Urgent shouts crashed into my ears. None of the words made any sense, but this Finn was clearly not happy. We’d not understood the cryptic sign or the logic behind the cutting of the tracks on the adjacent groomed lanes and were heading up the steep, winding track other skiers would be zipping down. Collision averted. I sincerely hope the Finn quickly regained his composure and rejoined his compatriots as being amongst the happiest people on the planet.

This was my first trip to Finland and my first cross-country ski trip with the London Region Nordic Ski Club. Apart from the occasional misunderstanding of the local signs our group of mixed experience and ability had a great, sociable mostly un-shouty, time.

Ruka is located just south of the Arctic Circle and only 20km west of the Russian border. The town’s vibe is more downhill than cross-country, there’s been a ski resort here for 70 years plus a 30 year old snowboard park, but around 100km of cross-country trails also loop out from the centre. We took full advantage of the different types of accommodation and food offerings that had grown up round this hub. The highlight for me though was away from the town and involved skiing to little wooden red painted cafes for warm soft cinnamon buns, cream and strawberry jam filled laskiaispulla or sunshine-yellow cloudberry and cream cheese pastries as well as typically scandinavian strong, bitter coffee or hot fragrant berry juice.

There were ski trails suitable for us all. One group enjoyed a gentle 12km route around Lake Vuosseli with others adding in an ascent of a local high point Pyhävaara and covering 26k with 500m of ascent. The temperatures at the end of March were not as low as usual, hovering around freezing, but with a fair bit of wind chill some days. On our last day the snow had melted on the surface of the lakes and spring felt immanent.

My favourite route of the trip was the Kuontivaara trail. Two groups set out on the 9:15am bus from the town centre and I alighted with the ‘easier’ group outside the rather smart Rukan Salonki Resort. Thankfully the on-site cafe was shut until 11am so without dithering we set off to pick up route 7, designated on the map as mostly an easier blue grade but with a few  approximately 300m long sections of red or black.

We soon found our rhythm as a group. It was no hardship waiting at junctions, we were warm enough and we could take in the surrounding Taiga with its mix of spruce, pine and birch. Pine needles were scattered on the snow like caraway seeds onto Christmas cake icing, animal tracks looped beside ours, joining and diverging with each other. The T shaped tracks of a hare and a line of bird prints were trailed by small predator paw prints, any life or death drama that had resulted was long over but the story in the snow remained.

I was just getting peckish as we skied through the woodland in a break made for both us and a power line when we arrived at the Kuontivaara cafe. The tiny homely interior was hot and full so we ate our dill sprinkled salmon open sandwiches and cloudberry tarts and drank our strong dark coffee outside on the sunny picnic benches. The faster group joined us and it became clear that our clockwise direction had been the best choice for us, we might have to walk down a couple of steep sections but they had worked hard and ascended them. We waved goodbye and pushed on, this time through more remote feeling territory. A cold wind picked up and as we skied across the final lake to the bus stop, the cut tracks filled with icing sugar snow. Our timing for the bus back was excellent and I felt satisfaction as a relative beginner in completing the 15km circuit.

There were many other highlights on the trip including my first view of the Northern Lights, a delicious meal at Restaurant Rukatonttu and a chance to hang out around contented Finns.

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