ski in Finland

Hi,

I'm looking for recomendations on skiing regions in Finland.
The good equipment rental is important and the scenery as well.

thanks

"mk" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I'm looking for recomendations on skiing regions in Finland.
The good equipment rental is important and the scenery as well.

thanks

Equipment rental in that part of the world is difficult. Most everyone that
skis owns their own so rental isn't common. Once I looked into renting
performance stuff in Norway and could find nothing. If you are going in
March, it might be cheaper to buy stuff there on sale than to rent. I've
done that, and gotten great deals on racing stuff. Probably the same for
touring.

When are you going? That makes a difference as light is an issue as well as
temperatures.
Lahti and the area around it has nice skiing, but snow can be short
sometimes.
Rovaniemi (I've not been there) is further north-beyond the arctic circle.
Snow not likely to be a problem but cold can be expected. March would be
nice there I bet.

It really depends on what you want to experience, and what kind of skiing
you will do, and what you consider "nice scenery". If you like forest
(Lahti area), or "stark" (artic) then you'll be happy.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

I had been thinking of Finland too, and have done a fair bit of research. I
thought that Yllas, in Lapland would be a good destination. The are in the
polar night situation now, so that the light is a pale light blue I think
for several hours between about 10AM until sometime after 2PM. No direct sun
at this time. Yllas claims 85km of groomed trails on 50cm of snow ( a big
improvement from a couple of weeks ago). The reason I probably won't go is
the cost of getting there. From San Francisco...flights seem to be between
$780-805 going to Helsinki and back. But then you either take a 14 hour
night train....or fly up to Kittila (the flights seem to average $300). So
now we are up to about $1100. Most places charge about 70 Euros per
night...including a big breakfast. When I calculated the cost I came up
with about $1750 for one week. Now I didn't know about Lahti....I've heard
the name...but what kind of skiing would I find there? Are there a lot of
k's of prepared trails?


"Gary Jacobson" wrote in message
...

"mk" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I'm looking for recomendations on skiing regions in Finland.
The good equipment rental is important and the scenery as well.

thanks

Equipment rental in that part of the world is difficult. Most everyone
that
skis owns their own so rental isn't common. Once I looked into renting
performance stuff in Norway and could find nothing. If you are going in
March, it might be cheaper to buy stuff there on sale than to rent. I've
done that, and gotten great deals on racing stuff. Probably the same for
touring.

When are you going? That makes a difference as light is an issue as well
as
temperatures.
Lahti and the area around it has nice skiing, but snow can be short
sometimes.
Rovaniemi (I've not been there) is further north-beyond the arctic circle.
Snow not likely to be a problem but cold can be expected. March would be
nice there I bet.

It really depends on what you want to experience, and what kind of skiing
you will do, and what you consider "nice scenery". If you like forest
(Lahti area), or "stark" (artic) then you'll be happy.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY

Gary Jacobson wrote:
"mk" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi,

I'm looking for recomendations on skiing regions in Finland.
The good equipment rental is important and the scenery as well.

thanks

Equipment rental in that part of the world is difficult. Most
everyone that
skis owns their own so rental isn't common. Once I looked into
renting
performance stuff in Norway and could find nothing. If you are going
in
March, it might be cheaper to buy stuff there on sale than to rent.
I've
done that, and gotten great deals on racing stuff. Probably the same
for
touring.

When are you going? That makes a difference as light is an issue as
well as
temperatures.
Lahti and the area around it has nice skiing, but snow can be short
sometimes.
Rovaniemi (I've not been there) is further north-beyond the arctic
circle.
Snow not likely to be a problem but cold can be expected. March would
be
nice there I bet.

It really depends on what you want to experience, and what kind of
skiing
you will do, and what you consider "nice scenery". If you like
forest
(Lahti area), or "stark" (artic) then you'll be happy.

Gary Jacobson
Rosendale, NY


thanks for replying.
I thought of going in the end of Jaunary or first week of February.
For cross-country ski.
Northen Lapalnd looks most attractive. Saariselk=E4 or Yll=E4s or Maybe
Ruka which is further in the south.
Which resort did you stay?
So you think it's better to rent/buy ski in Helsinki?

I thought of going in the end of Jaunary or first week of February.
For cross-country ski.

End of January is good practically everywhere in Finland, so is first
week of February.

