Åre: A mountain resort town - Swedish style
While traveling rhe Swedish west we stayed in the small town of Åre right by the Åreskutan mountain. In three days we ran, hiked and climbed our way around the area.
An outdoor playground with Scandinavian chill
Heading west from Östersund towards Trondheim you will get to Åre about 50km from the Norwegian border. While there a several Fjälls (aka mountain or highland in Swedish) in the area the big boy is Åreskutan which rises for a 1000 meters from the valley floor.
The whole place is dedicated to serving tourists coming to the area with many places to stay, tons of restaurants and bars open year round.
Åre´s main attraction is the alpine, cross and back country skiing in the long winter, there is a lot to do int he Summer als well. The ski resort is transformed into a mountain bike trail center in the summer with lifts running up to about 150m below the summit of Åreskutan. The riding ranges from flowy trails on the lower slops to full on downhill tracks starting high above the tree line.
Trail running is another sport favoured by many visitors and there are of course tons of trails to hike on. There are even a few cool bouldering and sport climbing spots.
While we were visiting I gave the local vertical kilometer course a solid try, making it from the town square to the summit in just over an hour in very foggy and cold conditions (I got lost once leaving a few minutes on the table). My time would have had me finish in the first third of the field in the official race but far off the insane 39min of Killian Jornet.
On the way down the other side and during another run I also explored the undeveloped part of the mountain - which turned out to be surprisingly wild and beautiful.
We also checked out the bouldering area right by a babbling creek that is nice for some traversing but very serious if you want to climb out to the top.
In the town itself the accomodations are plentyful but not cheap. We spent 70 Euros a night for a one room apartment with a small kitchen. There is a large supermarket in town and the restaurants are priced fairly.
The atmosphere in town (at least from what we experienced in summer) is chill and has none of the Alpine resort fancyness or partying.
In summary, Åre has to offer quite a bit to do by itself and might be a good basecamp for more exploration in the Jämtsland region or a stopover on the way between Norway and Sweden.