First time riding a fat bike on winter trails in Lapland? It surely is a must do experience for every outdoor loving person and YLLÄS is the best place for doing that! Winter trail season starts usually in mid December and ends in April, but especially the start of the season varies yearly. We wrote down a few tips on how to make the winter biking experience successful.
1. Check the weather forecast. Don’t plan doing your biking trip on a HEAVY snowfall, or right after it, If possible and especially if you are doing this for the first time. Trails will be soft and exhausting to pedal for a few days after a blizzard. Riding a bike on a soft (even if groomed) trail requires the widest possible tire and really low tire pressure (which makes pedalling harder, so choose an e-assisted fatbike instead of regular one) But don't worry, we will check the right tire pressure for our customers before heading to trails. The coldest day isn't the best day for an e-fatbike ride neither. Around -20c is a good limit when taking into account the battery capacity and human toes freezing limit:) Temperature might vary a lot locally on a cold days, and higher on the fells it's many times -10 degrees milder than down in the village.
2. What to wear? Toes get easily cold on the pedals, so wear the warmest winter boots you got. Shoes should be loose enough to fit extra woolen sock easily. Too tight shoe is not a warm one. Wear winter clothes according to weather and wear layers. Layers make it easier to adjust if needed. Roughly said wear a bit thicker clothing than in xc-skiing but a bit less than in downhill skiing. Mittens are warmer than gloves, but this is more individual. If your fingers are easily cold wear warm mittens rather than gloves.
3. Plan your route!
-Ylläs winter trail map helps you to navigate and plan your day out on the trails. By purchasing the map, you also support the trails in Ylläs. You'll find the map from HERE
If you prefer a paper map, you can buy the paper version from grocery stores, shops and rental shops in the Ylläs area.
When planning a ride on e-assisted fatbike, note that battery range varies a lot! As being said, soft conditions, low temperatures, riders weight, all affects on battery range. One could roughly say that in winter conditions the range varies between 20 to 50km.
We are happy to help you with route planning and give you tips before heading to trails.
Few trail tips to get you started:
-To Kotamaja wilderness cafe and back
please REMEMBER, that it's not allowed to ride bikes on xc-ski tracks! (excluding some exceptions e.g. crossings and bridges)
Winter trails are marked with blue signs with snow flake symbol.
White and brown signs are for summer trails, and most of those are used as ski tracks in winter, so pay attention.
If all this was a bit too much to handle book a guided tour with us and just follow the guide! 😊
