Exploring Åre in one day

Enjoying the most of the resort in a long continuous run

After posting so many stories and pictures about Åre on my Instagram, lots of people ask me about my favourite slopes to go. Some of them are coming up here for the first time for a weekend, for a holiday, for a day, and want to enjoy the most of it as they can.

So, I prepared a route that will take you through what I consider the most fun parts of the Åre resort. I’ll add references to the numbers you can find on the official Skistar maps of the slopes below.

Åre/Björnen maps for the 2020/201 season that we will use as a reference.

Ready? Here we go!

So, we will start our day on the Kabinbanan station, where all the ski busses meet and the VM:6 (Å31) and Worldcupliften (Å30) starts. It is the closest one to Åre Torget as well so it is easy to get there whether you’re staying in Åre or in the nearby cities.

Let’s start taking the VM6 (Å31) lift up. From there, take 76/75 to warm up your legs till we reach Fjällgården (20) restaurant.

From there, let’s ride Fjällgårdsexpressen (Å34) up until we get to the top of Sadeln. Here we can enjoy some nice and easy tree runs by just going forward through 105. Just always have the piste on your view on your right so you know when to come back to it or else you can get stuck in the bottom of the run in a flat area and you’ll have to walk to the piste to get back to it.

Plenty of space in between the trees for some fun riding. Just watch out for the little bumps and jumps along the way!

When it splits at the bottom between the 105 and 106, take the 106 to the left still. It will be a bit flat in some areas but, if you keep your speed going, you’ll be able to go through it and enjoy some nice views through forests and houses. Ride it until you cross the green 111 and take it to the right.

If you want to visit the proper Björnen side of the mountain, you can take Hermelinenliften (B38) and ride 114 down so you can reach the bottom of Järvenliften (B44). From the top of it you can take either 118, 119 or 120. On a powder day, 118 and 120 are quite nice to ride!

When you’re done, slide to Vargenliften (B42) and head back to the top of the 111 that we will ride down.

From the end of 111, (if you went to Björnen or if you skipped it), keep going down to take Sadelnexpressen (B37). When at the top of it, go left and ride down 108. It is a blue that turns red after that has some nice flow to it. The path going through 109 to 110 would be fine as well but 108 is definitely one of my favourites.

Riding 108 on a beautiful sunny day.

From the bottom, let’s take Sadelnexpressen (B37) up again and, this time, instead of going left, we are going forward. But not too much forward, because we will take the first left to take 104.

Keep going on 104, and slide through the flat area in front of Fjällgårdensexpressen (Å34) so we can cross the little bridge over the Bergbanan rail line and head to 74, which will take us down back to the bottom where VM6 (Å31) and Worldcupliften (Å30) start.

Now, continuing our day, let’s go up again but, this time, let’s take Worldcupliften (Å30) up. It is a small two-seat chairlift that will take us to a crossing of transport lines, and we will take the 50 to our right.

Through 50, we can do it in two ways:

• We can enter straight away down on 57.
• Or, we can go through the tunnel and go under it. Take the tunnel twice to go under 57 and 56 and, after the second tunnel, make a sharp turn left and enter the first tunnel under 56 again. We will head down before entering the second tunnel, so we can take 57 down.

The tunnels are always good opportunities for some nice shots.

At the bottom of 57 we find the lift VM8 (Å22), the main lift of Åre. Let’s take it to the top!

If Högzon is open (which can be a rare occasion sometimes since it closes quite often due to strong winds or bad weather up there), we can take Gondolen (H23). Up there, you’ll have a pretty nice view of the whole resort. Take a deep breath, some nice pictures, and enjoy the view for a while.

Above the clouds.

Ok, going down, we will head through 59/60. If you want to enjoy a nice but short black slope, you can keep going down on 59 but, if the conditions are good and there’s some pow going on, I would recommend taking 49 from the 60. It is a blue transport line but, when there’s pow, you can just ride through it from line to line of the 49 until you get back to Gondolen (H23) station.

From there, we will take it to the right to enter the run with the blue lights at night, 48. It is a red transport line so it is quite nice and has an amazing view while riding down.

If you’re into park riding and jumps, before reaching the restaurant 720 Food Station (8), you can take a sharp turn to the left before a small wooden bridge over the piste and take 53/54 down to your right, where you’ll find both the Fun Park and the Snow Park. From there, you can take Bräckeliften (Å21) up and continue left to 46. If you didn’t go for the park rides, you can just take 46 by just going straight from 48 instead.

The sharp turn entrance to the left, before the small wooden bridge close to 720, which sometimes can feel quite hidden and hard to spot for first timers.

The 46 will take us down to Rödkullenliften (Å19). Up there we go left to take 36 until it becomes 33, which is a very and wide blue run surrounded by trees. It ends on the bottom of Ullådalsliftarna (Å14), which are the leftmost lifts in Åre. We can take the longest one of them (the one on the right) and, from up there, we can take 34 all the way down back to the bottom of the VM8 (Å22).

To get back to the center of Åre, just take the VM8 (Å22) up again and turn right to hit the 47. While you’re on 47, give yourself a bit of a rest and hit Våffelkåtan (11), a small almost hidden waffle house that will definitely warm up your stomach after this long run.

A well deserved treat after a long day.

When you’re done, keep going on 47 until it hits 72/73/74, so you can take them down all the way back to the beginning and, if you’re ending your day, just keep heading down under the bridge, passing Pincho’s on your left, to get to the bottom of the slopes that leave us right at the heart of Åre.

Phew! It was quite a long line and, if you followed it, you now have a pretty good idea of all of the Åre/Björnen area. Feel free to go back to your favourite spots during this run and enjoy different slopes or have a break on some of the nice restaurants and bars along the way.

What do you think about this route? Did I miss any of your favourite runs? Share your thoughts on the comments section below.

Cheers and have a good ride!