Kontiolahti

A lap of Kontiolahti

1. Cross the western heath

Leave the shared stadium straight to the west and sweep toward the north-west corner. The opening bends carry you across gently rolling heath before turning back east around the hollows. Find a steady line here; the lap has more climbing than its low horizon first suggests.

2. Climb onto the winding ridge

The course rises onto the esker, a long, narrow ridge, then follows its crest toward the south-west. Fans gather near the climb onto it. Carry your speed through the changing direction, and leave some sprint stamina in reserve rather than treating this first raised section as the lap’s main effort.

3. Loop around toward the lake

Drop off the ridge’s end and travel east along the southern part of the map, past more hollows. The trail rises to the lake bank, bends away around the south-east and only then drops toward the shore. This extended loop gives you time to rebuild stamina before the final climb.

4. Take the Wall to the stadium

Follow the lakeshore before turning uphill on the eastern bank. The Wall climbs directly back toward the stadium, with spectators beside the slope and stands above. On a shooting lap, remember what follows the crest: a hard sprint here can leave the rifle swaying when you arrive at the mat.

What to look out for

The Wall

The final bank is the course’s signature climb. Its specially configured steep section gives the return a different feel from the rolling heath, making the last approach to the stadium an effort of its own.

A ridge among the hollows

The esker and the surrounding kettle-hole depressions shape the western half of the game map. You ski up and along the raised spine before dropping back into the lower terrain.

Cabins on the stony shore

Red wooden cabins sit around the lake, with clusters of boulders along its edge. They give the shore a different texture from the pine forest and help mark the lower ground beneath the stadium bank.

Blue-and-white support

Finnish flags and home-colour outfits distinguish the crowd. Look for fans near the ridge climb and beside the Wall, where the quieter forest lap gives way to the final uphill push.

At the shooting range

Kontiolahti’s range has a moderate configured crosswind, with gusts that change its strength. Check the flags and wind display on every visit; each shooting stage draws a fresh base wind. Aim into the wind and allow arrival fatigue to settle, especially after sprinting up the Wall. The shared range has five targets at 50 metres, and each miss means another 150-metre penalty loop.

Snow, weather and light

Choose any of the six weather presets, thin, normal or deep snow cover, and a day or evening start. With conditions left random, normal cover is the most likely here and evening has an even chance of being selected. Thin snow reveals more ground between the pines; deep cover softens the shore and forest floor. Fog and falling snow change how far ahead you can read the scenery, while evening brings the floodlit stadium into focus.

Take it into your next race

• Save sprint stamina for the Wall; the ridge is an earlier effort, not the end of the climbing.
• Use the southern loop to recover stamina before dropping to the lakeshore and starting the final bank.
• After the Wall, let the aim settle and read the current crosswind before firing your first shot.

Open race setup and select Kontiolahti to try this venue in sprint or mass start.