Birch tree, Kuertunturi summit

We snowshoed up the "motorway" (i.e., prepared track) to the summit of Kuer today. At breakfast, it was sunny, but as we climbed the clouds came in, the light turned grey, and it began to snow.

The summit was windy - just to make a change. The views are spectacular from the top, but today, without sunshine and blue sky, they didn't look so great on the camera. This birch tree, almost covered in snow, helped to provide a focus for the picture, which is in mono, in honour of the flat, grey light.

The trees up here are either birch or Scots Pine. They are amazing survivors, coping with freezing temperatures for half the year. In contrast, after 5 minutes on the summit, my hands were very cold, and I needed to borrow Houblon's down mits to warm up for the descent.