Juha Ylitalo

This week’s letter in Mrs. Nesbitt’s ABC Wednesday is M. Since my post for previous letter was Levi, I felt that Malla Strict Nature Reserve would be good choice for this week.
Malla Strict Nature Reserve is probably very familiar area to people, who have spent time North-West corner of Finland, because it is right next to Kilpisjärvi, which is more or less only thing in there. Best way to visit Malla is to take ride on S/S Mallat, which will carry you over Kilpisjärvi lake, next to the cairn, where Finnish, Swedish and Norwegean borders come together. From that point, you have 11km hike back to Kilpisjärvi. If that is not long enough, you can make sidetrip to top of Pikku-Malla fell, which is 3.5km each way (so it means additional 7 km). That is more or less all that you can do in Malla, since Strict Nature Reserves have pretty strict rules on what you are allowed to do.
If you missed the ride on S/S Malla, it is question about how much you are willing to walk, because there are no rules stating that you are not allowed to walk along the marked path from Kilpisjärvi to meeting point of three countries and back. If you walk it to both directions, you will have to walk 22km (or 29km if you visit Pikku Malla).
One sort of compromise is to do what we did once we returned from our hiking trip to Halti (I know… I should post the notes from days four, five and six). We started our trip from Siilaskoski rapids and walked all the way to Kitsiputous waterfall, which is one of the main attractions in Malla Strict Nature Reserves and more or less midpoint between Kilpisjärvi and the meeting point of three countries. Once we had taken all the photographs that we wanted to have from Kitsiputous, we turned around and returned back to Kilpisjärvi.
Malla Strict Nature Reserve is good way to spend a day in wilderness, if you happen extra day of free time in Kilpisjärvi. If you are researching arctic nature as profession/hobby and you have good connections to universities and/or research groups, you might want to check, if you can get accommodation in Helsinki University’s biological research station in Kilpisjärvi and permits for taking samples from Malla, etc.

Photographs from Malla Strict Nature Reserve