Indoor Ski Halls

Indoor Ski Halls


Indoor facilities specifically laid out for cross country skiing are called halls or tunnels. There are several of these in Europe, but sadly none in the UK. Yet!  Entries below are in alphabetical order of country.

Video of Finnfoam Paippi Ski Tunnel

Courtesy of Ron Carmichael

The Finnfoam Paippi ski tunnel is centrally located with good transport links. The tunnel is in Paimio, near the E18 highway between Turku and Helsinki


Part of the ski tunnel runs alongside the highway, higher up in the terrain.  The length of the circuit is 700 ms with an internal width of 6 ms and a height of 4 ms. The main straight of the ski tunnel is 12 ms wide. The snow in the ski tunnel is coarse-grained cannon snow and the snow temperature is around -3°C and the inside temperature of the ski tunnel is slightly below freezing.


There is a cafe, a ski rental shop, bathrooms and a sauna and lockers.


Due to the rising cost of energy prices, the hall will be closed from Autumn 2023. I have left the previous details on here for information in the hopes that it might reopen at some point.


The Helsinki indoor ski hall is at Savikiekontie 4, 00940 Helsinki. Kivikko is 15 minutes from the centre of Helsinki and Helsinki-Vantaa airport. A basic circuit of the ski track is 850 metres, with the additional loop adding another 200 metres. The width of the tracks is 6-8 metres. The Ski Hall is home to a range of services, including a café in the foyer, gym, a ski rental and other winter hobby opportunities and experiences in Winter World.


The skiing season starts as early as late September to mid winter in the Kivikko Ski Hall and makes skiing possible during the mild and largely snow-less early winter. The Kivikko Hall will be open for as long as there is no proper winter with heavy snowfall in Helsinki and before outdoor ski tracks can be prepared.




Vuokatti have taken the decision to close its ski tunnel for the 2023 season.


They have invested in a new roller ski track available from June 2023, and will concentrate on stockpiling more snow to enable outside snow skiing as early as 14th October each year.


This decision was taken because of the lack of use of skiing in the tunnel during the summer months.

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    Oberhof ski hall track layout

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    Main arena looking towards the red circuit

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    The red loop, one way - starting from the right

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    The blue track on the left

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    The blue track on the right

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    Pension Waldschlösschen

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Now known as the Lotto Thüringen Skisport Halle, Oberhof ski hall, which has to be the best indoor nordic centre of its kind and is the only cross country ski hall in Central Europe. It has a ski run of 1.6 km if skied continuously, is maintained at a constant -4˚C, and includes a biathlon range.


It is situated in the Thüringen forest within a 3 hour drive of Frankfurt airport, where van/car hire is possible. There are several hotels nearby including the recommended Pension Waldschlösschen which is a 5 minute drive from the tunnel.


Oberhof town is within easy walking distance of most hotels, and has restaurants, supermarket, bakery and several ski shops for rental equipment, and those all important nordic purchases you can't get at home.  Ski rental is also available at the ski hall, along with other essentials.


There is a roller ski track nearby, but mostly used by elite skiers.


Thanks to Des Goff for Waxing tips - use either Swix universal glide or Swix LF7 (violet) or any other violet in the -3 to -7 range. VR75 is recommended by the on-site shop for kick wax. Iron onto a blue blister kick wax base and apply hard wax or  rough up the kick zone with some sandpaper first, clean it off, rub in a good layer of Green base wax, VR30 and then iron that in, let it cool off and then rub it in another thin layer or two, then put the VR75 on just rubbing it in.

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    Arial view of the facility. Photo Magnus Linnestad

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    Suspended nordic area. Photo Killian Munch

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    Centre layout. Photo Snow-online.com

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Snø is the indoor ski centre near Oslo which opened in 2020. It is approximately 500 x 100 metres, with an elevation difference of 90 metres. It claims it's the largest centre in Europe.


It's built into the hillside in Lørenskog, about 20 kms (12 miles) north east of downtown Oslo. It has a mix of alpine and cross country areas, and the nordic track is 1.5km long and on a mezzanine floor suspended from the ceiling. You can pay for a day pass and they have equipment rental. It is open Tuesday to Sunday from 06.00 - 18.00 for July/August (closed Mondays) and Tuesday to Friday 06.00 - 21.00 and Weekends 06.00 - 18.00 from 28th August (2023).



The Thon Hotel Snø is located right next door for an easy place to stay during your visit.

Video of the Planica ski tunnel

The Planica Nordic Centre covers 100,000 m2 of sports terrain, where 7 ski jumping hills take centre stage.  It opened in November 2016 and the indoor cross country ski facility is 800 ms split over 3 levels in a car park layout. The snow temperature is 1°C with under floor cooling only, and no air cooling, making the air more humid and not too dry. Snow is stored from the previous winter and could be a mixture of man made and natural snow.


It's groomed with 1 classic track and the rest left for skating. There is space for drills as well as circuits and some hill work. Generally the inclines are not too steep but the corners are fairly tight so useful to practice short down hills with cornering at the bottom. The whole course took an intermediate skier at an average pace about 3.5 minutes to classic and 2.25 minutes to skate and the video of the layout is on your left. The facility is open in the summer.  Once the snow comes in November they make a trail using the nearby rollerski track and the ski hall closes as there is enough snow to ski outside.


The roller ski track formed part of the World Cup cross country course in January 2016 so is rather challenging and not suitable for beginners. There is also a 25 km cycle track for roller skiing between Mojstrana and Rateče and continues in Italy.

More information on how to get there and surrounding area.



The Torsby Ski Tunnel is Sweden's first ski tunnel, inaugurated on 16 June 2006, and is 1.3 km long, 8 m wide and 4 m high.

It is located in Torsby, a 30-minute drive from Sunne – Fryksdalen. It is kept at -3 degrees celsius, and you can see the condition of the tracks here.




Gällö is about 40 km east of Östersund and Mid Sweden 365 opened in the autumn of 2017. The world´s longest ski tunnel at 1.4 km is an arena at -4 degrees for skiing all year round. There are special areas for biathlon, waxing tests and ski cross. The tunnel was formerly a military warehouse situated in the mountains. The tunnel is open from 1 June to 31 December, and has capacity for 200 people an hour.





This ski hall sits under the floor of a big indoor sports complex below two football pitches. It would be better for beginners as the longest stretch is about 100 ms and there are a lot of turns.


Getting there is relatively easy and facilities in the complex are very good and include a hotel on the upper floors.

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