The first X Games League winter finals are at Ruka on 9–11 April 2027. Where the events are, what a lift ticket covers and which slopes close.
Big Air and Knuckle Huck are watched from X Fest at the ski stadium on Friday and Saturday. On Sunday a lift ticket is enough for the Saarua finals.
X Games will hold the championship finals of its first MoonPay X Games League winter season at Ruka Ski Resort in Kuusamo on 9–11 April 2027. According to Ruka and X Games, it is the first major X Games winter competition in Finland; the earlier European winter editions were held in France and Norway.
The season opens in Aspen, Colorado, on 29–31 January and continues in Calgary, Canada, on 19–21 February. Ruka decides the championship. Skiers and snowboarders compete in Superpipe, Big Air, Slopestyle and Knuckle Huck, with women’s and men’s events in each.
The events use three areas of Ruka: the ski stadium, Saarua and Vuosseli. On Friday and Saturday the ski stadium hosts X Fest, where Big Air and Knuckle Huck can be watched alongside the music programme, and the electronic duo Adriatique plays on Saturday night. On Sunday the championship ends on the Saarua slopes.
Friday and Saturday: an event ticket gets you into the X Fest area at the ski stadium. Tickets are sold through Ticketmaster, and sales opened on 16 September 2026.
Slopestyle and Superpipe: a valid lift ticket is enough to watch from the fell, between your own runs.
Sunday: no event ticket is needed. A valid lift ticket covers the finals on Saarua.
Children under six get in free with an adult who has a ticket.
Ruka’s slopes and lifts stay open as normal during X Games, except the courses and slope areas used for the competitions: the Superpipe, the Slopestyle course, the Saarua 14 slope and the Big Air area at the bottom of the FIS slope. Those areas may have restrictions and special arrangements while the event runs.
Ruka’s lifts are scheduled to run from 2 October 2026 to 2 May 2027, so the competition weekend falls three weeks before the lifts close for the season.
Kuusamo Airport is about 30 minutes from Ruka. The airport bus to Ruka is booked in advance, and taxis run too. Ride-hailing apps such as Uber and Lyft do not operate in Ruka-Kuusamo, so at the busiest times it is worth booking a taxi ahead. According to Ruka-Kuusamo, the destination has 12,000 guest beds in hotels, holiday apartments and cabins.
Ruka already hosts FIS World Cup competitions in ski jumping, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined, moguls and aerials. In a guest column in Koillissanomat on 27 September, Tessa Suopanki, marketing manager of the Ruka-Kuusamo Tourist Association, wrote that Ruka won the event over Central European Alpine resorts, and that cooperation in the Koillismaa region was behind the win.
The competition schedule, the athletes and the broadcast details will be announced later.
Slopes, lifts and places to stay at Ruka.
Flights, trains and transfers to the Lapland ski resorts.