Icetrack meet 2018. Time to ditch Lapland

if you go via sweden, i suggest nightferry from stockholm to turku, since it arrives 6am to turku you get 8ish hours of sleep and its "only" 10ish hour drive from there to (hello)Kittil?.
(also i have done kiel to stockholm in 10h, but that was because i nearly missed ferry.

either way, i'll be doing to 10ish hour drive from next to helsinki-vantaa airport, and i can take passanger (or 2) in the ds3 (i also have more thread in the winter tires than last time).
 
That ferry doesn't really save driving hours from just driving up the Swedish east coast, does it? At least if the meet is not south of the north end of the Baltic Sea.
 
No, it's just a matter whether you enjoy Finnish or Swedish coastline.
 
A Travem?nde-Helsinki ferry would save quite some driving time, I think?

Though looking at the prices currently, I'm thinking I might prefer a flight after all, even though that means leaving the MX-5 at home :) Also might bring a +1 - is that possible?
 
A Travem?nde-Helsinki ferry would save quite some driving time, I think?
Yes it would, but don't underestimate the distances in Finland - Helsinki to Kittil? is 1000 km, about the distance from the most southern part to the most northern part of Germany, but without unrestricted bits of Autobahn it'll get boring quite quickly if you aren't in a big group.

Also might bring a +1 - is that possible?
As long as you announce it soon enough I think that shouldn't be a problem. That said, you know us, we're not very friendly to new people. :p
 
I should get a confirmation on Monday, but just as a general notification, the date will most likely move to January 26.-28. I'll compile all info in to one post on Monday when everything will hopefully be confirmed, but so far it looks like it'll be a good weekend a bit further south than originally planned, but with great playgrounds for two days.
 
It's still a five-hour drive towards nowhere for me :lol:
 
Game of Thrones S7E06 said:
- I can breathe again, down south the air smells like pig shit.
- You've never been down south.
- I've been to Winterfell.

That kind of south? :)
 
January 25.-29.1.2018. Some reserving has happened

January 25.-29.1.2018. Some reserving has happened

I should get a confirmation on Monday, but just as a general notification, the date will most likely move to January 26.-28. I'll compile all info in to one post on Monday when everything will hopefully be confirmed, but so far it looks like it'll be a good weekend a bit further south than originally planned, but with great playgrounds for two days.




So, even this final step of confirming the place turned out to be unnecessary complicated, but this is now confirmed. And almost turned out to be much more expensive than intended. Being a place offering mainly services for companies etc. we were getting similar price offers as well. Fortunately I managed to negotiate the prices down a bit, even if it wasn?t as cheap as I initially thought.


So, to make it clear again, for now we have a cabin booked near Pudasj?rvi, from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning, January 25th to 29th and a track for Saturday.


So what did we end up with then. Well, we have ourselves 7 bedrooms, each with room for 3-5 people. 4 toilets, with Adrian access as well. :p Two conference rooms, kitchen and of course a sauna, which should be larger than what we?ve had in Joensuu. Place is called Lent?j?nmaja, which is a clue for Finnish speakers..


..Because for Saturday, we have ourselves an airfield! :w00t: That is to say, 3km of runway width area to play around for the whole day, right next to the cabin. Works for getting used to winter action, I think?


So, on to Sunday plans then. Since the dates changed, I need to contact the other track still and confirm those arrangements. At this point I should point out that my estimates put the price / person at around 110eur (that?s 4 nights at the cabin + airfield). The other track will bring that to about 150eur with current participant numbers. But those will go down if we get more people attending. Not free, but quite reasonably priced, I think. But anyway, the OuluZone track planned is about 60km away and will be an actual ice track (race track in summer as well).The paved track is 1.4km long at least, not sure about winter layout. And weather permitting there?s an option of trying a 2.9km (iirc) special stage as well. That won?t be included in our track reservation, so it will be optional 50eur/car/3 hours addition for those interested.


