Juha Ylitalo

This week’s letter in Mrs. Nesbitt’s ABC Wednesday is R. In last round of ABC Wednesday, we had number of examples from Kuusamo (Oulankajoki, Porontimajoki and Quiet in Kuusamo). While, I was thinking about this week’s letter, I felt that it would be good time to return to Kuusamo and also touch another topic called Global Warming with photograph about Ruka ski resort in beginning of June.
Ruka is most southern point in Karhunkierros (”Bear’s Ring”) hiking trail, which is THE most popular hiking trail in Finland, and there are some small operators, who are renting kayaks, organizing rafting trips, and other outdoor activities, but all in all Ruka is more or less closed during summer and all the big events happen in a wintertime. During wintertime, Ruka has facilities for cross-country skiing, ski jumping, downhill, etc. and as a result from all this, it is one of the biggest ski resort in Finland (even if we compare it to ski resorts in Lapland). Time will tell how long they can keep this status, because it takes more and more snow cannon and tricks to get winter season started as early as possible and to keep it running as long as it is possible (and profitable).