Åre Skiing: Sweden’s World-Class Resort With Terrain, History, and Insights From Olympian Lars-Börje Eriksson

Are ski resort

If you’re searching for a Scandinavian ski destination with world-class terrain, rich ski heritage, and a welcoming mountain community, Åre, Sweden stands above the rest. Often ranked among the best ski resorts in Scandinavia, Åre has hosted multiple FIS World Championships, is a fixture on the World Cup circuit, and has been attracting skiers since 1910—making it one of Europe’s oldest and most charismatic ski areas.

Bulan

Lets Meet Bulan

In the latest Where to Ski episode, host John Morgan is joined by none other than Lars-Börje Eriksson—Swedish alpine legend and Olympic bronze medalist in Super-G  known to all as Bulan. As someone who grew up skiing Åre and went on to race at the highest level, Lars-Börje shares unique insight into what makes Åre exceptional: the versatility of the terrain, the commitment to athlete development, and the deep community roots that continue to define the region today.

Åre is made up of three interconnected ski zones: Åre, Duved, and Björnen. Together they create a full resort experience—modern lifts, charming hotels, vibrant nightlife, and excellent ski-in/ski-out access. With 47 lifts, diverse terrain below and above the tree line, and a season that often stretches into May, Åre offers impressive variety for skiers of all abilities.

Families and beginners gravitate toward Björnen, known for its gentle slopes and outstanding ski schools. Intermediates love the wide groomers and forested runs around Åre By and Duved, which offer great visibility even in the short daylight of midwinter.

But Åre shines brightest for advanced skiers. The VM-area, home to Åre’s World Cup and World Championship races, features steep, high-performance pistes—many of them illuminated for night skiing. Above the tree line, the experience opens up. Off Åreskutan, the region’s high peak, skiers can explore big-mountain terrain, powder fields, and the legendary long route toward Huså, followed by a snowmobile tow back.

Lars-Börje highlights Åre’s unique combination of serious skiing terrain and laid-back Scandinavian spirit. It’s a resort where skiers carve groomers in the morning, while families and holiday skiers enjoy relaxed cruising on the same mountain. That blend of high performance and warm hospitality is what keeps Åre thriving.

Beyond winter, Åre transforms into one of Sweden’s top year-round mountain destinations—mountain biking, hiking, fishing, and lakeside adventure keep the village lively all summer.

With Olympic heritage, world-class skiing, and authentic Scandinavian charm, Åre continues to be one of Europe’s most inspiring—and complete—mountain experiences.

🎧 Listen to the full Åre episode with Lars-Börje Eriksson 

Episode Transcript

Welcome to Where to Ski. I'm your host, John Morgan. Today we go to Sweden.

Grab your skis. We're headed to Are.

Are is one of Scandinavia's oldest and best ski areas and known as the best ski resort in Sweden. It's even been listed as one of the world's best ski areas. Since it opened in 1910, it's been the host of multiple FIS World Championships and is a regular stop on the World Cup Tour. While Are is about in the middle of Sweden, kind of far away from the major cities, it does have a local airport and it's relatively easy to get to.

Once you're there, it's stunning. Three towns that make up Are, right between the mountains and Lake Ågesund. Since the mountains spill into town, all the hotels, restaurants, pretty much everything, are right there.

One hotel even has its own lift. It's convenient for groups and families. Everyone speaks English.

It's awesome. On to the skiing. There are more than a thousand acres of terrain served by 47 lifts to explore over the three areas.

Much of the skiing is below tree level and those spectacular views of the lake just never quit. The main ski area has the greatest variety of slopes, while the Björnen area has been designed for mostly beginners and families. And yes, there's powder.

There's easy access to an expanse of Ostpis terrain with skiing for every level. Today's guest is Lars Borge Eriksson. Boulan is a former member of the Swedish alpine ski team, who won a bronze medal in the Super-G at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary.

He has two World Cup victories, one in Super-G, one in GS. Since then, he's been a board member in private companies, public science parks, incubators, as well as on the World Alpine Championship and World Cup organizing committees. He's also led the Sustainable Destination Development Are all year round.

Boulan knows skiing. He really knows Are. After this quick break, let's talk to Boulan, take a trip to Are, and see what makes this place so special, and see how it skis.

Boulan, welcome to WHERE TO SKI. Thank you for joining us today to talk about Are. And I'm going to butcher your language.

