Nordic Breeze | Iberian Seas

At the end of January I went on a ski trip to Åre with about ten of my friends from my program. Åre is one of Sweden’s best resorts for downhill/alpine skiing and it’s a particular favorite of students. We took an overnight train from Stockholm to Åre (about an eight hour ride). I paid a bit extra to get a bed in a tiny cabin that slept six people – two bunkbeds with top, middle, and bottom bunks. It was pretty comfortable and definitely an improvement over sleeping in a regular seat which is what most of our group did. As an American, it is amazing to me that we could take a train to a ski resort!

We skied for four days, which was just the right amount. We had a mix of some people who have skied for years, some who had been once or twice, and some who were trying skiing for the very first time. Åre had a variety of runs of different difficulties so there was something for everyone. I discovered that here they have green, blue, red, and black runs – I had never skied somewhere with the red classification before. I was comfortable skiing everything except the black runs so I was able to explore a lot of the mountain and I think we tried almost every run. I did try one black run but ended up slipping on ice at the top and rolling down the vast majority of the run uncontrollably, losing skis and poles in the process and gaining a few bruises. My friends helped me get my gear back and I brushed myself off. Not to be deterred, I tried the run again in the afternoon. Unfortunately the exact same thing happened again.

One fun thing about being this far north in January is that the sun didn’t rise until 9 AM and it set at 3:30 PM. The sun stays very low in the sky even at solar noon and you end up getting very long and beautiful sunrises and sunsets. This also meant that the majority of the slopes were only open from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM which made for a relatively short skiing day (at least compared to what I’m used to). We were lucky enough to have a cabin where we could ski out onto a green slope which was super convenient. We also had the option to take a bus over to a different area with red slopes, some of which had lighting so they were able to open earlier and stay open later.

We had a whole lot of fun skiing together and enjoying the beautiful area! Some of my favorite moments were skiing under the amazing sunrises, skiing through the children’s zones with a whole cast of friendly bears, a wonderful fika at the summit, and seeing a herd of reindeer!

On our last day in Åre we took an evening train back to Stockholm so we got to spend the morning exploring the town. Our first stop was the Åre Chokladfabrik (chocolate factory) for some amazing hot chocolate. I took a nice long walk down by the lake, where I saw someone out kite-skiing on the ice.

This was such a fun trip! I will actually be going back to Åre in June with my choir so I’m excited to see the area in the summer too.