Snowbird, Vail, Chamonix, Peuramaa

On Sunday I went downhill skiing at Peuramaa, just a bit west of Helsinki and Espoo. This picture proves that there are hills in southern Finland. The recent warm weather and rain created quite a bit of "packed granular" (the US ski industry word for ice), but there was still fun to be had.

With only a few tens of meters in elevation, the method for getting to the top was a T-bar. There was a gaggle of young American girls there for some unknown reason, many of whom were trying snowboarding for the first time, and clogging up the main lift line. There were four trails open, each with its own lift. The expert slope was about the equivalent of an advanced intermediate (blue square) trail in the USA, wide open with lots of space for turning.

You pay by the hour, so two hours of ski rental was 17.50 euro and two hours of lift ticket was 14 euro.