First turns of the Season: Noboarding in Northern Finland

It’s always good to try something new and challenge yourself, well that is what I was thinking as I was snowshoeing up a small hill in the dark with a onboard strapped to my backpack.

I was invited on a small late night trip to test my luck using a bindingless snowboard with my friends Ilkka, Maxim and Petri heading to a small hill just outside of Rovaniemi. Here I was getting my first turns of the year in the dark brutally cold environment that only Finnish Lapland could provide.

The hills around here in the Arctic are an average of around 200 feet so there is a big Onboard scene that makes it a much more challenging experience. I’d heard of Noboards for years but had never tried them so I was eager to get out on one. This last Tuesday I received a text asking if I was interested and soon enough we were driving to a trailhead and putting our Noboards on our packs.

It’s been over a decade since I used snowshoes and was fortunate to borrow a pair hiking up the slopes. I used to think snowshoes were crazy but now I find myself needing to get a pair as it is the way to go if not using a Splitboard and these hills don’t validate bringing out the Splitboard. As we made our way up staying on each others tracks we checked out the new snow that had just been rained on but with the cold temps if it wasn’t under trees it was still going to be fine. If it was under trees which was most the terrain it was going to be pretty nasty snow.

Once on the top we took of our snowshoes and I was standing on a Noboard both excited and terrified about what was going to happen but fortunately the terrain was mellow and I enjoyed getting an initial feel of the board. For me the heel side was easy but transitioning to a toe side was hard as I had no confidence and the terrain was tight with trees.

We lapped a small section of open slopes for around 10 runs before making our final descent down the trees and this was a challenge for me. Not having a toe side turn in yet I kept traversing further and further away from the car occasionally getting off the board to find I was in thigh deep snow. In the end I was able to do one long low angle traverse back to the group and finally down to the car.

It was a great first real breaking into Noboarding experience and I hope to get all the gear needed to make it possible in the future.

Thanks Ilkka, Maxim and Petri for a great experience breaking me into Noboarding and I look forward to our next adventure.