Riksgransen Info.

A snowHead

I posted the info below in response to a late season skiing query:

Riksgransen in Sweden is so far north (250km inside the arctic Circle) that although it's a non-glacier resort it is open until the end of May/June. I skied there 2 weeks ago and it's excellent. It's more extensive/challenging than Austrian glaciers with some steep on piste and unlimited (patrolled/secured) off piste comprising gulleys, chutes ....and cliffs (if that's your thing...). The novelty of skiing there in May is that it's 24 hour daylight and the lifts are open until after midnight There's heliskiing too - which I have since read is the most reasonably priced in the world. Overall, it's a great area to visit - the Arctic wilderness is fantastic.

kitenski replied:
mountainaddict, would you care to share more on Riksgransen esp the unlimited (patrolled/secured) off piste
Maybe start a new thread in the resorts section???

Well, here goes:
The off piste is like a giant Glencoe - ie skiing among rocky outcrops and gulleys. Off piste routes are shown on the piste map and routes to the off piste areas are also signposted on the mountain. However, it is basically ski where you like - ie as easy or as steep as you want. The off piste areas are entered through roped-off gates (US-style) which are marked as open or closed depending on conditions. Overall, the area is not huge and the main off piste covers 2 or 3 main faces of the mountain. We didn't manage to do all the off piste in in 2 days - though we did ski quite a bit on piste - the grooming was fantastic and there's some fairly steep stuff to blast down. The vertical is about 400m, so a fairly decent drop. Lifts are slow (a couple of chairs plus 3 drags) but when I was there (2 days midweek in March 09) the place was virtually deserted so no queues - in fact no-one at any lifts...or on the runs!

The steepest skiing I have done has been double black diamond stuff in Alta/Winter park etc - which I have skied happily in the "challenging but do-able" category. In Riksgransen though, I can confess to finding myself on one or two pitches which were frighteningly steep.....I also heard that there are bits you can hike to for fresh tracks - although there was no powder when I was there.

Here's an excellent informative article on the place from the New York Times:
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/travel/07arctic.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc

Help!!

Riksgransen Info.

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