Northen Lapalnd looks most attractive. Saariselkä or Ylläs or Maybe
Ruka which is further in the south.

For cross-country skiing you could also consider Levi, Pallas, Olos
or Pyhä. But there is nothing wrong with Ylläs or Saariselkä, on the
contrary. They are great.

Normally the skiing resorts in Lapland (the North of Finland) have
all the trails done by the skiing vacation time, which is week 8
for us in the South and week 9 or 10 in Central Finland and Lapland.
By that time Ylläs should have about 300 km of trails, Levi in its
vicinity has 230 km etc. There are also trails with lighting so
you can ski when there is no daylight.

Go to

http://www.ski.fi

and click on the small British flag to get the pages in English.
You'll get a list of ski resorts (downhill and cross-country)
in Finland. Many of them have web sites, also in English.
You'll find a plenty of useful information there.

If you look at the resorts in Central Finland you'll see
resorts with almost not at all trails, but they often have
a connection to the trail network that is managed by the
local community. For example Himos (www.himos.fi) has only
10 or 20 km trails of its own, but it connects to the
network of Jämsä, which has something like 200 km, all
free of charge as trails generally are in Finland.

So you think it's better to rent/buy ski in Helsinki?

Absolutely not!!! You can rent skis in practically any resort in
Lapland, you don't have to drag them across the whole country.
Besides, it would be very much harder to find rental ski's in
Helsinki than in the ski resort of your choice, which ever it
will be. As a price example, here are the prices for 7 days in
Levi: the whole set (skis, shoes, poles) is 83 euro, skis only
cost 47, poles 11 if you bring your own shoes. I've rented cross-
country skis once and they were new skis in excellent condition
and waxed for the weather conditions of the day I rented them.

There is also a very good skiing resort by Lahti, called Messilä.
Lahti is located in the South of Finland, about 100 km north of
Helsinki. Lahti has hosted several times the World Championship
Games for skiing, so it should be a safe choice. But Lapland
does have the most snow and longest skiing season, normally you
can ski in May without any problem. The North is definitely at
its best in springtime, when there is lots of light and sunshine,
temperatures are mild and the trails very fast (mild daytime
temperatures, frost in the night)

I have not been in Ylläs yet, will go the in the end of March. I
have only heard good things about it, though. I know Levi, Pyhä and
Ruka, and I would rate those three in that order for cross-country.
Saariselkä is very popular among cross-country skiers. The choice
of resort depends also whether you want to go out and party in the
evenings or not. Levi is by lodging capacity the biggest resort in
Finland, I think Ruka is number two.

Any more questions, I'll be happy to help, but there is a wealth
of information in the net. Just look up the links to individual
resorts in the link I gave you above.

Tommi Nieminen

Hi.....I am another person on the thread of skiing in Finland.....I want to
thank you for the information. I am trying to decide whether to stay here
in North America or take the trip over to Finland. I had been researching
Yllas. I have found getting to Yllas during the first week to 10 days of
January difficult and expensive. The flight I have looked up on Finnair
average about $300 or so. The train with sleeper comes to about $225. That
is going to Kolari. A problem for me is that the train stops running daily
after 9 January for a period of time. Then it becomes 3 times per week. At
the moment Yllas has 85km of trails maintained. One hotel there Yllasrinne
offered me a room for 7 nights with breakfast at less than 300 Euros. It is
in the other village Yllasjarvi (I don't have the name in front of me).
Given your suggestions I will look up the other places and see what they
have open. I can find, of course, many resorts here in North America with
over 100k of trails open...but without the special Finnish atmosphere that I
have yet to experience. Thanks for the suggestions.
"Tommi Nieminen" wrote in message
...

I thought of going in the end of Jaunary or first week of February.
For cross-country ski.

End of January is good practically everywhere in Finland, so is first
week of February.

Northen Lapalnd looks most attractive. Saariselkä or Ylläs or Maybe
Ruka which is further in the south.

For cross-country skiing you could also consider Levi, Pallas, Olos
or Pyhä. But there is nothing wrong with Ylläs or Saariselkä, on the
contrary. They are great.

Normally the skiing resorts in Lapland (the North of Finland) have
all the trails done by the skiing vacation time, which is week 8
for us in the South and week 9 or 10 in Central Finland and Lapland.
By that time Ylläs should have about 300 km of trails, Levi in its
vicinity has 230 km etc. There are also trails with lighting so
you can ski when there is no daylight.

