To celebrate today’s National Alpine Skiing Day, I did a tour of four ski resorts that I have not been to: Ellivuori in Sastamala, Hiitteenharju in Harjavalta, Ruosniemi in Pori, and Salomonkallio hill at the Nakkila Golf resort in Nakkila. It took two days though 🙂The resorts are between Pori and Tampere, a corner of Finland that I haven’t spent much time in.
Here's the advertisement about the day:
Very nice, from the long slopes and snowy forest runs of Ellivuori to tiny club hills, Ruosniemi's 30 meter vertical and the golf club’s 32 meter Salomonkallio being the smallest. Still a lot of energy and lots of kids having fun. Enjoyed much, like the other kids.
I also stayed at the Rantakartano for the night in Pori, by the river.. had a nice visit at the sauna even if it was a busy weekend to book a slot in the sauna due to the Bandy world championships being in Pori. And the next day, after all the skiing I visited Harjavalta's swimming hall, which was superb. Built in 2013, it has received awards, and looked stunning. It was a quiet day there as well, so I mostly got my own lane. Bliss.
Volvo was running smoothly for the 600 km round trip, but tomorrow … let’s see where it is going.
The ski resorts were:
Ellivuoren hiihtokeskus, Sastamala. More information from their home page and Wikipedia. They have six runs, on different sides of the mountain. There's a hotel and resort villas next to one of the slopes. Lifts are anchor lifts. They forbid skiing outside slopes, but still there are excellent routes through the forests next to the slopes. I enjoyed that part a lot. They also have several nice fire huts at the top and bottom of the slopes, and a brand new lodge building. And enough toilets at the bottom of all slopes. Ellivuori is west of Tampere, about 40 minutes and 47 kilometers from central Tampere. The coordinates are N 61.402303 E 23.065277.
Pictures below. Notice how there's skiing in the woods right next to the "no skiing outside the slopes" sign ... who is that idiot?
Hiitteenharjun hiihtokeskus, Harjavalta. More information from their home page and Wikipedia. The vertical is 45 meters. They are near Harjavalta's center. Run by the Harjavallan Jymy sports club. The coordinates are N 61.296092 E 22.147709.
They also train people to do ski jumping, so they have try-ski-jumping days for instance. Uh... I won't, that sounds dangerous :-)
Pictures:
Ruosniemen hiihtokeskus, Pori. More information from the home page and Wikipedia. The highest vertical is 30 meters. They are just six kilometers from the Center of Pori. Very nice. Run by the Pori Slalom club. The coordinates are N 61.507474 E 21.872639.
Pictures below. Note how in the first picture there's a sign about the slalom possibilities ahead:
Salomonkallion hiihtokeskus, Nakkila Golf, Nakkila. The vertical is 32 meters. The coordinates are N 61.410280 E 22.060069.
Pictures:
My sauna & swimming places were:
Rantakartano, Pori. More information at their home page. The coordinates are N 61.492677 E 21.841620.
Pictures:
Harjavallan uimahalli, Harjavalta. More information from their home page. This is a modern, very nice swimming hall. The design is kind of like 1930's functional, white concrete design. But very well done, and in modern style. They won the Year 2014 sports facility award (link). The coordinates are N 61.310591 E 22.145812.
Pictures:
Other pictures, from Pori's church and my car:
This article has also been published
here. Read the full Planetskier series at
planetskier.net, or all blog articles from
Blogspot. All swimming stories at
planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at
saunablogger.cool. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. The pool photo from the swimming hall is by Harjavallan kaupunki, taken from their website.