I know I am. There's enough Swedish in here that I know I'm going to butcher it, so keep me straight. Did you grow up in Are? My mother is from Are, and she was a ski racer, so I spent a lot of time there.

I had my grandparents there. And after elementary school, I moved to Are to ski, basically. To ski gymnasium, and then to live and practice my business and living there.

So you've been there for a long time then, basically since you've been a child. That's pretty cool. Everyone in town knows you.

Yeah, pretty much. What's it like driving into Are? It's a huge place, actually. It goes all the way from Dyved and Tajapal all the way to Are.

You've got a lake on one side, you've got the mountains on the other. It must be spectacular. Yeah, it's really nice coming in.

The last 10 km, I would say, when you start seeing the mountain, you actually come down a hill and have a slight right turn, and then the mountain just appears. It's pretty flat around Are, so the mountain is very articulated, so to speak. It stands out from the surroundings.

It feels big. Then, obviously, the lake on the left side, looking down at that. It's a beautiful, beautiful area.

Yeah, it's a homecoming for every skier. I bet, and I've heard a lot about it. I've never been there, but it sounds really cool.

I've heard you can actually get on a lift right from the village square and go all the way to the top of the mountain without taking your skis off. Is that right? Yeah, pretty much. The trams there, it's been there since 1976.

It takes you all the way up to almost the top, but it's about 1,000 meters vertical drop. But if you're in the center of the village, you can also take the old train from 1910. That takes you a good halfway up the lower part of the mountain, and from there you can then access the rest of the area.

It's a quite nice history of skiing tour there, to take that tram. It's one of these Swiss-type Alpine ski trains that goes really slow, but it's like a time travel to take that. Does it have the cogs, and it's like a funicular-type thing? It goes up? Yeah, a funicular-type thing.

It's a train going on a railway, and it's with the wires, and one pulls, the other one goes down. That's really old school. That's pretty cool.

1910. 1910. What about the people that live on it? Is it a mix of hospitality people and people that are passionate about skiing, and then some remnants from, say, the copper mining days, which I think that's where it came from.

Yeah, it's been a city or a place to live based on the mountain, and then had the pilgrim trail for pilgrims to go to Norway. The church is from the 12th century, so it's really, really old. Then, obviously, there was a mine, as you said, and also, obviously, farming and hunting and forestry.

There is a few, not too many, but a few older families in the valley, but then a lot of people have moved in, basically because of their interest in skiing, and obviously then trying to make a living like all crazy skiers do. They move to do skiing, and then they try to make a living. There's a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of people that has moved in.

Over the last, I would say, five to ten years, there's been a little bit of a change, because Åre has become so popular or attractive from a living point of view that with the new digital era, people can move there to work remote and move there because of their interests and quality of life. That's actually been quite interesting to see these last five to ten years. Has it changed? We've had the same thing at a lot of places in the U.S., a lot of resorts in the U.S. People moved out, especially during the pandemic, to work remote, and they stayed.

Has that changed Åre a lot? It is changing Åre a lot. There's more people, obviously, living there all year round. There is other interests and conflicts maybe coming up as well, that people who move there for life quality necessarily don't want the tourism to grow because it infringes on their own interests.

I think there are new challenges coming up, but overall, it's a very positive development of the municipality, the society of Åre, that is driven by the interest around skiing, which is quite fascinating. And the love of the sport, alpine skiing. I think that extends not just to Åre, but to a lot of resorts.

They're changing, they're evolving, and it's just something we have to work with as we go forward in terms of us being part of sport and going to resorts. Yeah, you have to adopt and to have your ear on the ground and to see what the needs and the challenges are to adopt that. I think Åre is good at that.

I don't always think of Åre as one of the top ski resorts in the world, but it comes up in the list of the top ski resorts almost every ranking. I've never been there. I'm dying to go there.

It's spectacular. Has the town and the lift company made huge investments in the equipment to be able to bring it up? You're talking about the tram from 1910. I assume that's sort of an anomaly, that there's a lot of new building going on and new lifts, things like that, new equipment.

Yeah, over the past 10 years, I think the lift company alone has invested 750 million Swedish kronor, which is about 75 million US dollars. Only during the last four years, they've invested 20 million dollars in the ski area alone. I know that they have a big development plan coming up also with new lifts, with new accommodation activities and stuff like that.

