Skiing Åre, Sweden: A GoPro Powder Film from Åreskutan

Åre is the heart of Swedish alpine skiing, and this short film by Slow Motion Pictures takes you straight onto its snow. Shot on a GoPro HD Hero2 and set to The Glitch Mob’s “Fortune Days” and Robert Miles’ “Children”, it follows a skier on Salomon Sentinel freeride skis through powder, steep faces and rock bands on the slopes of Åreskutan.

The Åre ski film: a GoPro view of Swedish powder

The film was uploaded to YouTube in April 2013 by the channel ShithouseLumberjack under the title “Full HD Skimovie 2013 – Åre, Sweden feat. Salomon Sentinel (GoPro HD Hero 2)”. Its description introduces it as “yet another film from the Swedish mountains” from Slow Motion Pictures, a small crew filming its own winters in Jämtland.

The GoPro HD Hero2 was the action camera of its day, and its wide lens puts you right at snow level. Spray from each turn fills the frame, while the ridges and the valley below shrink into the background. Slow-motion passages let you watch powder lift off the skis and settle again, which is exactly what makes deep-snow days at Åre so addictive.

Åre and Åreskutan: Sweden’s biggest ski mountain

Åre sits in Åredalen, the Åre valley in Jämtland County, at about 400 metres above sea level on the shore of lake Åresjön. Above the village rises Åreskutan, a 1,420-metre fell that holds the largest ski area in Sweden. Today the resort is run by SkiStar and has four connected areas:

• Åre By (central Åre): the largest area, with the longest and steepest runs.
• Åre Björnen: gentler slopes, popular with families and young skiers.
• Duved: a mix of beginner and expert terrain west of the village.
• Tegefjäll: family-friendly skiing linked to Duved.

Together they offer around 112 trails and 46 lifts. The highest lift reaches 1,260 metres, giving a lift-served vertical drop of about 870 metres, and the longest run is 6.5 kilometres. The true summit at 1,420 metres is a short hike or snowmobile ride above the top lift. In the busy season the resort also runs night skiing in the early evening.

A ski history going back to the 1800s

Tourism in Åre began with the railway. After the line between Östersund and Trondheim opened in 1882, visitors came for fresh mountain air and hikes up Åreskutan. Hotels followed from 1895, and a funicular railway opened in 1910. Over the next century the village grew into Sweden’s leading alpine resort.

Åre has hosted the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships three times, in 1954, 2007 and 2019, and has staged more than 100 Alpine World Cup races. It has also been the proposed alpine venue in several Swedish Winter Olympic bids.

How to get to Åre

• By train: Åre has its own station on the Mittbanan line between Storlien, Östersund and Sundsvall. SJ long-distance and InterCity trains connect with Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö, and seasonal night trains run straight to the resort.
• By air: Åre Östersund Airport on the island of Frösön is about 99 kilometres east of the village.
• By road: the E14 runs through Åre between Trondheim in Norway and Sundsvall on the Baltic coast.

Dress for real cold. Åre lies far north, so midwinter days are short and temperatures drop sharply on the exposed upper slopes; spring brings longer light and softer snow. For more mountain films, watch a ski crew filming its home mountain or try another action-camera perspective.

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