Go to

http://www.ski.fi

and click on the small British flag to get the pages in English.
You'll get a list of ski resorts (downhill and cross-country)
in Finland. Many of them have web sites, also in English.
You'll find a plenty of useful information there.

If you look at the resorts in Central Finland you'll see
resorts with almost not at all trails, but they often have
a connection to the trail network that is managed by the
local community. For example Himos (www.himos.fi) has only
10 or 20 km trails of its own, but it connects to the
network of Jämsä, which has something like 200 km, all
free of charge as trails generally are in Finland.

So you think it's better to rent/buy ski in Helsinki?

Absolutely not!!! You can rent skis in practically any resort in
Lapland, you don't have to drag them across the whole country.
Besides, it would be very much harder to find rental ski's in
Helsinki than in the ski resort of your choice, which ever it
will be. As a price example, here are the prices for 7 days in
Levi: the whole set (skis, shoes, poles) is 83 euro, skis only
cost 47, poles 11 if you bring your own shoes. I've rented cross-
country skis once and they were new skis in excellent condition
and waxed for the weather conditions of the day I rented them.

There is also a very good skiing resort by Lahti, called Messilä.
Lahti is located in the South of Finland, about 100 km north of
Helsinki. Lahti has hosted several times the World Championship
Games for skiing, so it should be a safe choice. But Lapland
does have the most snow and longest skiing season, normally you
can ski in May without any problem. The North is definitely at
its best in springtime, when there is lots of light and sunshine,
temperatures are mild and the trails very fast (mild daytime
temperatures, frost in the night)

I have not been in Ylläs yet, will go the in the end of March. I
have only heard good things about it, though. I know Levi, Pyhä and Ruka,
and I would rate those three in that order for cross-country.
Saariselkä is very popular among cross-country skiers. The choice
of resort depends also whether you want to go out and party in the
evenings or not. Levi is by lodging capacity the biggest resort in
Finland, I think Ruka is number two.

Any more questions, I'll be happy to help, but there is a wealth
of information in the net. Just look up the links to individual
resorts in the link I gave you above.

Tommi Nieminen

Yllas. I have found getting to Yllas during the first week to 10 days of
January difficult and expensive. The flight I have looked up on Finnair
average about $300 or so. The train with sleeper comes to about $225.

I would forget about the train. It takes a lot of time and costs even
more than flying. Finnair belongs to Oneworld Alliance, the American
airline company belonging to the same alliance is American Airlines.
I would imagine if you take a flight from where you live to Lapland
with Kittilä as your destination airport, it shouldn't be much more
expensive than flying to Helsinki. On the other hand, the pricing
system of flight tickets is pretty screwed up, so you never know
until you ask your specialized travel agency.

Another flight option is to fly with BlueOne (http://www.blue1.com)
to Rovaniemi and take a bus from there to Ylläs, Levi, Pyhä or where
ever you want decide to go. It's a 150 - 170 km drive. BlueOne is part
of SAS which belongs to the Star Alliance. I don't know which, if any,
American company belongs to that alliance. I just checked BlueOne's
web site, they have flights to Rovaniemi starting Jan 31. The prices
seem to be from 36 euros/oneway. Not bad, but maybe not suitable
for you if you want to travel earlier in January.

There is a third company that flies to Lapland, Soder Air
(http://www.soder.fi, sorry only in Finnish). It is a pretty
small company and standing maybe a bit feebly on its feet, but
they have good offers sometimes. For new year you can fly to
Kittilä 48 euros/oneway. Regular price for round trip is 239 euros.

Even Finnair has special offers and stand by prices sometimes.

The airports for different skiing resorts in Northern Finland:

Levi, Ylläs, Olos, Pallas: Kittilä Airport
Ruka, Salla, Suomu: Kuusamo Airport, Rovaniemi Airport
Pyhä, Luosto: Rovaniemi Airport
Iso-Syöte, Syötekeskus: Oulu Airport, (Kuusamo Airport)
Saariselkä: Ivalo Airport
Vuokatti: Kajaani Airport

Bus connections are pretty good, with departure times
following airline schedules.

Vuokatti isn't in Lapland, but it's got pretty good skiing
too. It's the principal training place of the Finnish
National Skiing Team. Not much use in the winter, but they
also have a skiing tunnel for skiing in the summer.

