It can be very cold (we’ve seen -30 and even -40C this season already) and dark (the sun dropped below the horizon for the latter half of December) up in Finland’s northerly ski regions, but many skiers love it here. There’s a sense of adv denture to skiing in the far north and the low temperatures keep the snow in pristine condition. There’s also a reliability to the snow season, which has already been going more than three months since early October, but still has four months to run into May!
If the chance of getting a great view of the aurora (northern lights) is not enough, then to brighten things up further one of Finland’s leading resorts, Ruka, runs a ‘Polar Night’ festival each January, the world’s northernmost light festival lights.
It’s just started this year for its seventh incarnation and continues through to January 28th.
Free to see (although buying a lift pass is needed to see some of it) and created by a business called Sun Effects, the ‘light artworks’ glow in the magical winter scenery of the Ruka slopes and Kuusamo region.
Ruka
Some of the light art can be experienced by skiing on the Kuru slope during the evenings from Saturday to Thursday each week, others by foot at the Ruka Village.
“Ruka Ski Resort and Ruka-Kuusamo Tourist Association want to cheer up people in the middle of dark winter,” a spokesperson said.
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