Manon Carpenter goes to the top of Finland: Friday Expedition

Manon Carpenter, the World Cup-winning downhill superstar, has become something of an adventurer since leaving the UCI circuit. As if she wasn’t already inspiring enough, now she gets out on frankly pretty ridiculous long rides into mountains and wilderness and countries many of us have at best dreamt of exploring.

Carpenter’s latest adventure saw her and her partner Christian head up high and north to the highest point in Finland, which happens to be very far up the country and a long way from anything. Looks like it was an amazing trip!

From Manon Carpenter:
 
Join us on a four-day bikepacking trip to the highest point in Finland – Halti (1324 m) – in the very north of the country, up above the Arctic Circle.
 
“Journey to Halti is a four-day bikepacking trip born from a slightly hare-brained idea three years ago, that saw us trying to reach the highest point in Finland – above the Arctic Circle, in the middle of winter, on skis.
 
It was my first time on skis (brave or stupid, you decide), -28 degrees C when we set off and at the end of the year when the sun no longer rises in Lapland. We only made it halfway, faced soft snow and a lack of established skiing routes that early in winter, so it’s been an incomplete mission since then.
 
Christian moved nearby for work in 2020, and me visiting for summer presented the perfect opportunity to try reaching Halti again – this time by bike. We had no idea what the trail would be like, and were aware that it might not be rideable.
 
With a very literal rocky start, and slow-going flat sections and climbs, we were rewarded with descents that we could actually ride to enjoy. Smooth sections in between the boulders felt like the best trail ever!
 
Four days out in the vastness of Käsivarsi Wilderness Area, with everything we needed on us or our bikes, was a great way to complete the mission of Halti, three years on.
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