Hire shop

If you are looking for an unconventional experience, you should definitely try riding our kicksleds. For this year’s season (2021/2022), we have prepared for you top-quality Finnish kicksleds made by Kickspark. These are great not only for a simple downhill run, but also as a training device for improving your condition and endurance.

Price of hire

• KICKSLEDS / ONE RIDE – 220 Kč
• KICKSLEDS / ONE RIDE (from 3 pcs) – 190 Kč
• bobsleighs or sledges / one day – 70 Kč

Route of the run

• the run starts at the hire shop, which you’ll find opposite the upper chairlift station, and it descends 5.8 km along the Princes Way (Knížecí cesta) to the lower station, where you can return the kicksled
• one ride takes about 20–40 minutes, the time-limit for your downhill run is 1 hour

Kicksleds

The first kicksleds (ketkupolkka) began appearing in Finland and Sweden in the first half of the 19th century.

It was a simply constructed means of transport, consisting essentially of two sliding surfaces (runners), the ends of which served as a running board for the standing leg. The construction allowed you to grip the sled at waist height and propel yourself forward by kicking the ground with your other leg between the runners.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, the Finnish army began equipping their soldiers with kicksleds as the most effective alternative means of transport to take on leave. Today, this traditional means of transport is primarily used by children and the elderly.

The basic design of the kicksled has survived all the way through the 20th century. Nevertheless, the first steps towards modernisation were made in 1985, when a 20-year-old medical student and orienteer, Hannu Vierikko, began looking for a new training method and way to improve his physical condition, especially his endurance at speed. His experimenting with various possible and impossible types of transport also led him to the kicksled, which he set about redesigning in every way he could think of. In 1991 the wood was replaced by steel and aluminium, and now these machines are being ridden right up until today.