Ounasvaara Ski Club
Before the sport events on Ounasvaara Hill, ski competitions were organized on the even, frozen surface of the Kemi River. The Pohjantähti III Temperance League arranged the first cross-country ski competition on Ounasvaara in 1923, but the first real Ounasvaara Winter Games were organized in 1927. During the same year, the Ounasvaara Ski Club was established. Besides skiing, the club has practised and competed in other kinds of mountain sports. The ski jump was completed in 1927, the founding year of the club.
The ski club also acquired some land area for its use. As its first task, it purchased the area of the Juhannuskallio Cliffs from the Finlandia Travel Agency. There were plans within the club to build a ski lodge in the area. This was indeed carried out, but only subsequent to the end of the war, in the autumn of 1949. During the same period, an open-air dance floor was also built on Ounasvaara Hill. There had been a pavilion in the area even in its earliest days. It was situated within the vicinity of the firing range, where the ski stadium was also constructed.
Land of the Arctic Circle
--------------------------Mountain of the
Midnight Sun
--------------------------Finland’s Klondike
--------------------------From sleigh rides to the
age of the Concorde
--------------------------The nearest real hotel
--------------------------Santa Claus Land
--------------------------A city called by many
names - and the heroes
take the spoils
--------------------------
