PHOTOS

VENUE DESCRIPTION

Ruka Ski Resort and the town of Kuusamo are located on the southern edge of Lapland near the Arctic Circle. This area gives an added dimension to 'cool' as temperatures drop to -20°C during winter.
Finland's most popular ski resort (based on skier days and ski pass sales) has the longest ski season in Northern Europe, usually over 200 days during October - June. Snow-sure conditions have made Ruka a popular training location for international alpine ski and freestyle teams.
Ruka is a friendly ski area with short but wide slopes coming down from four different hills, best suited for beginners, intermediates improving their skills and families. 29 groomed pistes are operated with 19 lifts, 5 of them chairs. The resort also has a FIS rated half-pipe, 2 Parks and a Skier/Boarder Cross Course. Huge investments in Ruka Village 2009 include pedestrian village, underground car park and new hotels.
Memorable adventures can be experienced on over 500 km of cross-country trails, 600 km of snowmobile routes, visits to Lappish reindeer farms, dog-sledding and snowshoe walks in the nearby Oulanka National Park, one of the three European PAN Parks (Protected Area Networks).
Ruka and Kuusamo areas offer accommodation for 37.000 visitors (17.000 in Ruka area alone). Many of these beds are located in log cottages in the middle of the wilderness (still near all facilities).

COMPETITION SITE

Ruka Ski Stadium was built in 1964 with big ski jumping hill. New stadium has been used since 1986 with cross-country tracks and large hill. Large hill was renovated in 1995 and is the worlds largest jumping hill for all year round use. Size is HS142 (K-120). There is also a K-64 jumping hill.

Ruka has 5 km lighted cross-country skiing tracks.There are lot of tourist skiing routes surrounding Ruka area. Since 2002 Ruka has been a Nordic Opening organizer. All three disciplines (Cross Country, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined) are including to Nordic Opening World Cup- event. Of course many  Finnish Championships in nordic as well as in alpine disciplines have taken place in Ruka.

Ruka stadium is very close to Ruka Ski Centre and Ruka Congress Centre is 0,3 km from stadium. The stadium can welcome more than 20.000 spectators. 

ACCOMMODATION

During FIS World Cup Ruka Nordic Opening the hotels in Ruka and Kuusamo are mainly reserved for competitiors, media and officials. Thus a cottage or a holiday apartment is an alternative worth taking into account. Price per person can be considerably lower than at a hotel and yet the cottages offer high standard holiday accommodation to match different needs from low-price cabins to five-star luxury apartments.
Booking of accommodation is exclusively taken care of by FinFun in Kuusamo, www.finfun.fi/fi.iw3. FinFun provides you with a wide range of cottages for accommodation in Ruka-Kuusamo region. On-line-reservation system contains about 700 cottages.
Information and booking: FinFun Ruka, Tel. +358 306 502 530, fax +358 306 502 549, e-mail: ruka[a]finfun.fi, www.finfun.fi/fi.iw3.

TICKETS

Best way to get tickets is buy them at the stadium gate.
In Kuusamo we have about 10 places with shopping centers and hotels where is possible to buy tickets before event starts.
Lippupalvelu- tickets selling company has tickets in their systems started 1. October.

HOW TO GET TO KUUSAMO

By plane: Kuusamo internationa airport is located 7 km from city center and 30 km from Ruka Ski Resort. Flying time from Helsinki (the capital of Finland) is one hour.
There are also two other international airports in less than 300 km distance: Oulu and Rovaniemi. There are several daily bus connections to Ruka, travelling time appr. 3 hours
By car: Ruka can be reached via several main roads when arriving by ferry to Southern Finland. The shortest route is along road number 5, appr. 800 km from Helsinki to Ruka.
By train: There's a daily night train connection from Helsinki to Kemijarvi and appr. 1,5 hour bus connection to Ruka.