Snowboarding in Åre

We have visited Åre, Sweden several times but this weekend was my first opportunity to go snowboarding there. I caught a ride with a very cool Swede from work and his friend. The weather was perfect and I even had the opportunity to purchase some bacon before we headed home. However, if you are a snowboarder you should be wary of any invitations to go skiing with Swedes.

Based on my experiences I'm pretty sure that the word Åre is Swedish for 'to stand in line.' Notice the huge line of people to the right of the ski lift (this is near the top of the mountain, not the main lift). There were similar lines for toilets, restaurants, etc.

We took one practice run and then the Swedes wanted to hike to the top of the mountain and make some fresh tracks on the backside. They put synthetic animal skins on their skis to add traction and make the skis function as snowshoes. I was on a snowboard so I just had to stomp through ankle-deep snow for 20 minutes while dragging my board, jacket, and helmet uphill (that's the main ski lift in the distance).

The backside of the mountain had great snow and plenty of space to make new tracks. Unfortunately, when we got to the bottom there was about a kilometer of mostly flat terrain to traverse (those little vertical lines in the distance are people). Gravity makes snowboards work. Walking through waist-deep snow is exhausting.

One of the Swedes lent me an avalanche transponder. You can see 'powder burns' at the top of this hill where they used explosives to trigger a small avalanche as a preventative measure.

Even though the area had received some new snow this week there were still plenty of exposed surfaces. The lack of snow this winter has been hard on the Scandinavians.