A day of mostly hanging around and waiting in Jokkmokk. Took a walk, checked out the local supermarket, read my book.

The night train took me to Murjek, and from there I continued by bus to Jokkmokk, where I arrived at 9. Checked in at the hostel and then just sort of hung around, because the group for the trip only met up at 15.

I could have visited Ájtte, the Sami museum, but I was rather tired and groggy after a night on the train and couldn’t muster the energy. First I slept badly because I had the top bunk and it was hot and stuffy up there. Then I had to get up early because the train was supposed to arrive in Murjek at 6:35. Then the train was delayed but with little to no information about it. There were no announcements on board the train at all (too early in the morning for that, I guess) but there’s a website for up-to-date traffic information. Enter the number of the train, and it gives you the latest estimated arrival times for all upcoming stations. Except that information was getting updated with a delay – at 7:19 it was still telling me that we would arrive at Murjek at 7:14. And it kept stopping at random points in the middle of nowhere, sometimes at places that looked like they could be train stations, and once even at an actual (disused) station. So I was constantly, anxiously trying to figure out – are we there yet? did I miss the station? almost there? do I need to grab my bags now? And when we did arrive, I think the train literally stopped for 3 minutes without any announcement so inattention would have been really bad.

In the afternoon we met up with Mirja from Laponia Adventures. Got to know the other group members, had our information meeting, went through the route etc. Thereafter we went through all the equipment that we’d be borrowing from Laponia Adventures, in particular the ski pulks that we’d be using to transport everything. The huts on this trip will be unmanned ones, apart from the first and last ones, so we’ll need to bring all our food with us. Most of the group were also renting skis and boots and needed time to try those on for size.

Then dinner, packing, and to bed.

Adrian’s snowboarding technique is improving steadily, and is now actually better than his skiing, I think. He is faster and more stable on the skis, but pretty much just snow ploughs straight down, whereas on a snowboard he gets pretty nice curves in now.

Anyway, he was feeling confident enough that he and Eric also got onto blue slopes. The longest slope here in Stöten, “Mormors störtlopp”, is green and gentle one, and very nice if you want an easy and relaxed ride – as a skier. But the topmost bit is a long, flat, narrow section that is not at all good for snowboarders. Ingrid and I have had plenty of time to explore the pistes, and found a blue run that we thought would fit the snowboarders’ needs as well. So we could all go down together, for the first time this trip. Which was nice – and gave me great photo opportunities.

The weather was no better today than before. Still windy and with low clouds and lousy visibility at the top. Around lunchtime we got some sleet, and while that stopped for a while, it later came back as almost-rain.

One thing we re-learned yesterday is that about 90% of all Swedes head for lunch just after noon. It’s almost like a law of nature. Water flows downhill, fire is hot, lunch is at twelve. Making use of that knowledge, we made sure to be out on the slopes between twelve and half past one, to make the most of the empty slopes and the almost non-existent lift queues. Skiing is best with no other people around.

The weather today was cloudy again, with such high winds and bad visibility at the top that the lifts to the top were shut down in the afternoon. Here’s the staff taking down the fencing around what, in the morning, was the queueing area for one of the two seated lifts.

Like yesterday, Eric and Adrian were snowboarding on the lower, gentler slopes, while Ingrid and I zig-zagged down the blue pistes. Ingrid kindly took some photos of me as well. I was also there.

Here we are, skiing and snowboarding in Stöten.

Adrian went straight to the snowboard option this year and managed it like a pro.

Ingrid wasn’t feeling a 100% so she took an easy day today and stuck to skis – and even went so far as to go down the blue pistes with me, instead of challenging herself on the red and black slopes.

Here’s Adrian gliding past our house in the background (and our car is also among the ones parked in the background). We could probably save money by living further away, but the convenience of being easy walking distance from the slopes is unbeatable. Someone feels tired and wants to go home early? Someone wants to sleep in and join us a bit later? No problem. No driving, no need to manage who’s where when.

Eric and Adrian stayed in the lower, broader, green slopes, while Ingrid and I took the big lift up to the top. This is her:

The weather conditions at the top were pretty bad, with low clouds and a fair bit of wind. At times it was difficult to see where the pistes even started. Aim between the neon orange sticks and assume that the piste will continue without any sudden changes, and hope for the best.

But there were beautiful views as well, and even the occasional moments of blue skies.

All knackered after hours of skiing:

Off for a half-week of skiing in Stöten. Today was mostly a day of driving, and then getting ourselves situated, picking up our skis, etc. I forgot to take a photo, so I’m borrowing this one from tomorrow morning. This is our small apartment in Stöten – a small kitchen/living room combo, and two small bedrooms with bunk beds. It’s OK, for a few days, but with last year’s stay in Kläppen fresh in our memories, this doesn’t really compare. The sofa in particular is uncomfortable no matter how we try to sit in it. But! We’re no more 50 metres from the nearest piste, which is worth quite a bit.

We discovered the wonders of singles queues at ski lifts last year. This year we pretty much went all in for the singles queues and effectively cut our queueing time in half, by my estimate. Often we didn’t even end up riding the lift alone – there were many groups of three and four people in the main queue on the six-seater lift, which left two or even three seats free for the single queue. Win-win!

