Temperatures may have reached the -20s in Lapland where the number daylight hours are also dropping fast, but more than six-weeks after the ski season got underway in Finland using snow-farming, Scandinavia’s big name ski areas have also started opening.
These include five of the largest resorts in the region, operated by the SkiStar group, who say they’ve been opening ahead of schedule thanks to cold weather over the past month creating optimal conditions for snowmaking, along with natural snowfall.
SkiStar’s Vemdalen and Sälen opened for the season in early November and more recently the region’s largest, Åre in Sweden (pictured above last week) as well as Norway’s Trysil have opened. Other famous names in Scandinavian skiing including Geilo, Idre Fjall and Kvitfjell are also now open and Hemsedal opens on the 24th November.
“We are very happy to be able to open this early. With the Christmas holidays around the corner, the pressure to book will increase significantly. We are happy to see more British people are choosing Scandinavia for skiing this winter,” says Stefan Sjöstrand, CEO of SkiStar, noting that the current exchange rate is favourable to buyers using pounds sterling.
SkiStar has invested in two new express lifts for the winter season, one in Sälen and one in Hemsedal. In addition, the company has made large investments in snow-making systems over several years, which the aim of reassuring British guests they’re safe to pre-book their skiing holiday. To provide extra security and be completely unique, SkiStar offers its guests a completely free snow guarantee when pre-booking a skiing holiday.