I’m still wondering myself whether activating a summit on this holiday is just an insane idea that I’ll throw out the moment I turn on the sauna in the hut for the first time or whether this could really turn out to be a realistic plan… 
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Yesterday we came back from Hetta (Enontekiö) and was one times in Äkäslompolo, years ago in end of decembre. It was verry cold, and if the Summits didn’t have a lift or a cross country ski tracks, it’s verry difficult to walk to the summits. The light isn’t a problem because its always a little bit like sunset evening in our region or dawn for about 3 hours. OH/KI-017 has several skilifts and always well-lighted piste.
The last to weeks i made SOTA in Hetta only as chaser (hi). the summits are unreachable, also with snowmobile in case of a bit of snow.
73 de Peter
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I managed to activate OH/KI-068 today, despite -30C in Äkäslompolo. The summit was probably much warmer, felt more like “only” -20C.
Thank to everyone who chased me. 
Eventually there will be pictures, however I forgot to bring my camera cable or a reader for the SD card. So for now the pictures are stuck on the camera…
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unfortunately nothing heard in my shack.
@HB9CMI Sadly no Swiss stations replied so I guess I wasn’t heard back at home. I suspect that my inverted V EFHW isn’t optimal to get further into Europe and on 20m it’s a End-Fed-Full-Wave because I don’t have any traps or links. Sadly I ran out of time before the holidays to optimize my setup…
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I can not confirm that. Yesterday I reached on DM/NS-163 the Azores and the east coast of China with my fullsized 20m EFHW in SSB at 14MHz. But not the faithful chaser Jack, OH3GZ The conditions were the reason I guess.
EDIT Today OH came strong with the same EFHW.
73 Chris
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It’s the radiation pattern of the inversted V only 6m above ground ad the highest point that I doubted, not the fact that it’s end-fed. Possibly you’ve got a better setup for the antenna layout?
Sadly I didn’t make it to the summit today, it was still -32C in the morning and the two summits I considered where significantly further away. We decided to head towards OH/KI-032 knowing that we started most likely way to late to avoid the bad weather and snowfall in the afternoon. We turned 1km before reaching the summit because there wouldn’t have been enough time left to activate it anyway…
I’ll try again later this week. Not tomorrow, that is dog sled day.
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Tomorrow I’ll try to activate OH/KI-017 to give everyone who can only chase on weekends a chance. The challenge on this summit won’t be getting there as there is a aerial cableway leading into the activation zone. Finding a spot to operate between the tourist masses might be more of a problem.
If anyone needs an extra challenge - though not a cheap one - you could take a sauna gondola into the activation zone and then operate from a hot pot on the summit: Sauna gondola - Ylläs - I decided to skip this for now ;). However arriving on a summit in a sauna would probably be the most Finnish way to do a SOTA activation (except for operating from within a sauna on the summit, maybe…).
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I totally misjudged the situation on OH/KI-017. The only tourist masses were in the bus to the gondola and in the cafe on top. However, it was still hard to find a place to operate because it was still between -13C and -15C, this time with about 6-7 m/s wind which didn’t help. Putting up the mast was out of question because most shelters from wind that I could find were part of the skiing infrastructure and I definitely needed some protection from the wind.
So I decided to keep it low profile and put up the MP-1 behind a shed next to a ski-lift that wasn’t running.
Due to the cold I left most of the wires that were supposed to be my ground plane in the bag. The ones I did attach were stiff from the cold, refused to stay straight and kept curling up. After trying to get a decent SWR from the sliding coil for about 20 seconds I decided to leave it alone and tune the 3:1 SWR using the KX2 tuner.
Again, I uploaded some pictures to sotl.as
Gladly my operating spot was also about 50m from the cafe where I warmed up before and after the activation. 
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Ok, again I have to post a sorry to all those trying to get a connection and waiting for me to switch to 40m on OH/KI-043. It was supposed to be the easiest of my activations. There is a XC skiing track up that hill. The track wasn’t open yet but enough people went up there yesterday with backcountry skis that it was doable on XC skis even though it wasn’t the best equipment to reach the summit.
When I arrived at the summit and put up my antenna it looked like it was going to be the friendliest of my OH activations. There was a frozen tree I could use as shelter from the wind, the sky was clear and the views beautiful. By the time my antenna was up and ready, the weather darkened and the view was replaced with low hanging clouds, snowfall and heavier wind. The spot under the tree became very uncomfortable because the snow and ice from the tree started to fall on me and the station.
