We visited Pyhä a week after Easter; i.e., 9-13 April 2010. Which turned out to be very good timing. The slopes were in excellent condition, plenty of sunshine, but not too warm to keep the snow skiable.

This was my first visit to the resort and despite all the praising from friends, I was still positively surprised. Definitely one of the best skiing terrains in Finland. This time there was not enough snow left for off-piste tours, but even the slopes kept us busy for 4 days.

We had accommodation in Hotel Pyhätunturi just next to the slopes. The room, service, and breakfast were ok, but definitely not luxurious

The best after-ski was – predictable – in Calsberg House; especially the band on Saturday proved to have good spirit and got everyone of the audience of 30 people in to the dance floor until 2 am. During day time Tsokka provided excellent waffles, soups, and poronkäristys for lunch with very nice service including personal touch from owners

We also tried various restaurants for dinner and verdicts are following:

• Hotel restaurant: ok food, but a bit overpriced, service not in par with expectations
• Huttu Uula pizza was good, a la carte was not inviting
• Huttuhippu provided positive surprise; despite a bit down scale interior, the service and especially food were both excellent and decently priced. Can be recommended.

On the way back from St. Moritz we stayed one night in Zurich – or to be accurate in Kloten Welcome Inn. The hotel was definitely affordable and the room was clean, but cannot be characterized as spacious.

However, the main feature of Kloten we got to know was “no food after 11 pm.” principle, which was implemented very efficiently to all the restaurants of the city – not nice for hungry travellers. In one place the waitress openly laughed us aloud when asked if kitchen was open (around 11:30 pm).

Even the pizzeria, which advertised on the door to be open until 12:00 pm said that no food anymore when we got there around 11:10 pm…

The advice to remember next time: eat dinner in Zurich center before taking train to Kloten in evening!

History repeated itself, just like last year it snowed heavily on the night before the last skiing day. It felt really good to end the trip with full day of pure powder runs! The visibility was quite limited, but the place was already well enough know to avoid bigger cliffs and on the afternoon there were also some moments of sunshine, which helped to get couple of really good runs!

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Sami Uskela
from Nokia N97 mini

Finally some real skiing! Today afternoon we found couple of good lines with soft – and some times even light – snow. However, we are really waiting for the snow forecasted for tomorrow. It would be really nice to end the week with couple of real powder days.

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Sami Uskela
from Nokia N97 mini

waiting for more snow

Originally uploaded by suskela

The snow situation here in St. Moritz could be better, but the sun has been shining and pistes are in perfect shape.

My sunda was spent on watching worldcup super-G and horse polo on ice @ St. Moritz. Both were nice to see, but I still prefer skiing myself. The lunch place in Chantarella was truly excellent – probably the best ravioli I have ever tasted. Menu included also oysters and lobster…

The first real alpine turns of the season got done then on monday. Mostly on piste and not too much to tell. However, terrain looked promising in Corvatch. Just add some light snow

Today we explored the Diavolezza area, which also would have been good with better snow. The last run on the back side turned out to be truly exiting featuring few good turns in soft snow and couple of misses in navigation leading to ca. 45 min climb in deep snow to find suitable path between the rocks. Further adrenaling was generated due to steep but narrow passages included to the route – the whole thing looked much clearer on the map…

Anyhow, some new snow should be on the way. Maybe the end of the week would be more rewarding.
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Sami Uskela
from Nokia N97 mini