Nordic Skating diary

Condition of our long nordic skating track may change rapidly, even during the same day. The tracks are maintained every day (outside heavy snowfall days). Usually skating tracks opens end of December/start of January and closes around end of March. See routes from Winter Routes map.

MON 20.1. ALL ROUTES OPEN

All routes open (15 km) and perfect ice!

Sun 19.1. at 10

12 km open today! Tomorrow all routes.

SAT 18.1. FORECASTED CHANGED, TOMORROW IS POSSIBLE

Forecast now shows a freezing night for next night with wind - this might be enough to restart skatings on sunday already! We will skate the rates and report around 9 am.

FRI 17.1. ROUTE CLOSED, SKATING CONTINUES ON MONDAY

It was -2 degrees last night and there was little amount of water on routes, which are now lightly freezed: Skating is not possible today. This means that skatings continuing needs an "enough" freezing night, as its partially freezed and impossible to skate. This weather seems to happen on sunday-monday night, so our estimate is that on monday the skatings continue!

WINTER SWIMMING AND PUBLIC SAUNA: Public sauna heated every day on our shore! See sauna times from here.
WINTER CYCLING: Rent an E-bike and head to ridge trails (Topeliuksen Polku 3km /Takaharjun lenkki 1,7km) or to tree arboretum park (5 km Puulajireitti)!
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING: Tracks open!
EQUIPMENT RENTALS: Between 10-15 daily

THU 16.1.

Despite warm, great situation today! Friday unsure and especially saturday-sunday because lack of cold nights.

WED 15.1. SITUATION

Ice is perfect at the moment, all routes open! Following days are warm without freezing nights - we expect that tomorrow thursday no affect to ice. Friday-Sunday is very unsure at the moment and cannot yet be forecasted. Day-by-day.

MON 13.1. GOOD SITUATION + FOLLOWING DAYS

Tracks now and today good, 15 km open. Following days are warm, lot of maintenance is done to keep prevent water to come to routes on first days. Should not affect skatings on tuesday and wednesday. After this its day-by-day, depending on nightly temperatures. Track map from here.

Tracks, start from southpoint of island (900m from rental).

Southpoint - Siplahti (6 km back forth)
Kaarnalahti route 2 km
Valkialampi route 2 km
Haataansaari island route 5 km

FRI 10.1. ALL ROUTES OPEN!

All routes open now and good condition!

Thu 9.1. 12 km open

Lot of snow but majority of routes open and nice condition! Work continues.

WED 8.1. SNOWSTORM

No skatings today due to snowstorm. Daily work continues on ice, tomorrow better day.

SAT 4.1. EXCELLENT ICE SITUATION, 15 KM OPEN

15 km of tracks open and overall situation is good: Mostly the ice is really good, always some bumpy sections despite daily maintenance. Track map from here.

Tracks, start from southpoint of island (900m from rental).

Southpoint - Siplahti (6 km back forth)
Kaarnalahti route 2 km
Valkialampi route 2 km
Haataansaari island route 5 km

WINTER SWIMMING AND PUBLIC SAUNA: Public sauna heated every day on our shore! See sauna times from here.
WINTER CYCLING: Rent an E-bike and head to ridge trails (Topeliuksen Polku 3km /Takaharjun lenkki 1,7km) or to tree arboretum park (5 km Puulajireitti)!
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING: Not recommended before next weeks snowfall
EQUIPMENT RENTALS: Between 10-15 daily

TUE 31.12. ROUTES OPEN

12 km of routes and great condition! On thursday most likely all 15 km of routes open. These new tracks demand some work.

MON 30.12. TOMORROW IS SKATING DAY, FORECAST OF WEEK

at 11.30: Correction for this day, today route closed! Water on top of routes started to freeze already. Lets not break the surface. Tomorrow a good skating day!

at 9: Despite rain and heavy wind, ice looks great, limited amount of water on top of routes. Should be no problem. Based on forecast, we expect great conditions starting from tomorrow morning. Few uncertainties still, we will inform in the morning.

Right now 10 km of routes and the goal is to check and mark all of the routes that are not open yet, during tomorrow 31.12. Rest of the week: Should be very steady conditions!

SAT 28.12.

Routes open and great icet! 10 km of skating tracks open and steady conditions!

Fri 27.12. TOMORROW PERHAPS SKATING DAY!

At 12: Very thin layer of water under the ice top surface, not skatable today as this water layer has to freeze. When it freezes, there is plenty of ice and has been for two weeks already. Limited amount of cold for next night, our estimate is now, that it is enough. We will know for sure in the morning, try to inform here at 9.00.

Very unsual and beautiful ice surface!

At 10: Skatings unlikely today. Water that hasen rosen to routes are not fully frozen yet. We will go round the routes in the next hours and inform.

MONDAY 23.12. AT 11 WET CONDITIONS, TODAY STILL SKATABLE | CHRISTMAS WEEK

Due to rain and warm, water has rosen to routes faster than expected. Routes are still skatable today (ice surface is hard), but as time goes on, more water will rise to routes which makes it unskatable. Our expectation is that on 24.12. routes are skatable, but very wet conditions.

