 1 km along the lake, say 500 m before arriving a bridge, we left the trail, direction SE, jumped over a reindeer fence and ascended Ailakkavaara, partially still snow-covered. Once above 800 m altitude, it was an almost easy approach to the CP, arrived 2 hours after the trail was left.

Having marked the site with stones (see the foreground of picture 1) and shot all necessary photos, we left with the supposition the day had provided some knowledge about the hiking conditions in the area. This was strongly supported by our experience with the Reisa National Park (Norway), 30 km north of Kilpisjärvi. It was the other day when we learned how intuition had mislead us. (Cf. our report concerning CP 69°N 22°E.)