Mountainous Monday: Saana

This week we’ll tell you about Saana, a 1.029 meter high mountain in Northern Finland. Sanaa is located in Finnish Lapland in the Enontekiö region, close to the border of Norway.

It is the most famous mountain in Finland. The reason for this is that it has a remarkable shape, which stands out like a giant rock, near the village of Kilpisjärvi. It gives great views over the neighbouring countries Sweden and Norway.

Not far from Saana is Halti (1.324 metres) which is Finland’s highest fell or mountain. This mountain is a bit further away into the wilderness, so that’s why Saana is a much more popular stop for a nice climb or stroll.

There’s a nice hike from the town to the top of the mountain, the walk is around eight kilometers. On your way to the top of the mountain you have to climb Finland longest staircases, the climb ascends 556 meters to the summit. You can extend your hike with 4 km to a 12 km hike with a diversion to the Saanajärvi day hut.

As you can see on the pictures, there is a lot of snow in the wintertime. Due to the winter weather with temperatures about -38 degrees we were not able to climb the mountain, and it is only a short hike up. In the summer the area is very beautiful with a lot of green colours. So… we’ll have to go back in the near future. The summer in this region can be a bit cold and is one of the shortest in Europe. On the other hand you can even climb to the top in the middle of the night in the daylight, since during the summer the sun doesn’t set.

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The Nature Reserve in Kilpisjärvi, where mountain Saana is a part of, offers a lot of different (hiking) trails. It’s also possible to stay overnight in one of the mountain huts located near the Norwegian border, which sounds like a totally cool adventure…