Eventually I decided the only option would be to pack up and head back as long as I’m still able to see the tracks from the ascent…
So, well, I’m now running out of summits here around Äkäslompolo and I’m not even sad about it. I’m looking forward to activate summits back and home where temperatures usually stay within a single digit negative value (in Celsius, that is.)
The “XC skiing track”:
And my shed that seemed comfy at the time I took the picture:
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Epic activations in an extraordinary landscape. Those trees are amazing. You obviously have the skills (and clothing!) for operating in extreme conditions. Well done.
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Well, it mainly comes down to clothing, really… The skills were acquired on the go here in OH9 land: Handling very stiff cables, setting up a station and writing a log with thick gloves and keeping the KX2 as snow-free as possible. Additionally bring a battery with double the capacity you think you’ll need…
After every activation I laid out all the equipment at room temperature, the KX2 open, to let everything dry. Even the things that were not wet will collect condensed water while warming up.
And maybe it’s also important to know that you shouldn’t charge LiFePo4 batteries before they’re warmer than 0C - however, that’s what I was told, I didn’t try what would happen if you did
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Or put the things in plastic-bag after using like i do with my cameras when i made AuroraBorealis photos in the night there. I also have good pair of glooves with part of fingers i can open to handle the things. I never had frozen fingers also with -35C and we had such temps in end of November in Enontekiö.
73 HB9CMI
I had all in a plastic bag before and after using it, however, as soon as everything was exposed to room temperature again, it started to collect condensed water. I haven’t found a way to avoid this yet.
That’s mainly a problem with my fingers, not with the equipment. I’m always the last one to get cold but the first one to get frozen fingers. I don’t know why. The only thing that keeps my hands warm are my down mittens but they’re hard to operate a radio with.
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I put it in the bag after using and at home i let it in the bag till the equipment is unfrozen. Never had condensed water in the bag because the air there is so dry. The equipent is only frozen and hase no ice on it, also the lenses and the problem is only during the defreeze-prozess with the humity inhouse without the plastic-bag.
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Hi Beni
Very nice photos of your activations, thank you! Last week I activated the Hochalp HB/AR-008. When I arrived at Schwägalp, the thermometer in my car showed -16.5C. Of course, this is still far from the Nordic temperatures. No idea how cold it was later on the summit. When I was back home, I immediately ordered a pair of heated soles from Bertschat. There are also other heatable products. I am curious whether these products prove themselves.
73 Arthur
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I’ll give this a try next time I take the KX2 out in the cold, thanks!
It’s a pity we were unable to make a connection and get you your urgently needed Finnish summit.
I’ve considered those several times. What kept me from ordering them is the fact that on a multiday tour where you might not have electricity to charge them, you get still cold and it’s extra weight. However, it’s only a matter of time until I place an order.
Beautiful picture of HB/AR-008. Hope the snow’s still there when I get back.
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You have to keep it in plastic bags until it is fully acclimatized again: the warm air in the room contains moisture. This warm air comes in contact with your cold radio, cannot keep the moisture, so it condenses on the radio.
I envy your nice vacation in the north of Finland and I admire your stamina to operate a radio in these conditions. I think I’ll start activating OH hills in summer
73 de Martin / HB9GVW
My shortest operation was 8 minutes on one of the hills. Could have done with a little more stamina there, THB…
At least one of the summits here is easier to reach in winter when it’s all frozen. There is no trail leading up there in summer. From what I’ve been told getting up there in Summer would mostly mean wading through marsh land. There are definitely also some that are easier in summer.
That’s a list of the hills in the area: https://www.yllas.fi/en/area-info/the-seven-fells-of-yllas.html (One of them isn’t a SOTA summit (Pyhätunturi) and another one consists of two SOTA summits (Aakenustunturi)
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We’re back home and I finally got to copy the pictures off my camera, so here are the missing pictures from the activation of OH/KI-068 - which was by far the coldest one but didn’t feel that bad for the lack of wind…
One thing I noted during my activations in OH9 is that the KX2 (or at least my KX2 as n=1 might not be a statistically adequate sample) doesn’t work well in low temperature environments (below approx -15C). On every activation the main frequency dial started to act weird, sometimes moving the frequency up when I turned it down, sometimes not changing anything at all or very slowly. Also the switch that switches between headphones and speaker in the headphones socket didn’t work well and kept switching back to the speaker. The KX2 didn’t take any permanent damage, though. All of this went back to normal once the device was back at room temperature. I’m also not sure whether any other device would be better suited for these cold temperatures. I guess HF rigs are just not built to be operated in such conditions.
So, I guess that’s my last post in this thread, sadly the weather in the second week didn’t allow for an activation of Lainiotunturi except on Friday, when we had to return rented gear an pack for the flight. 
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