STarting to sadly get a little touch of piste fatigue, and would love some suggestions/experiences of xc up north. The only package holidays I can find are to very limited-looking Finnish resorts.
Has anyone done independent trips that worked well? Any advice much appreciated
Just posting to mark my interest in the replies!
Look up STF , kind of like YHA in Sweden , Vålådalen near me is beautiful .
https://www.svenskaturistforeningen.se/anlaggningar/stf-valadalen-fjallstation/
Vasaloppet is a Swedish Classic and is packed with people. It would be like doing the London marathon or something, cool but might not be what you are after.
More from Stf here
https://www.svenskaturistforeningen.se/gora/skidakning/langdskidakning/
A few years ago I went to Sarek National Park in Arctic Sweden with a couple of friends to do a two week self supported trip through the park. Day one was on the Kungsledden marked xc route, then we left that and looped round to rejoin it about 12 days later, and then returned along it to where we started at the Saltolukta field Station. (apologies for the spelling, some may be wrong!) Anyway it was an incredible trip, we camped or dug snow holes where we could. Temps were down to minus 24c at times but didn't feel too bad. Our boots did freeze overnight though! The scenery was incredible and we skied some peaks and over colls
Some of us took skis, others hired from the field station, along with pulks to carry the food and kit. We went around end of march early april, in fact the winter finished over the last few days and the spring began.
It's a popular area, especially the kungsledden route which has huts along it to stay in - the ones we visited were unmanned - but it is fully remote. Getting there involved 2 planes, a train, coach and skiddoo!
What do you mean by xc ski? Groomed trails for skate and traditional styles or backcountry epics?
I'm not aware of packaged holidays for either, for former the people just get themselves to resort, pick a key to pre-booked chalet and go skiing. Evenings are spent marveling at aurora borealis and price of the food and drink.
For Finland the next 3 weeks are school holidays which means prices will be high now but somewhat lower after that until Easter.
The Kungsladen in northern sweden?
http://www.swedishlapland.com/stories/kings-trail/
edit:have just seen thats its been mentioned above
Ruka in Finland is awesome.... great accessible xc ski, decent fun piste when you fancy it. All in a quiet, fairly non commercial little Finnish resort.
I will probably do an early season visit every year now
Can you already XC ski? It's not as easy as it looks... I can downhill and backcountry ski most things (not always stylish but I get down) but Nordic skiing is much harder.
If you go to Scandinavian countries they might not be set up to teach as they all learn as soon as they can walk.
I went on a couple of tours in Sweden organised by STF. The most memorable was based at Abisko Fjallstation which is a fantastic place to visit in any season. We skied partly from the station and partly hut to hut, dug snow shelters and other stuff. I did a similar trip in Jamtland which I also enjoyed.
I've never skied in my life but I understand you can do it here: http://www.wildtaiga.fi/en/winter-activities/
This is a sort of umbrella site for a bunch of small family businesses - it's who I was out fat biking with a couple of weeks ago (feature to come later in the year). You can mix and match some of the activities if you want to try a few things - just get in touch with them and ask about options. It's a really rural area, right on the Russian border - quiet as anything.
I went to Finse in norway on my first xc ski trip. We just jacked it up ourselves. We joined the Norwegian veraion of YHA that gives you big discounts. The routes are waymarked by branches and the food is amazing. Not cheap but top fun! Finse is between Oslo and Bergen...its a top adventure
XC skiing in Scandinavia doesn't require a resort any more than cycling does. Trails are literally everywhere, maps are available and most trails are waymarked. Many near towns are even street lit. So all you really need is a place to stay.
You could pick a nice looking town off the map, then call their tourist information office perhaps?
Brilliant, thanks everyone. Having only done a few sessions in Scotland I'm not sure we're quite ready to enter the race scene yet but that looks like great motivation for a future trip.
I think this may be the answer to my piste ennui...if not, has anyone been speedriding yet?!
If you fancy mixing it up a bit you could get a package to Levi in Finland, mixture of downhill and cross country skiing trails (not to mention snow mobiles etc). Went there many years ago alternating disciplines from one day to the next. The XC trails were very quiet with stunning scenery.
The ramblers used to run xc skiing holidays, went on one to Czech Republic which was quite good, might be worth seeing if they still do them.
has anyone been speedriding yet?!
Had to google this. Having been paragliding, skiing and kite buggying the thought of combining all three is terrifying 😯
Saariselka in Finland is the best place to go to, for XC skiing. I've been once and the GF's family have been dozens of times, as well as every other Finn i know!
The pistes are a little basic though. The snowmobiling is excellent. The local restaurants and bars are typical of Finland (expensive, poor quality) unless you get Reindeer (expensive, excellent)
I'd actually rank Yllas and Levi as great places for xc skiing, Saariselka is great too but more backcountry xc ski area, other mentioned ones have more nightlife and restaurants too. For skiing Pallas, Pyha, Luosto and Olos are excellent too.
Typically these places have 200-250km of maintained ski trails so that should be enough. What is missing in Finland currently are those chalet type places where you could buy dinner and bed for a night.