Over the past 20 years, Åre has also developed to become an all-year-round ski resort with a lot of activities during the summertime as well. Yes, there has been huge investments and also returns for the municipality and for the companies and people living there. Well, let's get on to the skiing.

That's what we're really here to talk about. You've skied this mountain your whole life. Let's talk about advanced skiers to start with.

What is good up there? How would an advanced skier ski this hill? It's a little bit different because it's so far north. It's not north of the Arctic Circle, which gives it total darkness. You've got light all season long, but it's a little limited, I assume, so you have to plan around that a bit.

Yes. The early season, starting in November sometimes, we have light between 10 and 2 o'clock, but there's a lot of artificial light in the ski resort. In the early mornings in the central ski resort, you have the advanced ski area with the World Championship 8 lift that we call VM8, which is the national arena for alpine skiing in Sweden where you have the World Cup arena, which is fully lit by artificial light, and you have 4K TV possibilities with the lights.

So you can always ski. You can actually ski all year round. No, not all year round, but 24-7 during the winter season, even though during the darker period, which is from November, December to the end of January, then the light starts to come back, and then in the end of the season, because it's really long, you can ski until the beginning of May, then you have sunlight almost the whole day, and you can ski, midnight skiing almost.

That would be really cold. Yeah, the springtime is a very good time to come to, because it's a season which you normally don't access in other areas. So it's a long season, and March and April are really, really nice.

We've had all the snow. The whole mountain is covered. You can ski everywhere.

With skiing everywhere, I mean like literally everywhere, you have such a big variety of skiing options on the mountain in the later season. You have the lower part, which is totally covered with artificial snow, and you can ski from November, and you have high-speed quad lifts, and you have grooming, which is fantastic. It doesn't matter what kind of weather it is, because it's below tree level.

So that area is really, really nice for advanced skiers and for beginners, because we have the whole range of ski runs that suits everybody, and it's very, very good for families and for kids. So you have all that variety. And then you have the ski area above the tree line, which is heavily depending on weather, and that area is fantastic during the spring skiing.

That's why I think Oro comes up on the list of the best ski resorts in the world all the time. In combination, I would say, with a fantastic village, with some 60 restaurants, with entertainment, with shops, and with what you can expect from a world-class ski resort. So what's it like skiing off the top? Say you're in February.

Now, I'm going to butcher this name. Åreskuttun? Åreskutan. Close.

Not quite. I've heard that going off the top there can be spectacular, and that you can pretty much go any direction you want. You may not get back to town if you go the wrong direction.

Yeah, you can go to the mining town on the other side and take snowmobiles back. That would be going the opposite direction. You can go straight down to the village and get really, really nice off-piste and big mountain skiing.

Yeah, you can go east, you can go west. It's like you say, you come to the top, which is basically the top, and you can ski any direction after having a Swedish fika at the little hut we have up there and have a coffee and a cinnamon roll or something else. That's always important.

Very important. Swedish fika. I've heard something about a tour to Huså.

What's that like? Yeah, that's what I said, going the opposite direction towards the village. You go north, basically, and Huså is one of the old mining towns that surrounded Åre. It's really nice off-piste skiing, about 500 meters vertical drop to the tree line, and then it's another 500 vertical drop in the trees.

It's an adventure skiing excursion, I would say, that sometimes can offer some really good powder runs. On the other side in Huså, they have one lift and maybe two ski runs, but it's a really good one. You can eat your lunch there, and then, as I said, you get towed back by snowmobiles or by piston bullies.

That sounds pretty cool, actually, just going off into nowhere. Do you need a guide for any of this? Does it help to have a guide? It always helps to have a guide, I say. But when you've done it, you actually don't need a guide.

But the first time, I would definitely recommend to have a guide. The guide would also know where to go, where to find the best runs, depending on the previous week's wind direction and snowfalls and all of that. It's not a particularly dangerous mountain, so there's always avalanche risks, but we're not a dangerous mountain like that.

You don't have the big crevasses, say, like Mont Blanc up in that area, which you've got to be really careful of, and you absolutely need a guide for that type of stuff. Avalanche is a risk anywhere. They're always a risk, so I wouldn't want to say that you can go everywhere without a guide.

I think a guide would always be nice. But for somebody like me, I was grown up on the mountain, basically as a guide myself. No, I'm not, but I can ski wherever I want to, with very low risk.

