Planetskier: October ski weekend at Levi

It has been a while since I skied properly. I skied in July at an indoor ski resort in Madrid and Oslo, and in June also in Oslo. But after that in August and September only on some snow piles outside ice skating halls... so it was time to ski again! Last year for October I went for a day trip to Levi (alt. link), but while fun that was a gruelingly tiresome travel and way too short time in Levi. So this year I went for the whole weekend.

Last year the slopes were also hard, so hard that I was worried I would fall and slide to the bottom and hurt myself. It was OK, but it was good to find out that this year's slopes were not as icy. But the slopes were divided between the racers -- there were teams from Japan, Slovenia, Lithuania, Norway, and UK at least. Last year the racers had most of the longer slope, and us others had a slice of that slope plus the slope with jumps and rails. This year the racers had the entire long slope. There was enough space to ski on the slope with jumps, but it would have been nicer to be able to run all the way from the top. It is not a big altitude difference, and the public slope was long enough but still.

Slopes:

Skiing:

The snow at Levi is stored on the slope (and partially trucked from another storage location). Here is what Google maps shows as the summer satellite picture, showing where the snow is stored under insulation blankets:

There was also a nice spa at my hotel, the Levi Design Hotel (also called the Levi Spa Hotel). They have warm outdoor pool and two jacuzzis, a 25-meter pool inside, and a ton of hot pools, play pools, etc. There's also several saunas, I liked the log sauna the best even though it was a bit too mild. Several people commented on that actually, previously it has been a hotter sauna that many preferred.

The hotel also has all the necessary machines in the lobby, one to get ski tickets and another one to print your boarding passes for the flight out :-)

And at Levi, the reindeer may greet you when you walk to your hotel:

For food, there's plenty of options but I really liked the Salteriet in the center (and also just 100 meters from the slopes). I can recommend their salmon-on-wood-plank:

In Levi there's a nice set of stairs from the bottom of the slopes to the upper hotels (the Levi Panorama hotel and the Levi Summit event place). Particularly in the evening this is a super nice walk as you will be able to see the slopes in evening lights next to you.

I flew Finnair's ATR-72 up to Kittilä, and back with an Airbus A319. When going towards Kittilä I had an early morning flight and the sun rose nicely when we were up in the air:

Interestingly, when coming back I was at home somewhere after midnight, and had to be back at the airport again around 6am, due to a work trip. And as explained in another article (alt. link), the time was short also due to Finnair cancelling my original flight and putting me on an earlier plane.

And the Kittilä airport is always a nice one to visit, so small and efficient:

Levi is close to the airport, and there's a regular bus (15€) that runs after flights to the hotels:

For more skiing stories, check out the

This article was originally published in the Planetskier Blogspot article series.