Just back from Hafjell in Norway where we stayed in an AirBnB apartment right on the slopes at Gaiastova. My son and I did downhill while my wife and daughter did cross country. There are miles and miles of trails!
Fly to Oslo, 2 hour drive in a rental car or train to Lillehammer then taxi. We were literally right on the slopes/trails, and there was a small supermarket 100m from the flat. I don't know enough about XC skiing to be certain, but my family loved it and I can't recommend the place highly enough! It's hard to make [url= http://www.skiresort.info/ski-resort/hafjell/test-result/cross-country/ ]this map[/url] out but you can probably see that there are quite a lot of trails...
hafjell is great yes, agreed!
I went to Finse in norway on my first xc ski trip. We just jacked it up ourselves. We joined the Norwegian veraion of YHA that gives you big discounts. The routes are waymarked by branches and the food is amazing. Not cheap but top fun! Finse is between Oslo and Bergen...its a top adventure
I did something like that - skied hut to hut, solo. Bit stupid in retrospect - the weather was perfect thoughout but if it had changed it could have been serious.
I've been to Yllas and Saariselka several times each and I'd find it really hard to chose between them. XC skiing is almost a religion. They have lovely trails (which are groomed every evening/night) and close to big towns they're well lit.
There are cafe's and huts along all the trails and some magnificent scenery.
I also love to ride snowmobiles and both places do that very well too 8)
Slight thread hijack, but does anyone know how long does the season (reliability) lasts? We'd be limited to school holidays, would Easter be too late?
Depends where. I mean in the middle of Sweden where I am we have been struggling for snow badly this year. My local tracks have been using saved snow from last year and artificial snow to keep them going. However it can change very quick and snow can be plentiful again. An hour away in the mountains though the xc tracks should be open until mid to late April lower down, start of may higher up if lucky. Top touring continues throughout May .Skate is an option longer into the season than classic style.
March/ April is the best time of year for me. It's know as spring winter (vårvinter) and the days are significantly longer, the sun s out more and temps are higher and it it still snows a lot (in theory!)
We are thinking about a skiing holiday next year.
I have always fancied trying out XC and would really love to visit Finland, prices for a week seem reasonable flights, hotel etc.
My big question is, what are the prices like when you get there for food, drink etc?
A few years ago I was coerced into going to Geilo in Norway, I really didn't want to go but wifey insisted, it was family get together on her side. A back injury meant I wasn't going anywhere near the downhill stuff so XC was the only option.
The transfer from the airport took us through small towns and villages, what was immediately noticeable was the lack of people, it was like Norway had gone on holiday. I commented on this to hotel reception, I was told it was too cold to go out and everyone was indoor. It had warmed up to -30 that day and the forecast for the rest of the week was the same.
I've never XC skied before so needed to hire some kit, no problem there are two hire shops in town. Go to the first shop and ask for skies and boots, they had a pair of boots in size 42 and another in 48 but not the 44 I needed. They did have some skies I could have but the binding on one was broken. A similar story in shop two. So no XC skiing unless I'm prepared to buy the stuff.
Feeling a bit pissed of I went for a beer. Two beers and £20 later I was in a very bad mood. Got up next morning and used the hotels internet PC, booked a train ticket to Oslo and Ryanair flight home.
My big question is, what are the prices like when you get there for food, drink etc?
When I lived there it wasn't particularly expensive. That was when the £ was worth something mind. It's not Norway.
FWIW XC skis aren't expensive, so depending on how long you are staying it might work out better to buy.
Well, latest xc skis cost ~ 700 euros and boots can be about as much... Rentals are pretty good these days, about 100 euros for a week for a full set. Price for buying similar gear would be about 200 - 250€.
Rentals are pretty good these days, about 100 euros for a week for a full set. Price for buying similar gear would be about 200 - 250€.
So on a two week trip you'd break even, more or less.
Depends at your airline fares if it is viable to bring them home 🙂
Rentals usually do have some waxing service included but that might not be needed for first time skiers.
I've owned one set of XC skiis (in Finland) and rented one twice (Sweden). The rentals were wider and had the fish-scale waxless design; the ones I bought were narrow and I had to apply (and buy) my own wax. That did require a bit of reading up mind. However once I had finished with them they were quite a bit quicker than the waxless ones. Equivalent to a £200 hybrid from Halfords vs a £200 MTB on road.
I hired some in the US too once and they were nearly twice the width of the Finnish ones. That's more of a cultural/situational thing though I suppose. In Finland there were so many groomed trails I never saw anyone using anything other than the narrow ones like I had.
I had to sell them when I left as I was flying home and coudn't bring them. Gutted, I could've skiied my local trails when we had all that snow. Not very well mind given their narrowness but still 🙂
Most rentals these days are not fish scales anymore, either skin (mohair) or with special coating (optigrip / multigrip). Some are almost as fast as proper waxable ski and others are quite horrible.
And yes, xc ski waxing can be much more complicated than chain waxes and shock tuning. Four day skiing weekend ahead, just need to wax 4-6 pairs of skis. 🙂
Wider skis are used outside groomed tracks, width is typically around ~70mm and length is anything from 2m to 3m.
I went XC skiing at lunch, which was nice.
