Vihti Ski Center, located in Ojakkala, Vihti, is widely known among winter sports enthusiasts in southern Finland. The ski centre has been open since 1984 and has been offering the thrill of speed for generations. Since 2007, the company has been run by Sami Uotila, a second-generation entrepreneur who has made a name for himself as an alpine skier. Uotila will now tell us more about the decades of development and the main milestones along the way.
Ski centre for the whole family - a long-standing provider of sports activities for children and young people
Vihti Ski Center was born in the early 1980s, when the big skiing boom hit Finland. The company's founder Juhani Uotila had been running several large slope centres further north through the Tourist Board, and recognised the need for a good ski centre in southern Finland too.
An ideal location for the ski centre was found in Vihdi, which was close enough to the capital but far enough away from the temperate sea climate of the coastal region.
The starting point was clear from the beginning - the slope centre would serve skiers of all ages and levels, while also creating good training conditions for competitive alpine skiers.
Other winter sports were not forgotten either, and Vihti Ski Center was once the first ski resort to offer snowboarders a snow chute half-pipe for tricks. This provided a good training ground for many snowboarders coming up from Vihti.
- We have expanded and developed a lot over the decades. In 2010-2011, for example, we significantly expanded our network of parallels. We also acquired Finland's first carpet lift, of which there are now three. The illuminated and covered tunnel lift is the latest major investment.
The range has also been extended with the WinterPark for families, which includes children's winter bouncy castles, a tuba hill, reindeer and ice sculptures. Since 2008, we have also had a snow-covered cross-country ski trail, allowing enthusiasts to open the ski season before the natural snow.
I think it would be great if every Finn had basic skills in both skiing and downhill skiing. We offer free season tickets to all 1st-2nd graders in Vihti municipality. Over the years, increasing gaming technology has taken the place of recreational physical sports, so I think the best way to ensure that everyone has the basic skills for these winter sports would be to define their basic education as part of the curriculum," says Uotila.
Modern snowmaking allows for a long season
Throughout the years, Vihti Ski Center has invested in modern slope maintenance technology to ensure excellent skiing conditions in its southern location.
In recent years, snowmaking on slopes has also been complemented by advanced snow retention, where Finnfoam insulators and covers preserve the snow collected at the end of the season over the summer season with minimal loss.
- For example, in the period 23-24, a total of 30,000 m³ of silage was recorded on two slopes. This will allow the ski slope and the main slope to be opened early in the coming season," says Uotila.
The future objective is to develop year-round activities
Uotila also has ideas for the future. The most important of these are related to the development of year-round activities.
- It is clear that at some point we replaced the anchor lifts with more modern ones. At the moment the alternatives are chair lifts, but the lift industry is evolving and we will see what the future holds for lifts.
In the future, we will certainly expand our summer activities. Now we have the Vihti Golf Center and PuuhaPark, run by my brother Janne Uotila. In the future, I would like us to have, for example, a year-round restaurant with a panoramic view at the top of the slope - a panoramic place like you won't find anywhere else in southern Finland.
At some point in the future, we may also have a bike park built on our slopes for downhill cycling enthusiasts, Uotila says.
Location in Vihti supports good accessibility
According to Uotila, Vihti offers a good and relatively easy location for ski resort activities, close to the capital region.
Vihti Ski Center has further strengthened this accessibility by offering a direct bus service from the centre of Helsinki to the ski centre and back during the winter season on Saturdays and during ski holidays.
- It is also great that our ideas for promoting youth skiing have been well received in the municipality of Vihti, and we have even considered the possibility of the municipality being involved in some way in the future," Uotila says.
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