BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri and PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki
Plan this ride
Recorded distance
412 km
Riding-time estimate
6 h 46
Journey
Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 412 km round trip from Kautokeino - roughly 6 h 46 in the saddle. It goes by way of STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi, PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki and back through STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi. It crosses Norway, Finland and Sweden - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri
The Finnmark plateau is one of the emptiest places in Europe, and a surveyor in 1850 would have thought the same. Baelljasvarri, a modest hill in the Sami heartland of northern Norway, is one of the points that Friedrich Struve's expedition used for the great meridian arc, which ran from this Arctic country down to the Black Sea, and it is part of the World Heritage listing. The surveyors worked here in the 1840s, hauling instruments up bare hills and building cairns to sight from one to the next, in a climate that allows only a short working season. Summer was when they came, and with the midnight sun they could work all night.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri is where the day begins. Next is STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi.
2. STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi
There is a point on a bare hill in the far north of Norway that the world once used to measure itself. Stuor-Oivi is one of the stations of the Struve Geodetic Arc, a chain of triangulation points that stretches about 2,800 kilometres from Hammerfest on the Arctic coast to the Black Sea. Between 1816 and 1855 the astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve and his teams measured the arc with astonishing care, and the result was one of the first accurate calculations of the size and shape of the Earth. Thirty-four of the points, in ten countries, were inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2005, and this is one of the Norwegian ones.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi comes up 63 km in. Next is PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki.
3. PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki
Pajtas-vaara is a fell, a rounded, treeless hill in the far north of Finnish Lapland, in the municipality of Enontekio, where the country narrows between Sweden and Norway. The name is Sami, and the land belongs to the Sami homeland, where herders have followed reindeer across the fells for a very long time. It is open, quiet and big, and on a clear day you can see for fifty kilometres.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back at BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri. That is the ride.
Leg by leg
BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri to STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi
BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri → STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi to PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki
STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi → PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki to back through STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi
PAJTAS-VAARA Tynnyrilaki → back through STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi is 65 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi to BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri
back through STUOR-OIVI Stuorrahanoaivi → BÄLJATZ-VAARA Baelljasvarri is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.