From a brochure I found a transportation offer from Helsinki
to Ylläs if you stay in Hotel Ylläsrinne: roundtrip 100 euros
by bus. It's a long drive, certainly 12 hours if not more, but
the price beats the train plus you get straight to your hotel.
But the offer is for weeks 51, 52 and 7 - 18 so it won't help
you :-(

the moment Yllas has 85km of trails maintained. One hotel there Yllasrinne
offered me a room for 7 nights with breakfast at less than 300 Euros. It is
in the other village Yllasjarvi (I don't have the name in front of me).

300 euros for a week for one person with breakfast doesn't sound bad.
The best offers are always for two persons. But the hotels have all
kinds of special prices in January, since it is a pretty quiet period.
I know that some resorts have a central booking where they should be
aware of all the prices. Levi's central booking has this email:



Levi is located about 60 km from Ylläs, 20 km from Kittilä Airport.
Also, you can write directly to the hotels in different resorts and
ask for prices and special offers. Saariselkä is great for skiing.
Pallas is very good also, it is in a national park so the nature is
pretty intact and I think the skidoo routes are more limited than
on some other resorts, in case you like peace and quiet. But if
you have your mind set on Ylläs, I don't blame you. I've been
waiting to go there because I've heard many good things about it.
I guess the only negative thing I know of Ylläs, that it is sort
of a bipolar resort, because the resort consists of two villages,
which are on the other sides of the fell. On the map they are
not so far away from each other, but by car it is something like
40-50 km. I don't even know how this affects a cross-country skier,
some friends of mine who do downhill mentioned it to me once.

Hope this information helps you to find your way to Lapland :-)

Tommi

One thing I forgot: Soder Air's Customer service contact info,
since the web site is only in Finnish:

Email:
Phone: +358 3 3122 1600
Fax: +358 3 3122 1650

14 or 15 Jan. I did get a price on the train of about 172 dollars (US) for
a sleeper both ways from Helsinki to Kolari. I would buy a 3 day Finnrail
pass for 143 US dollars first, and then add on the sleepers. Of course

When I think about taking the train, first I compare the price to
airplane. So far I have flown 4 times to Lapland and it's always been
cheaper than train. But even if it cost 50 or 100 euro more to fly,
there are still the facts that you lose one whole day traveling by
train. The plane from Helsinki to Kittilä is 1 hour 30 minutes.


being totally undecided I haven't done anything yet. Many have mentioned
Vuokatti.....but looking at their web site it seems they have just a few
kilometers of track open. Unless I misunderstood the Finnish (Ladut) open?
It seems very little to warrant a trip there. Many have mentioned

You are right about Vuokatti, they have only 30 km of trails open, which
I find surprisingly little. But this year, as well as last year, the
snow has been very late.

Saariselka.........I had an offer in a hotel of 69Euros per day for all
meals. Several Finns seem to favor Saariselka...why is that? Yet others

Saariselkä is a very good place for cross-country skiing. They have a
very long skiing season due to the northern location, and they have
created favourable conditions for skiing. Haven't been there either.
Two friends of mine were there last year right after new year and
liked it a lot, though it was pretty cold then. I checked in their
web site: Saariselkä has now around 100 km of trails, but on some
spots there is not yet that much snow.

I just talked to a colleague of mine who has a lot more experience
of skiing in Lapland. He said Ylläs would probably be your best bet
right now. But he pointed out, that the other side of Ylläs,
Äkäslompolo, is definitely better for cross-country skiing than
Ylläsjärvi, as you have there a lot greater variety of trails to
choose from. However, as we looked at the trail map of Ylläs, there
were some new trails on the Ylläsjärvi side he had no experience of.
My colleague also told most of the trails in Ylläs are in the forest,
at least on the Äkäslompolo side.

Here's the link to the skiing area of Ylläs. Click on the map to
make it larger. Map symbols are explained also in English. The
light yellow areas are barren.

http://www.yllas.fi/?deptid=8979

have told me to save my money and ski in the US.....mostly because it will
be too dark in Northern Finland. I will start checking the web sites you

I wouldn't worry about the darkness. During daytime you have 5-6 hours
of light, depending on cloudiness. If that is not enough, there are the
trails with flood lights. And if that is not enough, speaking of my
own experience: it is absolutely fantastic to ski in the darkness.
I did in January 35 km from Luosto to Pyhä between 6 am and 9.30 am.
That is, most of the time in the darkness. The forest looked just
fabulous. I plan to do it this year too, though now I'll take some
kind of head light to see better when going down the slopes.

gave me. Oh yes....someone from Finland mentioned that I might find the
Lapland area too barren. He said this when I mentioned that I like to ski
through forests. Oddly enough......If I don't go to Finland....I am thinking

Depends on where you ski. Most of the trails I've seen in Lapland were
in forests, but I know there are also large open areas there. I like
both. The good thing about forest trails is that you won't be so much
affected by the wind, nor will the trails be (since the wind tends to
bring snow on the trails).

