IDEAL MONTH
March is an ideal month to ski in Lapland. There are no crowds. Temperatures are not too low. Days are long and sunny. There's plenty of snow.
LIFTS
There aren't many chairlifts at Lapland resorts. You will spend a lot of time on long button and T-bar lifts. It's great for leg strength but can be very tiring when those lifts are nearly a mile long up steep mountains.
OFFPISTE
Even moderately difficult offpiste can be too challenging if you have never done it before. Offpiste conditions are less forgiving of lazy skiing and bad technique. Snow conditions can vary greatly on the same run, from ice to deep, heavy snow.
BAG LUNCH
For a small fee, hotels will allow you to make a packed lunch from the breakfast buffet. We paid 25 kr (£2.27, $3.40) to make big ham and cheese sandwiches accompanied by a flask of coffee.
WHERE TO EAT
On-slope eating: Cafes and restaurants will not like you eating your packed lunch around guests who are paying for meals. Each cafe has a warming hut attached to it where you are welcome to eat food you bring with you.
BASIC FARE
Eating out: Food at the slopeside cafes is basic. Burgers and fries; pizza; ham and cheese sandwiches are standard fare. Few of the venues we tried offered high quality cuisine. But it's odd how a hard day's skiing can make you long for a burger and fries.
AFTER SKI
Apres ski: Do not come to Lapland if top-notch apres ski is vital to you. It usually comprises drinking in an (expensive) bar and, if you're lucky, a guy with guitar singing cover versions. Once in a while, a band might visit to liven things up.
Skiing at its primal best
The Arctic Ski Pass gives you seven days of big mountain skiing in Lapland, Europe's last wilderness for 1795 Swedish Kronor (US$248; GBP164).
Four resorts
You get access to four resorts Abisko, Björkliden, Riksgränsen, and Narvik.
The first three are in Sweden, while Narvik is in Norway. There are 18 lifts and 75 groomed slopes, plus unlimited offpiste and a heliski area the size of Austria.
Abisko: Nuolja offpiste
We can't deny the thrill as we huddle at the window to Abisko's one and only chairlift as the attendant explains the rules to us and makes us sign a piece of paper saying we have been informed of the risks of offpiste skiing.
What did he tell us? Among other things, There are many unmarked obstacles within the ski area. These include: bare ground; bushes; trees; rocks; cliffs; sheer drops; tree trunks; overhangs; etc.
Oh, there's more: Ski patrol and avalanche reduction take place only within the patrolled area. It is the skier's responsibility to inform him/herself of current avalanche conditions outside the patrolled areas. You must adjust your skiing and choice of route in accordance with these conditions. Always use safety equipment such as a snow shovel and an avalanche sender.
OK, that's the safety talk out of the way, now let us onto the mountain.
Abisko's Nuolja offpiste. Riding the chairlift, studying the terrain
Abisko. Riding down the south side of Nuolja
Abisko: Empty cafe at the top of the 2 km (1.25 miles) chairlift ride
Abisko, Nuolja mountain. Through the gates and out of bounds
In front of us is a 2km (1.25 miles) long chairlift ride straight up Nuolja mountain, giving us the chance to pick out our first routes down the mountain. About half the ride up is through a forest of small, densely packed birch trees, so we decide to avoid lines straight through the trees. Then we hit the treeline and it's snowfields, cliffs, and ravines all the way to the top, where there's a cafe serving hot drinks, soup, and sandwiches.
We're itching to get some skiing done before we warm up on coffee, and decide on the easiest run for starters, inside the patrolled area. It seems to be pretty much straight down the mountain until we reach the marked, unpisted slope back to the lift. Easy, or so we think ...
First, we are greeted by ice, packed snow, and rock, then comes a mixture of vegetation and rock, followed by rutted, wind-packed snow that's like skiing over a corrugated iron roof. My partner, aka my brother Mike, complains bitterly about the damage being done to his $1500 Rossi skis.
After a few hundred meters of veggie skiing, we find thin but good snow until we hit deep, softer snow, then finally a steepish line through powder where we can make big turns all the way to the marked trail back to the lift.
The trail, a pisted slope until Abisko sold its piste machine, is a steep, moderately difficult ice run with exposed rock in places and some fun bumps, jumps, and bends. Letting my skis run faster and faster, I was reminded of a bone-shatteringly icy few minutes on the Olympic downhill run at Snowbasin, Utah. That, like this run, was fast, furious, and in places terrifying.
