Ice Fishing in the Frozen Saana Lake

March 15, 2018 Thursday

From The Kilpissafarit headquarters, we rode in a long wooden sleigh pulled by a snowmobile driven by our 23 year old outdoor tour guide named Jonas, pronounced as Yonas. Oyen rode with him while we rode on the sleigh.

We crossed valleys and a large frozen lake. Then we climbed towards the Saana Fell.

It was a long and bumpy ride because some parts of the snow were not level. The feeling was similar to your driver not slowing down when there were humps. I could hear the wooden sleigh scraping the uneven surface of the ice. Crag, crag, crag.

I couldn’t even move my legs or body the whole time we were on the sleigh. My heavy astronaut space suit prevented me from moving. They were so heavy and once I sat down, I just dropped like a dead weight. My husband helped me get on and off the sleigh.

The helmet was helpful in protecting me from the icy wind hitting my face, otherwise namaga na ang nguso ko sa lamig. Imagine negative 16 degrees?

I looked like Tenzing Norgay, the guy who first reached Mt. Everest with Edmund Hillary.

This is Edmund Hillary and I am Tenzing Norgay. We don’t look like we are going fishing. We look like we’re going to climb Mt. Everest.

It was such a sunny day to be on a lake with water I couldn’t see.
We were supposed to be fishing. But where is the lake? Napanood ko na yan sa BBC Earth. Bubutasin namin ang ice.

Jonas brought a long metal drill to dig a hole into the lake. He made it look so easy.

Jonas taught us how to fish the right way.

McGyver was comfortable being in extreme temperature.

He enjoyed every minute of our ice adventure. Feel na feel nya starring role sya sa BBC Earth.

My daughter brought her drone. The battery drained fast and she feared her drone could freeze and crash in this kind of temperature. Luckily it did not. She had spare batteries. I haven’t seen the photos she was able to capture. Must be spectacular.

My husband could survive living in this kind of environment.

Feel na feel nya. Ako naman, naninigas yung mga toes ko. Tila napi freeze na. I could not even walk, ang bigat ng shoes, tapos frozen toes pa.

He was serious about catching a fish.

Yes he did, he caught a baby one.

He let it go back into the lake. Kawawa naman yung baby. Here he tries to catch another one, hopefully bigger.

Talagang pang National Geographic ang view.

We were lucky the sun was shining brightly or else the temperature could easily drop below negative 20 degrees. Popsicle na ang labas ko.

Yes tart, I see you.

It was hard to walk, lumulubog ang boots ko sa snow.

Our young guide Jonas served us some hot tea and donuts.

Jonas caught a medium sized Arctic char fish but he also let it go. I thought it would be nice to bring them home for dinner. Fresh na fresh.

E caught his third fish and this time around it was much bigger. Masarap sana yan i-prito at isawsaw sa patis at kalamansi.

And he caught his fourth fish. He could very well be an ice fishing tour guide.

See the two structures from afar? Those are emergency shelters put up by the government in case hikers or anyone needs to take shelter from extreme weather. We would be going there next, at midnight, to see the Northern Lights show.