What's the snow like? I assume it's not really light powder, but does it get heavy? What's in general during January, February, what's the snow like? On the top, I would say it's packed powder, fine-grained cold snow, which is super nice. In the lower areas, the temperature is very dependent on the wind direction. If we have northwest, it's basically pretty cool weather, and then you have drier, colder snow.

But if it drives towards west and southwest, you can get really wet snow, especially in the lower areas. So it varies a lot. If I would compare it with something, it would be something like with Whistler, where you can have very wet weather, and you can have also dry weather.

So it varies depending on the wind direction. It's not so often, but when we have easterly winds, we normally get nice, dry powder as well. That sounds great, and it sounds like the bottom of the mountain below Treeline is pretty well snow farmed, so that it's groomed, it's pretty consistent, and it won't make much difference there, and you're not going to be up to your knees in really heavy, damp stuff.

No, it will never be bad there. They also prepare these runs every night, and all of them are groomed, so a lot of attention is put on making them as good as you can. And obviously that's depending on the weather.

So if you have warm weather and no cold minus degrees, that would be a challenge as well. We have a couple of guys who are basically also used to get assignments going abroad, to actually be part of preparing racing runs and stuff like that, because they're so good at running the piston bores and the machinery. So because of the challenges... Plus they like to stay up all night and get it done, right? Yeah, absolutely.

They start when we go to the restaurant, then they go home when we go out skiing again. How long are the runs there from the top? You've skied all over. Is it as long as some of the stuff you'd see in the Alps or say in Colorado, or is it shorter? It is shorter, definitely.

But on the same hand, we have World Cup downhill, which is about three kilometers long and eight or nine hundred meters vertical drop, so you can really find those long runs as well. But you could say in the bottom part, below the tree line, it's five or six hundred meters vertical drop, and it's as its longest and different terrain, obviously. But the runs are long enough for experts like me to become really tired.

So for intermediate skiers, the runs are long enough to make them in one or two legs. So we're not as long and the mountain isn't as big as the Alps, but the runs are nice and they're really well groomed and they are in a great variation. That sounds pretty good.

Three kilometers is long enough. That's enough to get some real burn in there and know you've made some turns. Yeah.

Even if you're doing it at like 60 or 70 miles an hour. Yeah, exactly. We talked a little bit about beginners and intermediates.

How's the instruction there? The ski school, I would imagine, is pretty good. Absolutely. Yeah, first class.

They have a long history of ski instruction in Nora. They have a lot of families and kids taking care of them, and I think they have dedicated areas for kids and families. So you don't have to worry about that.

You'll be well taken care of. If you want to go on off-piste skiing and you want to have more experienced and advanced guides, you can find those as well, not only at the ski lift company, but also at external companies specializing in adventure winter life, so to speak. So you can get really, really well-known, experienced guides who have been on the World Cup Tour and been on the Freestyle Tour and the Big Mountain Tour because it's a melting pot for skiers.

A lot of the famous skiers come from Nora or live in Nora, so it's totally skiing. Is there any snowcat skiing or heliskiing around there that people can take advantage of? You can organize it. It's not like your everyday product.

It is accessible, but it's a really niche product that you can get organized by these adventure companies. What is growing in popularity is obviously alpine ski touring with skins to go up and ski down on real alpine equipment. There are some really nice mountains not far away that take you to the total wilderness and national park areas and stuff like that.

I would say that that's really more in line with Oren. That's the kind of type of activity that the remote workers moving to Nora is favoring in their lifestyle. So there's a lot of alpine ski hiking.

It's gotten all over the world. More and more people are doing that, putting skins on and going out to various places. It's a lot of fun.

Nora is really super accessible. You can go up with the lift and get almost to the top and then just take your skins on and walk those last 100 meters of vertical drop and then go down on the east or the north side or the west side and then have a 500-meter vertical drop, hike up, and you'd be back in. It would feel like you're in the wilderness in Alaska, totally alone, but 500 meters up and then you're in the middle of civilization again.

So it's really accessible that way and easy and low risk, and it's really super high value, I would say. That's the strength of the mountain is that you have the access to all these types of skiing. So like on a normal day or on a perfect day for me, I would start at 8 o'clock in the Central National Ski Arena and have hard-packed, well-groomed skiing.

I would ski my GS skis and I would do five or six really fast runs with high-end equipment.