From Everyday Work to Sensations of Freedom: Snowmobile Users’ Relationships to Snow, Ice and Weather

This chapter examines the relationships that are created between snowmobile users and the winter elements of snow, ice and cold weather. ‘Relationships’ refers to the immediate material and mental relations as well as to longer-term cultural and social human–nature connections. The chapter focuses on two empirical examples, snowmobile use in reindeer herding in northwest Finland and the recreational use of snowmobiles. Informed by actor–network theory, I conclude that using a snowmobile makes it possible to understand, and (re)constitutes, the snowy and icy environments in particular ways. While reindeer herders look for driving practices that are sustainable in the long run both for the herding and the drivers themselves, in recreational use the landscape mediated by the snowmobile is constituted in terms of enjoyment which can be drawn from sensations such as excitement, esthetic pleasure, tranquillity and kinship.