Get your skis in shape... the ski season is here!

If there is a silver lining to the devastation left behind from hurricane Sandy’s in the US East Coast, 3 feet (1 metre) of snow dumped in North Carolina, prompting the early opening of some ski resorts. As of today, more than 80 ski areas and resorts are open for the season and many more are on deck in this week. Here’s the full week ski report.  Continue reading ‘Ski season kicking into high gear around the world!’

Tourist Office

Ruka – Rukakeskus Oy
Rukankylantie 8
Rukatunturi
Kuusamo
Finland
SF 93825

Telephone: (-400) 200
Email: info@ruka.fi
Website: www.ski.ruka.fi

Description

Located 25km north of the small town of Kuusamo, (with an international airport) Ruka is one of Finland’s largest and most modern resorts. Facilities include dog sledding, snowmobiling and a huge indoor tropical pool complex nearby. 100% snow making and floodlit, with a very long snow-sure season from mid-October to mid-May.

Review

Ruka, near Kuusamo on the southern edge of Lapland, gives an added dimension to ‘cool’ as temps drop to 20 below (Celcius) in the dark months of mid-winter. That’s not stopped this snug little ski area rocketing on to the world stage, with growth running at ten percent annually.

It has been helped firstly by having some of the lowest priced lift tickets in Europe (always a help with prices touching £150 a week in some of the big French and Swiss ski areas) and secondly by developing a core boarding and freestyle culture (partly thanks to a symbiotic relationship with the ticket prices, but an eight month season from October to May is another big plus, who needs Spring and Autumn?).

A third strong plus factor is that the resort’s snow surety is legend. It is typically one of the first in the world to open in October each year (and one of the last to close each Spring). The icing on the cake was the awarding of the World Freestyle Ski Championships here in 2005 – the biggest ever ski event to be staged in Finland.

keywords

Kuusamo, Pyhä, Ruka, Finland, Lapland

Between 5,000 and 6,000 came out for the first day of skiing at Mammoth. Normally the first day attracts 500

At least a dozen ski areas in at least six countries have opened earlier than expected because of heavy snow, or consistent low temperatures to allow snow making, or a combination of both.
Austria saw the most of the heavy snowfalls in the latter half of last week with the glacier ski area of Tux claiming the biggest accumulated snowfall of an incredible 1.8 metres (six feet) over the past week, with the Molltal glacier not far behind with 1.4m (nearly five feet).
Although many regular Austrian resorts have reported up to two feet (60cm) of snow on their slopes, only one is reported to have started running their lifts early as a result, it was reported that the Planai above Schladming had its earliest ever opening this weekend. Continue reading ‘Heavy snow and lower temperatures lead to ski season jumpstart’