World Cup venues: The beauty of Ruka
Dec 03, 2019·Ski Jumping
In ski resorts in Austria or Switzerland, Ruka is probably looked at with a pitiful smile, or it's even not looked at at all. In Central Europe, nobody would want to build a ski resort and a Ski Jumping hill on a 493 m high hill.
In Ruka it's cold, in Ruka it's windy, it's never really light in winter and never really dark in summer. This makes this mountain in eastern Finland as uncomfortable as a location can be. But Ruka and its surrounding nature is also absolutely fascinating and uniquely beautiful.
Close to the Arctic Circle and only about 20 km from the Russian border, this place is absolutely exotic, simply because of its coordinates and the conditions coming with it.
Latitude 66° 9' 54.5972" Longitude 29° 9' 18.292“
The 28 ski slopes in Ruka are relatively short but still steep and demanding. Due to the reliable snow conditions, many national teams in freestyle skiing are coming to Ruka to train there and of course, the ski jumpers are coming as well. The lifts are operated continuously and there never a lack of skiers. And obviously, the Finns are also good when it comes to Apres-Ski.
Ruka is the northernmost venue on the Ski Jumping World Cup calendar and it's also downright beautiful and interesting.
Despite the remoteness it's easy to reach. The airport in Kuusamo is only about half an hour away. Finnair flies to Kuusamo various times a day (flight time about 75 minutes). If you want to go from Helsinki to Kuusamo by car you need about a day to travel the approx. 800 km north.
