For many Finns, winter is the time for swimming in freezing water, in holes cut in the ice. There’s even a national championship. What on earth makes people want to do this?
The municipality of Säkylä is making a name for itself with kicksleds – a fleet of 100 of them in 2017, to match Finland’s celebration of 100 years of independence. What’s a kicksled? It’s traditional Finnish snow-how in action.
Endangered Finnish seals get winter help from locals
A Finnish nature lover shows us what his winter looks like: shovelling snow on a lakeshore to help the rare Saimaa ringed seal overcome problems caused by climate change.
Although climate change, as noted by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, is evident in Finnish winter temperatures, ice in the Baltic Sea remains an annual obstacle for sea traffic. A fleet of icebreakers clears the shipping lanes (slideshow).