Skiing Again

This trail of which there is about 2.5 km until it snows enough is quite popular.

The ski shop is open. Quite handy.

Here's where I'll turn back.

It was a bit foggy. That K130 meter ski jumping tower is massive.

A concrete brutalist shelter and fire pit.

I'm glad the road to the parking lot down there has been plowed and gritted. I fell on my back on it a couple of years ago. It was quite painful but nothing broke that time.

The stadium is down there somewhere.

The kids using the ski lift are ski jumpers. I talked to a lady whose child is a ski jumper. The youngest kid jumping from much smaller hills at the sports center here than the largest in these photos I've seen was an eight-year-old girl. The lady told me the youngest jumpers she knows are five years old. WTF?? According to her, the youngest who jump from the K130 hill (the massive one) are 11-12 years old.

Finnish ski jumping has been in the toilet for the last 15 years or so. I was told that the national association has got its act together and there are many more juniors in the pipeline than there used to be in recent times. I'm hoping for a ski jumping renaissance in this country. Ski jumping is such a great spectator sport.

Here's a video helmet camera video of a jump from the K130 hill:

Can you imagine an 11-year-old doing this?