Our second time-saving, ski-experience-enhancing trick is to eat a slightly later lunch. At around twelve o’clock, all the families with young kids flood the restaurants and leave the slopes empty. Sometimes the slopes were so empty at midday that we could glide right into the single queue, double pole our way through it without even slowing down, and swoosh straight into a lift seat. Down and up and down again without a single stop.

Branäs is a smallish resort with a lot of family-friendly blue slopes. It didn’t take long for a few favourites to emerge, mostly based on the availability of chair lifts. Button lifts are cute but take forever to actually get anywhere. And you’re on your own all the way – can’t talk to anyone else. Chair lifts on the other hand turn skiing into much more of a social activity.

The slopes down in Mattesdalen with its four-seater chair lift were quite long and had some really nice stretches, but also a horrible icy patch in the middle where three slopes met. Every time we got there it was really crowded, with people struggling to get past the ice and the churned-up drifts of snow on top.

When we tired of skiing over there, we spent hours simply going up and down a single slope on the other side. The slope itself was mostly in the sun, in good shape, neither icy nor uneven, and the six-seater lift there seemed brand new and got us up the mountain smoothly and comfortably. After a while we knew the individual features of that piste by heart – keep to the left here at the top, stay away from that icy patch next to the lift queue, watch out for skiers coming in from the side over here.


Adrian worked on braking less and getting his turns more parallel. Later in the afternoon he tried out the bumpier ground just off the piste, under the lift. Ingrid challenged herself by dramatic hockey stops, aiming to throw as much snow in the air as possible (or on Adrian’s skis when he’d already stopped before her).

Branäs is situated at a low elevation. Where the peak in, say, Åre or Idre is above the treeline, offering dramatic views of windswept snow and ice, in Branäs you’re never far from civilization. There are trees all the way up to the top of the mountain, and houses everywhere between and around slopes. Very convenient, but I did miss the wide mountainous vistas, and the peace and quiet of skiing through a slope surrounded by nothing but forest.

Eating waffles at the bottom of Mattesdalen in Branäs.

Branäs is a smallish ski resort that we honestly mostly chose because all the other places were fully booked by the time we decided that, yes, we do dare go on a ski trip this year. But it seemed to suit us well: relatively close to Stockholm, with pet-friendly accommodation available, and with plenty of relatively gentle slopes.

(Yes, we brought Nysse with us. He didn’t enjoy the long drive much, but we’re also pretty sure that he wouldn’t have enjoyed being alone for five days either, with some stranger stopping by only to feed and water him and empty the litter box. Now that we’re here, he’s all happy again.)

Mostly Branäs is as expected. Plenty of blue slopes. Small-scale, with lots of button lifts and just two chairlifts.

The restaurants have been truly disappointing, though. They all use app-based ordering, which is practical I guess, but whenever I use these things I feel like I’m doing the staff’s work for them. And our lunches today were just barely on the right side of edible. The pizzas were thick and doughy and barely had any sauce. The “creamy mushroom pasta” I ordered barely had enough sauce to almost coat all of the overcooked pasta, and contained a total of 2 smallish mushrooms (each chopped into quarters). Even school cafeteria lunches are better than that.

We took a waffle break in the afternoon to rest our legs and top up our blood sugar. Here as well the overall impression was cheap and impersonal. Order in the app, get your cardboard plate with a waffle from an overworked staff member, eat it in a room with the blandest possible interior, clean it up yourself.

(Only Ingrid and Adrian are in the picture because Eric took a bad fall and had to cut his snowboarding short for the day.)

We’re in Branäs for a few days of skiing. Arrived in the afternoon, unloaded the car, got our equipment and tried out the slopes closest to us. Branäs has a lot of slopes with artificial lighting which stay open until 19:00, which we like!

Last day. We’re taking a train to Stockholm in the afternoon, but squeezed in a few hours of skiing in the morning. As usual, the slopes are very empty on switchover days (weekends) which makes for extra pleasant skiing. Just look at these empty slopes! There’s barely anyone there!

As usual, I’m a much better skier when I have the slope all for myself. I don’t have to think about where other people are and where they might be going. I can get into a flow and just turn. Swish, swish, swish.

I liked Åre. But then again I’ve liked all the other ski resorts we’ve been to as well.

Åre is larger than most ski resorts in Sweden, with more pistes to choose from. For everyone except Ingrid, that wide choice doesn’t matter much – we won’t use the red or black runs anyway. Mostly what we want is a variety of blue slopes. Our excursions to the plateau and the peak were fun, though.

I was afraid that it might feel too large, and since it’s very well-known, that it would be crowded. But it was no more crowded than any of the other places we’ve been to. It did feel a little bit more commercial and less familiar than e.g. Kläppen, where all the lift attendants always said hi and high-fived the kids.

One thing that really impressed me in Åre was food. The quality of food was really good in all the restaurants where we ate, and the range of vegetarian options much wider than what I’ve seen in other ski resorts. I remember hopelessly alternating between pizza and the same boring halloumi burger every single day for a week in Idre, and the one and only dinner option there was a cheap, greasy pizza and kebab joint. Here, too, most restaurants had a vegetarian burger on the menu – but all had some other vegetarian choices as well, and even the burgers varied. I can survive on dull food of course, but I’m much happier if I get tasty, varied food.