Skistar Åre, Jamtland and Harjedalen, Sweden

3TlaT 5:00 PM Jan 11, 2020

Some good, some not so good
Let me caveat my review by saying I’ve not skied in Europe since 2008 and since 2009 have only skied in Canada. We were mainly in Björnen as our original hotel, the Fjällgården had messed up our booking, and we had intended to ski mostly in Åre By. Björnen was great for beginners, lots of nursery slopes and t-bars/button lifts. There’s one chair lift at Björnen but it stops frequently and on one of the days of our trip it was closed until after 1 due to high winds. I was quite surprised not to see someone outside the lift cabin supervising, people were left to get on with getting on & off the chair by themselves, which did cause issues. In particular my husband was knocked off the chair by someone who zoomed into the line from the cabin channel without thinking about where to go. Quite a distressing incident. It was common to see people not clearing the unload space at the top either. Piste marking is a bit haphazard, you need to memorise the map to ensure you don’t get lost or find yourself on a run you didn’t want to take. The picture below doesn’t show the blue run straight down the middle, between the blue and the red you could pick up further downp. Grooming is also a bit erratic and I was surprised the easier slopes weren’t groomed everyday, particularly after a big dump of snow. There seems to be nothing on the Ski star website to indicate what’s been groomed and what hasn’t. In the main red runs aren’t too steep but they can be icy. We had been told Åre was quiet. While the lift queues weren’t long, I found some of the pistes very busy and quite a number of people skiing/boarding faster than their skill level warranted. There’s no ski patrol to deal with safety issues or injuries that occur on the hill. The village of Åre is very pretty and we had some splendid meals there. English is widely spoken. One of the big differences I noticed however between North America and Åre was there is ice everywhere, it’s not routinely cleared away and you therefore find yourself slipping about quite a bit, rather unnerving in ski boots and I now have a mango-sized lump on my thigh following an avoidable tumble. It’s also expensive. It wasn’t unusual to spend around £30 on lunch for two for nothing over the top, such as two bowls of soup and coffee or a couple of toasties. There is nowhere cheap although in the main most of the on-mountain food we sampled was great.

3SwedishCouplebaby 5:00 PM Apr 6, 2021

Local ski club kids cutting long lines during Covid-19 pandemic
Spending Easter break in Åre where everything is very well arranged to decrease the risk of spreading COVID-19. This unfortunately causes long lines to get up on the mountain where all the tourists are waiting patiently. Understand our, two adults and two daughters 4 and 7, disappointment when we see local kids from the local Åre ski club happily cutting the long lines. We told the kids and asked them to wait in line as everyone else where doing. We even happened to run in to one of their parents, but the kids did not apologize nor went back to where they were supposed to be. Really bad PR for Åre slalomclub and for Åre as a ski resort.