Routes will most likely be unskatable 25.-26.12. with this weather forecast, days after this are unsure (depend on water amount on routes and freezing temperatures). There is limited freezing temperatures forecasted for end of week, but unsure if its enough.

CHRISTMAS WEEK ACTIVITIES
WINTER SWIMMING AND PUBLIC SAUNA: Public sauna heated every day (except 25.12) on our shore! See sauna times from here.
WINTER CYCLING: Rent an E-bike and head to ridge trails (Topeliuksen Polku 3km /Takaharjun lenkki 1,7km) or to tree arboretum park (5 km Puulajireitti)!
SNOWSHOIENG: Recommended in tree arboretum routes, with some snow
EQUIPMENT RENTALS: Between 10-15 (except 25.12. when we are closed)
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING: Skiing is possible (freestyle/withouth lanes), but a little amount of snow is needed to to prepare the actual skiing lanes for classic style skiing. Maintenance situation from here.

23.12.2024 - water roses to routes, but still skatable today.

SAT 21.12. good, 10 KM!

Good ice situation! As forecasts are changing for the following week: A reminder to all followers, that when the night is under zero degrees, that usually means quite stable skating situation. When conditions change, we will inform.

Tracks at the moment, start from southpoint of island (900m from rental).

Southpoint - Vaahersalo bridge (1,5 km back forth)
Kaarnalahti route 2 km
Valkialampi route 2 km
Haataansaari island 5 km (back forth)

Additional routes cannot yet be opened, as its early in ice season.
Note that there is no track maintenance on 25.12., as its the only day we are closed.

WINTER SWIMMING & SAUNA: Everyday in our shore!
WINTER CYCLING & SNOWSHOIENG is possible
EQUIPMENT RENTAL: Between 10-15
CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING: Skiing is possible (freestyle/withouth lanes), but a little amount of snow is needed to to prepare the actual skiing lanes for classic style skiing. Maintenance situation from here.

Thu 19.12. open

Despite snowstorm, routes open! Same 10 km as earlier. We expect that fridays rain does not affect greatly, so saturday should be a nice skating day!

Tue 17.12. SEASON STARTS TOMORROW! 10 KM OF TRACKS

Skating season starts tomorrow, 10 km of tracks! Work was able to be started yesterday and tomorrow wednesday 18.12. is the first day of skatings. Note that during tomorrow benches etc. items will be put on place and we will focus on cleaning the routes we were able to open today, but you can come in the morning. Rentals from restaurant.

Tracks at the moment, start from southpoint of island (900m from rental).

Southpoint - Vaahersalo bridge (1,5 km back forth)
Kaarnalahti route 2 km
Valkialampi route 2 km
Haataansaari island 5 km (back forth)

Surface of ice is quite good! We cannot yet bring to the ice the ice cutter (which makes the surface cleaner and better), but quite nice condition. :)

13.12. very promising, season starts next week?

Very positive situation at the ice. Lot of snow coming on weekend. If all goes well we are able to start pushing the snow away from ice on monday! We will see on monday but we expect to open the season early next week at the moment.

During Christmas and New Year, restaurant and rental open daily (expect 25.12. when we are closed), check opening hours from here.

11.12. winter starts

Promising forecasts regarding cold temperatures. Could be possible that season could start before christmas. We will most likely have a better estimate on friday.

5.12. First ice

Lakes froze last night! Fingers crossed that the icing continues before big snow amounts - with luck the season might start quite soon.

27.11.2024 Waiting for the NEW season

Waiting for the skating season! On this page updates will be written when start of season approaches and during season we give information of whats the route situation and quality. Previous diarys and statistics of maintenance below.

When does the skating season / winter start? Check statistics of previous winters from diary below. Our promise in Punkaharju is, that we do absolutely everything possible on a weekly basis to keep the skating tracks open - for the last 18 years already! Circumstances change on ice depending on weeks temperature and work is daily throughout the winter.

Skating diary of past winters

Mostly regarding nordic skating tracks, but also information about cross-country skiing and other routes.

Skating diary of 2023-2024 winter
Skating diary of 2022-2023 winter
Skating diary of 2021-2022 winter
Skating diary of 2020-2021 kept only in finnish
Skating diary of 2019-2020 winter
Skating diary of 2018-2019 winter
Skating diary of 2017-2018 winter
Skating diary 2015-2016 and 2016-2017

Lenghts of past seasons

2023-2024: Start 4.1.2024, end of maintenance end of March
2022-2023: Start 4.1.2023, end of maintenance start of April
2021-2022: Start 23.12.2022, end of maintenance early April
2020-2021: Start 8.1.2021, end of maintenance was end of March
2019-2020: Start 1.1.2020, end of maintenance was Mid March
2018-2019: Start 12.12.2018, end of maintenance Mid March
2017-2018: Start 12.1.2018, end of maintenance early April
2016-2017: Start 19.12, end of maintenance Mid March.
2015-2016: Start 29.12., end of maintenance end of March
2012-2013: Start 28.12., end of maintenance early April