The wonders of winter forest bathing in Finland

From snow-blanketed forests to frozen lakes, wood-fired saunas and dazzling Northern Lights, winter in Finland’s forests is possibly the most therapeutic nature experience

I am in a forest of silent giants, ankle-deep in snow. Mighty fir trees more than 30 metres tall stand sentinel and stock still. There’s no breeze, no movement, no main roads nearby and no sign of planes in the clear, pastel-blue sky. I sit on a granite boulder between a clump of smaller Norway Spruce, the archetypal Christmas Tree. Deep breaths of Arctic air fill my lungs and soul with goodness and joy, and, at least temporarily, everything seems right with the world.

I am winter forest bathing in Finland, communing with nature and moving at its pace, which, at this time of the year, is very slow indeed. Even the trees seem to be hibernating.

This is my ultimate stress-buster and I am not alone, it seems. The Nordic tour specialists at 50 Degrees North – a global operation which began in Melbourne – understand the draw of a Finnish winter forest better than most. CEO Mari Räsänen says many of the company’s multicultural, Australia-based team are from Finland and Norway, “so being in a Nordic forest in the depths of winter feels like home to us”.

“We love the stillness, tranquillity and incredible beauty of it all. There’s no experience quite like it for feeling connected to nature and relaxing both the body and mind,” she says.

Mari’s words are in my head as I let the serenity of this scene wash over me. I am half-expecting the usual assaults on the senses that come with everyday life – cars honking, doors slamming, people yabbering on mobile phones – but there’s none of it here. Not for many miles, in fact. It’s true peace.

Access all areas

Because Finns are adaptable, industrious folk and perfectly at home in the snow, there are very few parts of this country that are not accessible year round. This means there are thousands of places to forest bathe in winter, from the southern shores to the Arctic north. All you need is the right clothing, a good map or GPS and a rental car with snow tyres, which grip the icy roads.

One winter, a few years ago, was so cold in southern Finland that the Baltic Sea froze several kilometres out from the shoreline, allowing me to skate over to uninhabited islands and sip hot flask coffee in miniature birch woods. Central Finland is peppered with thousands of lakes, which freeze roughly a metre deep in the coldest months, allowing forest bathers to take afternoon ice walks across them to wooded islets. Up north in Finnish Lapland, snow is present for most of the year and in midwinter turns the region into a quintessential winter wonderland.

We all know those travel brochure images and Disney films depicting what look like impossibly snowy landscapes. Well, above the Arctic Circle in Finland, they are real.

Ice and fire

You do need to time your winter forest bathing, however. In mid-summer you can spend hours among the trees, strolling until 10pm or later, but in winter the days are brief. It is also seriously cold (–10C is normal, –20C or colder is easily possible) so good gear is essential. Even in my Icelandic snow trousers and Swedish Arctic coat, I still get a little chilly after more than three hours forest bathing.

That is when another Finnish custom comes to the rescue – the sauna. Staying last January in a lakeside cabin owned by a Finnish friend who only uses it in summer, I got into the habit of lighting the birchwood log fire in the cabin’s picture-windowed sauna and letting it crackle and simmer while I went for a dusk walk. Returning after dark, I could see from half a kilometre out on the frozen lake the light from the flames flickering around the sauna’s wood-lined walls. It was a beacon, guiding me home to blissful warmth and cosiness.

To most of us in warm or temperate countries a sauna sounds like a luxury but in Finland and its fellow Nordic nations, it’s as essential as the kitchen sink. It only takes one very hot sauna after one very cold walk for visitors to get hooked.

Forest bathing by ‘fox fire’ light

It’s now just after midnight and there are flashes in the night sky. It’s my third night of aurora-watching so I am not sure if what I see is a hallucination caused by sleep deprivation or the real thing. On with the numerous layers of clothes and I am out in the cold once more, coughing as my throat and lungs adjust from the warm, log fire in the cabin to the thin, frigid air out here.

I retrace my snowshoe prints back to my boulder in the forest. Things look just slightly different in the dark, moonless night. Was it really this far? Is that another set of tracks on top of mine? Suddenly I am distracted and look up to see something utterly spectacular: great curtains of green and red light glowing and billowing across the sky above the snow-coated fir trees. I’ve seen minor auroras before, with strips of faint peppermint green wavering near the horizon, but nothing like this.

The Finns call the Northern Lights revontulet, or ‘fox fire’, because legends tell of Arctic Foxes swishing their tails to spark the lights into life. As I watch the long drapes of ever-changing pinks and greens, some do indeed resemble fluffy tails brushing across the Heavens. As dramatically as they arrived, they are gone, leaving just an aurora echo of faint pastel shades, fading back to black. I stay still on my boulder, whispering to the slumbering forest around me, “thank you”.

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Journey notes

Getting there

Qantas flies from Australian capital cities to Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Tokyo, where you can transfer to codeshare partner Finnair to take you direct to Helsinki.

Expert tour operators

The Melbourne team from 50 Degrees North can tailor-make an itinerary that allows you forest bathe in winter to your heart’s content. Check out their website and call them on 1300 422 821.

visitfinland.com/en/

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