Urpo Heikkinen is the founder and owner of the company. Outdoors and trekking have always been Urpo’s passion and after attending a wilderness guide course in 1999 he founded Upitrek. The first tours were organized in winter 2000 and as long as the company was a one-man business Urpo guided all groups himself. Nowadays running the day-to-day operations, logistics etc. keep him busy during the seasons so unfortunately there is no time for guiding anymore. Urpo’s wealth of knowledge and extensive experience are priceless when it comes to planning new tours and ensuring the smooth operation of tours. 

Niina Jämsén has been involved in some way with the family business since 2002 when she completed her tourism studies at Kajaani University of Applied Sciences. Along the way she gained valuable experience as secretary for several regional, national and also international sports events. In 2011 she made the move and began working full-time for Upitrek. Niina’s realm is the office where she is responsible for sales and marketing as well as “anything digital” from website to webshops etc. Beyond that, Niina also manages Upitrek’s outgoing agency Kunnon Lomat.

We are fortunate to collaborate with a group of professional freelance guides who join us during our seasons. Many of these guides have been part of our team for several years, bringing their expertise and passion to our adventures. Each season we have also a pleasure to welcome new, enthusiastic team members – many of them having started their “journey” with us as a trainee on our tours.

In winter 2023-24 you will meet on our tours eg. Maarit, Petri, Tomasz and Ruben among many others. Read here their short stories! 

Hi, I’m Maarit. I am a trained tour guide and have done various guiding jobs for over twenty years. I started with Upitrek at the beginning of 2020.

Winter tourism is my specialty and I enjoy everything that can be done in winter, e.g. skiing, snowshoeing, skating on natural ice, camping and winter fishing (with nets). Meeting people is the best part of being a guide. I have had great experiences in quiet forests and pure nature. I want to offer this experience to you too.

English is my strongest language, but I understand and have conversational German, Swedish and Spanish. In all my activities, safety is always the number one priority. Welcome to experience the wonder and uniqueness of the winter landscape with me!

Petri is currently the guide with the longest history with Upitrek groups having guided them for more than 15 years. Over the years Petri has led a wide range of activities in  both summer and winter and many happy customers have returned for “another tour with Petri”. Petri loves to tell stories about Finnish culture, traditions, nature and life in the north. If you do a tour with him you will definitely find out about ”Sisu, sauna and Sibelius” – the three Finnish symbols.

I’m Ruben, a Belgian (Dutch speaking) guide who has lost his heart to the North. After studying biology my sense for adventure led me to Finland, where I studied to become a wilderness guide. During the course I was a trainee for Upitrek and it immediately felt like a good fit. Upitrek focuses on small-scale, sustainable and authentic tourism, far away from the masses, which is just how I like it. This is my third winter season for Upitrek and I am sure that there are many more to come.

For me, the interaction with the participants makes every trip truly unique. The shared laughter, awe for new experiences and seeing a group of strangers become friends always fill me with joy. It is why I love this job, together with the fact that I love to be active outdoors! For me, a guide is not someone that only leads safely an activity. It is someone that makes sure that you explore a new country in an authentic way, learning about nature, culture and history along the way. I guide either in English or Dutch. I already look forward to meet all of you!

My name is Tomasz and I am from Poland. I have been living in Finland for 5 years. I moved here because I found peace and an environment to fulfill my soul needs, and a wonderful person which makes me want to stay here permanently. I love to be out in the nature admiring its’ beauty and picking what it is giving to us, mushrooms, berries, herbs and a lot of different pieces of wood.

I graduated from the IWG (International Wilderness Guide) course in Kuru, Finland in 2020. This is my third season for Upitrek and so far I’ve been guiding snowshoeing, skiing, fatbike and multiactivities.

As a tour leader I like to share with people my experience and knowledge about Finland. I like mostly snowshoeing in the forest, while I can talk about nature and look at the wildlife activities on our way.

I speak fluently in Polish and English. Finnish is my third language which I am using everyday in my life now, but as the most difficult language in the world I know that I still need to put in a lot of effort to master it 🙂