We agreed we'd had our fill of grass skiing, even though it is a FIS-recognized sport, and chose some nice looking lines outside the patrolled area, which go by the names Lavindalen, Konvexen, and Näsan.
The gate leading out of the patrolled area was easy to find, just above and left of the cafe. The avalanche risk was posted as moderate
, which didn't deter us unduly.
At first the snow was thin with exposed rock in places, then we skied over huge snowfields following a few ski tracks. Not having done the guided tour -- silly us -- it was difficult to know exactly where we'd hit the steep slopes we were aiming for. We knew there were cliffs and rocks to avoid but weren't able able to pinpoint them exactly.
Fact File
Abisko: Abisko's offpiste mountain is called Nuolja, 1169 meters (3834 feet) above sea level. The chairlift takes you to 900 meters (2952 feet) above sea level.
Abisko: At the top of the chairlift. 500 meters (1640 feet) of vertical to ski
Trail map: PDF file, Swedish text with map.
Chairlift: There is one 2 km (1.25 mles) chairlift to the top. No other lifts. After completing your run, make your way back to the lift by joining a narrow snowmobile track through the trees. It can be tricky to find!
Marked slopes: There is one marked run, Nedfarten which joins Sportsvängen, from top to the chairlift base.
Guided tour Ski patrol offers a two-hour tour of the mountain showing you the best runs, plus info about avalanches.
Inbounds: There are five runs inside the patrolled area.
Out of bounds: There are 11 runs in the unpatrolled area; six on the south side of Nuolja; five on the north side.
Avalanches: Ski patrol see to it that the avalance risk is small
at most within the area they patrol. Outside the patrolled area, nothing is done to minimize avalanche risk and it is entirely up to your own judgment where and how you ski.
Skiing under the lift: Gives you a steep bumps run all the way back to base. It is ok to ski under the lift.
Beginners: Nuolja is not a place for beginners. A strong intermediate skier might have fun on the long marked run and easier offpiste. Those with no offpiste experience should stay away or ski with a guide.
Food: A cafe at the top of the chairlift sells hot drinks, soup and snacks. You can eat your packed lunch here if you buy a hot drink.
After some anxious moments of traversing above a high cliff, digging our edges into a mixture of ice and vegetation, we reached a wide, open bowl of untouched snow. It must have been steep because we couldn't see all of it in front of us, making us wonder whether it became vertical further down.
But as we descended, more and more of the run revealed itself, until we could see its entirety, all the way to a little ravine which we'd been told to follow until we reached a snowmobile track taking us back to the lift.
As we skied down, lumps of snow bumped along over the surface with us, telling us we were on steep ground. The powder was soft, not too deep, allowing broad turns all the way to the ravine.
The ravine provided its own version of fun with incredibly narrow lines through the trees, and one very steep section from the side of the ravine side down to the stream bed itself, then out again at speed between the birches.
After some messing about in the trees with skis getting stuck a few times in soft, deep snow, we found the narrow snowmobile track, which gave a fast but safe ride all the way back to the lift.
Abisko: Nuolja offpiste - one man and his snowfield
We tried out the north side of the mountain which has runs by the name of (translating from the Swedish) The Extreme, Bingo, and North Ravine. Snow cover was thinner there, with much skiing over exposed vegetation and rocks. Losing my brother on one run, I found myself on an exhililarating steep which alternated between ice and deep snow. Into the trees I was on a narrow bumps run with curves, rises and dips all the way to the bigger Nedfarten, the good old marked run down the mountain.
Mike turned up 20 minutes later complaining he'd gotten stuck on rock and bushes before he found a clear line down through the trees.
And that's how we spent our day: slow, cautious skiing at the top until we had identified our run down, then tipping over the edge and going for it down steep snowfields to the treeline, followed by fun in the trees (most of the time) as we tried to find the snowmobile track to safety.
We did stop briefly at the cafe atop the mountain, where you're allowed to eat your packed lunch if you spend at least 20 kr (£1.80, $2.75) on coffee or whatever you fancy. The guy serving there said he wished he was skiing with us; it was such a beautiful, sunny day.
Looking out over the mountain from his vantage point by the coffee machine, he said: This is real skiing in the wilds. This is what it's all about, don't you think?
We couldn't agree more.
By David Hay Jones and Athina Simonidou