Yesterday I wrote a ski resort review of Chamonix. I have been skiing in Chamonix since 1997, almost yearly, and more often than in my local ski resort here in Finland. Chamonix is a great place to ski, especially for so called ski bums. Why do we go skiing so far from Finland? Read this ski resort review of Talma Glacier, my local ski resort and you know why we go skiing in Europe.

Finland is a small country located in Scandinavia, next to Russian border. Despite of the high standard of living, Finnish ski resorts are tiny compared gigantic resorts such as Les 3 Vallée in France. Anyhow, Finnish ski resorts are crowded and popular. Why on Earth? The reason is that skiing is in our veins. We learn to ski when we are two or three years old and we skiing is one our most popular hobbies. It is in our blood.

Finnish alpine skiers, such as Kalle Palander, have shown their skills in the Alpine Skiing World Cup. Also our mogul skiers, cross-country skiers and especially snowboarders and ski jumpers are known world wide. It looks like Finland, which is a small country with only 5 million inhabitants, is able to reach top positions in snow sports. For example Finnish snowboarders, such as Joni Malmi and Jussi Oksanen, belong to the small snowboarding elite. Where do they go training? Where do they develop their awesome skills? In Talma Glacier (5500 cm.). Isn’t is stunning?

Talma Glacier in review

Talma Glacier is a joke. Well, not exactly, but almost. Talma is a little hill located two kilometers from my home. With its 55 meters vertical meters it provides a three-turn slope in which we can spend our Sunday morning. Usually after two runs I get bored and I go drink a coffee. During one day of skiing with my kids I usually drink 17-20 coffees. I can tell you it can be boring sometimes.

Well, world is not that bad. Talma is a tiny ski resorts close to Helsinki, the capitol of Finland. It provides us a great chance to spend weekends with children and to make few turns with skis and boards. Old-school skiing in Talma is a joke, it is just ridiculous. Anyhow, snowboarders and new-school skiers have more fun in Talma, because there is a great park with a couple of nice jumps. You can see snowboarders and new-school skiers sitting and waiting for their turn to make a magic trick. In Talma you can actually see and meet very good snowboarders and skiers, those who can be seen in major new-school skiing and snowboarding movies.

With eight pistes and seven lifts Talma can operate an awesome number of skiers. Every now and then there are great happenings and races in Talma, organized by well-known stars. The next happening will be Eero Ettala Open jam session in January 19th. There is a good ski school in Talma in which your kids can learn the right techniques to ski. Talma ski resort is open from 10 am to 9 pm (in weekends 6 pm) and one day ski pass costs 24 euros. Talma’s free ski buss brings people from Kerava city to the resort. If you do not have your own equipment, you can always rent all needed equipment from ski rental in Talma. If you are interested in shopping, you can do it as well in Talma Glacier. During your day in Talma you can eat and drink in a restaurant, and as usually, you can also spend your after ski in a bar. All this is available in Talma Glacier (5500 cm) in southern Finland. Isn’t this great? This was not all, because you can also go play golf in snow fields..

Talma Glacier is an amazing little ski resort. It provides almost everything you can find from huge ski resorts, except a hotel. Everything is available, except is “miniature size”. Old-school alpine skiing in Talma is purely a joke, but it is a great place for kids to learn skiing. It is also a great place to learn new-school and snowboarding tricks because the snow park in Talma is better than in many bigger ski resorts.

Cold facts of Talma

- 0 inhabitants in the resort
- dozens of thousands of tourists yearly
- 7 ski lifts
- 8 pistes, all easy slopes
- Very good snow park
- Village altitude may be 100 meters, Highest peak Talma Glacier 55 meters
- Ski lifts open from 10 am to 9 pm (weekends 6 pm)
- Ski lift prices: See the latest prices in Talma Glacier website
- Ski rent 1 day 22 euros
- Restaurants 1 and bars 1
- All major credit cards accepted in Finland, no worry
- Websites: TalmaSki.Fi

Images source.