It's not just Ruka. There super tiny hills all over Finland that have parks open all afternoon and way in to the night. Some of the ones I hit up in the south had some of the worst conditions and most terrifying setups I've ever seen: sheet ice, sketch set up rails + pretty big jumps with super narrow takeoffs/landings and 30ft vertical drops either side. (Not including Serena, that was pretty dope). So basically you get good real quick or you go home in an ambulance. That and like Rodigan said, there's fuck all else to do some places.
So you lap the small, icy hill of doom for 4-5 hours a day and lo and behold it breeds a fucked up level of skier. And then, because there is next to no backcountry or even a higher level of parks the next step is hit the streets. And the factor there is you more or less don't get kicked out of any spots. Street is such a different game that being able to hit spots consistently is a massive advantage for your skills. And the aforementioned parks were as or more scary than the street stuff in my experience which means you just get on with it.
It's already happened in snowboarding but yeah, Suomi is coming and there's nothing we can do.