So that was the stuff that needed reservations beforehand. That leaves us (or those arriving as early as planned) a free Friday. Well, there?s a skiing centre 50km away, which will provide two activities for those interested: Snowmobiles and skiing. :mrgreen: To give a bit of an idea, snowmobiles are about 100eur/2h, or 70eur/2h for legacy hardware. This includes necessary riding gear. Skiing tickets are 31eur/3h, or 38eur/day and renting gear is 29eur/38eur accordingly. I?m sort of planning on doing both on that day and willing to try teaching anyone wanting to try skiing or snowboarding (latter I?m more qualified with).


After all this summarizing, I?m back to monetary things. The cabin+airfield track reservation has a 50% booking fee, so I?ll be needing some money soon. I?m not a fan of displaying my account details on an open forum. So as is usual for me, there will be a planning sheeeeeet that will get shared to people attending (with more detailed info about everything as well). I was actually planning on doing a Thomas and opening a dedicated account for this, but cheapskate in me was against the ~40eur annual banking costs, even if it?s used only once. So for now I?ll deal with the arrangementings like I?ve done previously.


Did I miss anything? Let?s get this (snow)ball rolling.
 
:w00t: Sounds very good, thanks for the organization so far. :)

I just searched for flights to Oulu and let's say I'm more keen on flying to Helsinki and get a ride from there since return flights to Oulu are 300+ Euros while return flights to Helsinki are less than half that...

That means I could arrive in Helsinki on Wednesday afternoon, hopefully someone can pick me up and provide shelter for the night and we can take on the 600+ km to Pudasj?rvi on Thursday together. Same goes for Monday/Tuesday, I could fly out of Helsinki on Tuesday in the early afternoon.
 
This is excellent :D Daboom, please add me to the sheet - same e-mail as last year.

I'll most likely start from the South (20min drive from Helsinki Airport) some time Friday morning and head back Sunday morning because of work&school on Monday. So if anyone needs a ride, I've got seats. I hope the Airtrek is still alive then :burnrubber:
 
With flights to HEL and a lift with a willing Finnish member it's coming out at about 300 bucks each. Not including food/drink.

Doable but I will need to discuss with HWF3.0.
 
Bargain.

Added info to first post as well, so it's easier to find later. :)
 
So, another case of extending the icetrack meet as I did it with this year's roadtrip? :p I'll likely either ride shotgun with whoever decides to drive from Germany or fly in (much) earlier as in between Januar 20th and 22nd to get some skiing with DaBoom before all the others join. Currently there is plenty of choice for flying in to Helsinki between the 20th and 22nd and out on 30th so I'll decide in mid/late October what it'll be, with the others from Germany detailing their plans. I definitely won't take my car to Finland (again), that's for sure...

Even though I don't know if I can get leave at those dates I already paid the deposit, I'm quite confident I will get leave since nobody else in their right mind requests leave around those dates. :p
 
So, to make it clear again, for now we have a cabin booked near Pudasj?rvi, from Thursday afternoon to Monday morning, January 25th to 29th
So, for people flying into Helsinki and hitching a ride this means arriving on Wednesday and sleeping at one of the local FGers, or on Thursday morning latest?
And when flying into Oulu, Thursday afternoon would be a good time?

For the way back: Monday morning from Oulu or Monday evening/Tuesday morning from Helsinki?

So, for me the options are:
  1. Return flight D?sseldorf - Oulu (with changeover in Helsinki)
  2. Return flight D?sseldorf - Helsinki and passengering up with one of the Finns
  3. Driving with my own car through Denmark and Sweden (~ 2,500 km one way) - requires a passenger without much luggage
  4. Driving with my own car through the Baltics (~ 2,750 km one-way) and joining the Berlin convoy with Dr_Grip - doable without a passenger if I can get Dr_Grip or one of his friends to drive my car
  5. Return trip Dortmund - Berlin by train and passengering in the Dr_Grip convoy.
  6. Passengering with someone else from Germany.
Options 1 and 2 are my favourites right now, as the others are much more expensive and time-consuming. Having my own car with me would certainly be nice, but it's not really suited for such a long drive, nor the winter weather, nor icy roads. :think:
 
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What do you mean, it's perfect for winter; Light, rwd and designed for accessible handling.. :p
 
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