Sleeping Outside in Lapland, Finland in February
We had gotten settled into our made-from-scratch-by-us quinzee around 8:30 pm, played cards until about 10pm (I lost the match. Whatever.), then snuggled tightly into our sacks. (And I mean TIGHTLY— see video at end.)
When I tried to roll over at one point, my back spasmed, and I got twisted in my sack liner. As I tried to untangle myself, I lost one mitten. So I just laid still, so the spasm would go away, hugging my bare hand, with my liner over my entire head and face, because the cold air was freezing my throat.
After a bit, I heard Ava’s unsettled rustling, so I said, “Want to go back [to our room]?” There was silence for a few beats, then I heard, “Yes.”
We grabbed our overnight bags, left our sleeping bags, mats and liners, to retrieve in the morning, and RAN back to the lodge around midnight.
The running part was NOT OK. The snow on the frozen lake was 2 feet deep, and my daughter, with her 20-something year old lungs, was HAULING.
And we were in the WILDERNESS. And I’m afraid of the dark—Lapland is very, very, VERY dark in the middle of the night in February.
So as I’m trying to run through knee-deep snow, taxing my lungs, with only one mitten on so I better not fall, I was also trying to whisper-yell, “AVA! AAAAAAVAHHHHH! STOP. SLOW DOWN. AVA!”
But of course, with the crinkling of her coat, the crunching of her boots in the snow, and her own hard breathing, she didn’t hear me.
When we got to our room, despite having no more oxygen in my lungs, we laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. We couldn’t stop. We couldn’t breathe, we couldn’t talk. We couldn’t see, because the tears of hilarity were streaming. And we were also trying to be quiet about it, because we were in a lodge with people trying to sleep in nearby rooms—so we were also choking!
I have absolutely no regrets about going back to our room—I thought I might in the morning, but I didn’t.
Click HERE to see 3 short videos of the inside of our quinzee:
How we had to get into it
Our front door and air hole
Our sleeping situation and card game
Click HERE to see the video of my daughter laughing at me trying to get zipped up into my sleeping bag, while wearing multiple layers PLUS my heavy winter coat!
QUINZEE: An Arctic snow shelter made from a large pile of loose snow that is shaped, then hollowed. This is in contrast to an igloo, which is built up from blocks of hard snow, and to a snow cave, which is constructed by digging into the snow. --Wikipedia