Korouoma CanyonKorouoma Frozen Waterfalls Hike & Wilderness BBQ
The Korouoma frozen waterfalls hike and BBQ sold by Arctic GM is the listing with 1,663 reviews behind a 4.9, and the cheapest fully guided walk into the canyon on this site at $92. The group caps at eight, thermal overalls are handed out at the office, a 4x4 van covers the 105 kilometres, and lunch is cooked over an open fire in the canyon. The one thing it does not do is collect you from your hotel. Compare every Korouoma tour on price.
About This Guided Hike
7 hours door to door, about 4 of them at Korouoma
$92 per adult, with the reserve itself free to enter
4.9 from 1,663 reviews on GetYourGuide
Maximum 8 guests; minimum 2 paying adults for the departure to run
4 to 6 km on the Koronjaa loop, steep in and steep out
Grilled sausages and hot drinks midway through the canyon
Check Dates and Availability
Live departures and prices from GetYourGuide. Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead, and nothing to pay today.
Quick answer What the $92 covers, and the one line in the listing that catches people out
Arctic GM runs a seven-hour day from Rovaniemi for $92: a 4x4 transfer, thermal overalls, a guided 4 to 6 km walk past the icefalls and a sausage grill over an open fire. It carries more reviews than any other Korouoma listing, at 4.9 from 1,663. The catch is the start: you meet at the company's office on Valtakatu rather than being picked up.
Key takeaways
- Cheapest guided option here, and the same walk the $150 listings sell. See the price table
- Groups are capped at eight and need at least two paying adults, or the departure may move
- Thermal overalls come with it; ice grips are handed out on request rather than by default. What to wear
- Not sold for children under eight, the family option starts at four
- Free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure
What the Day Covers
The drive, and why it is a 4x4
The road to Korouoma is 105 kilometres of ploughed highway south-east from Rovaniemi and then a forest road to the Saukkovaara car park. Arctic GM runs Ford Tourneo 4x4 vans, which matters on the last few kilometres in January when the plough has been through but the surface underneath is packed ice. Ninety minutes each way, and the group is small enough that everyone gets a window.
The company describes itself as a family business twenty generations deep in Lapland and runs its tours in-house rather than subcontracting them, which is the practical reason the guide who briefs you at the office is the one who cooks your lunch.
Four to six kilometres, and the shape of them
The walk is the Koronjaa loop: off the rim on a steep pitch with a fixed rope, along the canyon floor past the ice, and back up in one climb at the end. Arctic GM quotes it as 4 to 6 km depending on how far the group goes along the wall, and asks for moderate fitness.
That wording is doing real work. Metsahallitus grades this trail Hard and does not maintain it in winter, and reviewers here consistently single out the final ascent rather than the distance. Antonella, who walked it in April, described the path as easy "apart from the very last spot, since you need to give it a little more climb".
The fire, and what comes off it
Midway through the canyon the group stops at the fire pits, and the guide lights one. Sausages, hot berry juice or coffee, roughly half an hour standing still in the cold, which is exactly why the overalls are included rather than optional.
The fire pits themselves belong to the reserve and are open to anyone. What the tour brings is the wood, which since June 2025 nobody supplies at Saukkovaara any more; a self-drive visitor planning the same lunch carries their own. That difference is the whole argument of the tour versus self-drive comparison.
What Is Included, and What Is Not
Read the pickup line twice
The listing says pickup is available, not that it is included, and the meeting point it names is the Arctic GM office at Valtakatu 26 in Rovaniemi. For a city-centre hotel that is a five-minute walk and a non-issue. For a glass igloo twenty kilometres out it is a taxi at half past seven in the morning, which is worth pricing before you decide this is the cheap option.
Everything else is unusually complete for the money.
| What you get | On this tour | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer | 4x4 van, 105 km each way | The last stretch is a forest road under packed ice |
| Thermal overalls | Included | Handed out at the office before the drive, so wear base layers |
| Ice grips | On request | The trail has no winter maintenance and is officially slippery |
| Food | Grilled sausages and hot drinks | Cooked at the reserve's fire pits, not carried out cold |
| Group size | Maximum 8 | The smallest cap on this site, matched by three other listings |
| Hotel pickup | Not standard | Meeting point is Valtakatu 26; some departures collect |
Who is not sold a seat
Arctic GM does not accept children under eight, and lists a long set of conditions it will not carry: mobility impairments, heart and respiratory problems, high blood pressure, recent surgery, pregnancy. The descent is the reason. It is a steep, roped, icy pitch, and a group of eight cannot spread out on it.
If that rules someone in your party out, the Korouoma and Auttikongas trip shortens the canyon section and adds a boardwalk waterfall instead, and takes children from four.
