Once again I am roaming on a narrow forest road closed by a gate. This time it’s only for keeping the cars out. This seems like a pretty popular jogging area. Of course now there weren’t many joggers, as it was still raining pretty heavily.
On the top of the hill was this fabulous concrete structure. And I really mean fabulous. I’ve seen it in pictures and have adored its sleek construction. Visiting the windowed area up there has been my plan for a long time.
This of course is a ski jumping hill. Completed in 1968, changes in ski jumping gear and technicues had made its profile outdated and the entire construction obsolete by the 1990’s. The last jumps were made in 1995.
The city has been planning to demolish the tower for ages, but so far they haven’t allocated money for it. So it has just stood there.
Gaining access up was however impossible. Not only had the door been boarded shut, it had also been welded shut to keep trespassers away. A graffiti in the memory of ski jumper Matti Nykänen had been made on the foot of the tower. It was pretty new during my visit, as Nykänen passed away only a bit more than a year earlier.
The refereeing tower of the hill was demolished later in 2020 and the landing area in 2021. The tower was on the list of buildings to be demolished in 2022, but there were no funds to do that. Young right wing politicians in the city want the tower to be preserved.