Tommi

Thanks for all the research you have done for the planning of my trip. Even
though I might actually stay on this North American continent....because of
uncertainties and airfare changes making the Finnish trip more difficult I
feel I have learned a lot from doing the research and also from your very
helpful responses. I haven't ruled Finland out at this moment but the
momentum seems to be to try the Upper Midwest.....Minnesota and Thunder Bay
Ontario......I can get a round trip fare from SF to Minneapolis for around
$220 (US). The only little problem seems to be a chance of mixed
precipitation for Thursday. After that more snow though ( I think).
"Tommi Nieminen" wrote in message
news

14 or 15 Jan. I did get a price on the train of about 172 dollars (US)
for a sleeper both ways from Helsinki to Kolari. I would buy a 3 day
Finnrail
pass for 143 US dollars first, and then add on the sleepers. Of course

When I think about taking the train, first I compare the price to
airplane. So far I have flown 4 times to Lapland and it's always been
cheaper than train. But even if it cost 50 or 100 euro more to fly,
there are still the facts that you lose one whole day traveling by
train. The plane from Helsinki to Kittilä is 1 hour 30 minutes.


being totally undecided I haven't done anything yet. Many have
mentioned Vuokatti.....but looking at their web site it seems they have
just a few kilometers of track open. Unless I misunderstood the Finnish
(Ladut) open?
It seems very little to warrant a trip there. Many have mentioned

You are right about Vuokatti, they have only 30 km of trails open, which
I find surprisingly little. But this year, as well as last year, the snow
has been very late.

Saariselka.........I had an offer in a hotel of 69Euros per day for all
meals. Several Finns seem to favor Saariselka...why is that? Yet others

Saariselkä is a very good place for cross-country skiing. They have a very
long skiing season due to the northern location, and they have
created favourable conditions for skiing. Haven't been there either.
Two friends of mine were there last year right after new year and
liked it a lot, though it was pretty cold then. I checked in their
web site: Saariselkä has now around 100 km of trails, but on some
spots there is not yet that much snow.

I just talked to a colleague of mine who has a lot more experience
of skiing in Lapland. He said Ylläs would probably be your best bet
right now. But he pointed out, that the other side of Ylläs,
Äkäslompolo, is definitely better for cross-country skiing than
Ylläsjärvi, as you have there a lot greater variety of trails to
choose from. However, as we looked at the trail map of Ylläs, there
were some new trails on the Ylläsjärvi side he had no experience of.
My colleague also told most of the trails in Ylläs are in the forest,
at least on the Äkäslompolo side.

Here's the link to the skiing area of Ylläs. Click on the map to
make it larger. Map symbols are explained also in English. The
light yellow areas are barren.

http://www.yllas.fi/?deptid=8979

have told me to save my money and ski in the US.....mostly because it
will be too dark in Northern Finland. I will start checking the web
sites you

I wouldn't worry about the darkness. During daytime you have 5-6 hours
of light, depending on cloudiness. If that is not enough, there are the
trails with flood lights. And if that is not enough, speaking of my
own experience: it is absolutely fantastic to ski in the darkness.
I did in January 35 km from Luosto to Pyhä between 6 am and 9.30 am.
That is, most of the time in the darkness. The forest looked just
fabulous. I plan to do it this year too, though now I'll take some
kind of head light to see better when going down the slopes.

gave me. Oh yes....someone from Finland mentioned that I might find the
Lapland area too barren. He said this when I mentioned that I like to ski
through forests. Oddly enough......If I don't go to Finland....I am
thinking

Depends on where you ski. Most of the trails I've seen in Lapland were in
forests, but I know there are also large open areas there. I like
both. The good thing about forest trails is that you won't be so much
affected by the wind, nor will the trails be (since the wind tends to
bring snow on the trails).

Tommi