The Day, Hour by Hour
Times are the operator's, and shift a little with the season and the size of the group.
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08:00
Meet at Valtakatu 26
Check in at the Arctic GM office, collect thermal overalls and pull them on over your own base layers. Ask for ice grips here rather than at the trailhead.
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08:30
South-east by 4x4
Ninety minutes and 105 kilometres through forest, with the light coming up behind you between November and February.
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10:00
Saukkovaara car park
Grips on, a briefing, and the dry toilet stop. Bring your own paper, the toilets here are no longer maintained.
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10:20
Down into the canyon
The steep pitch off the rim, taken sideways with a hand on the rope. Snow underfoot in midwinter, glass in April.
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11:00
The first icefalls
Revontuliputous and Tuulen tie, then Jaska Jokunen, viewed from the trail rather than the base.
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12:00
Mammutti and Ruskea virta
The two big walls, and where climbers work the ice on a clear weekend.
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12:45
Fire and sausages
Half an hour at the fire pits. Flag vegetarian when you book and it is handled.
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13:30
The climb out
About a kilometre of steady ascent back to the rim. This is the part reviewers remember.
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14:00
Back to Rovaniemi
On the road by two, in town around half past three, early enough to eat before an aurora departure.
The Route on Film
The same loop this tour walks, filmed end to end. Watch the descent before you decide whether you want grips on your boots.
Who This Tour Suits
Book it if
You want the full guided day at the lowest price on the page and you are staying in or near the centre of Rovaniemi. You would rather walk with seven other people than twenty. You want the overalls and the hot food included rather than assembled from three different rentals.
The review volume is its own argument: 1,663 reviews is more than the rest of this site's listings put together, and the score has held at 4.9 across them.
Pick something else if
Your hotel is out at Apukka, Arctic TreeHouse or one of the igloo resorts, then Arctic Aurora's 20 km pickup radius or Beyond Arctic's included transfer does the maths better than a taxi does.
You want pictures of yourself in the canyon without carrying a camera: that is the photographer-guided hike. You are travelling with a four-year-old: that is the Auttikongas trip. You have a car and only want a lift: that is the self-guided coach.
The Trail This Tour Walks
What the reserve says about it
The loop is the Koronjaa Trail, and Metsahallitus publishes the numbers a tour listing rounds off: 4.6 kilometres, one to two hours, degree of difficulty Hard, a circle best walked clockwise, with no winter maintenance and a plain warning that in winter it is dangerously slippery and ice grippers are needed.
Arctic GM's own description, 4 to 6 km, moderate fitness, is the same walk described by someone who does it weekly. Both are true. The reserve is telling you what the trail is; the operator is telling you what it feels like with a guide in front of you and grips on your boots.
What you see, in order
Clockwise, the ice arrives in a sequence that builds. Revontuliputous and Tuulen tie come first, both around forty metres, the second stretched across eighty to a hundred metres of cliff in thin vertical columns. Jaska Jokunen follows at about fifty metres, occasionally hollowing into an ice cave. Then Mammutti, forty metres wide and spring-fed, which is why its ice runs blue. Ruskea virta closes it at 35 to 60 metres, the largest and highest at Korouoma.
The guide keeps the group back from the base of each one, which is not caution theatre: the reserve asks visitors not to walk under the falls because ice blocks and stones come off them.
What Travellers Said About This Tour
He was exceptional in guiding us throughout the tour, telling us about the biodiversity of the National Park.
The path you need to take is actually easy, apart from the very last spot, since you need to give it a little more climb.
He also treated us with grilled hot dogs which was a perfect way to close out our 5 km hike.
Excerpts from verified GetYourGuide reviews of this listing, quoted with their original dates.
Questions About This Departure
Does Arctic GM pick up from my hotel?
The listing sells the tour from its own office at Valtakatu 26 in Rovaniemi and offers pickup only on some departures, which you check at the availability step. Treat the office as the default. If you need a guaranteed door pickup, ToTheNorth covers a 7 km radius and Arctic Aurora reaches 20 km.
What happens if only one person books?
The departure needs two paying adults. With one booking the operator may move you to another date or cancel, and in either case a full refund or an alternative date is offered. In practice this bites hardest on shoulder-season weekdays in November and late April.
Are ice grips actually provided on this tour?
They are handed out on request rather than issued to everyone, so ask at the office when you collect your overalls. The trail gets no winter maintenance and Metsahallitus states outright that ice grippers are needed on it, so this is not the item to be polite about.
Page last reviewed September 2026. Price, rating and review count read from the listing on September 2026. Prices, availability and terms are set by the operator and confirmed at checkout.
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