SkiStar, operator of most of the major ski areas in Norway and Sweden, says that all five of its Scandinavian ski centres will be open by this coming Saturday, 19th November.
Three of the centres, Hemsedal (pictured above) and Trysil in Norway, as well as Vemdalen in Sweden are open right now, while two more Swedish resorts, Åre and Sälen, will be following suit next weekend. The abundant early snowfall in Sweden and Norway has created a great deal of interest in skiing in Scandinavia's mountain regions and the booking demand at SkiStar's resorts is high, a comp[any spokesperson said.
"It gladdens the heart to see winter making its presence felt so early in the season. We're seeing a desire to celebrate Christmas in the mountains, as searches for available Christmas accommodation on skistar.com have gone through the roof. Being able to open the season with skiing this good right from the start and with a terrain clad in its winter finery is just wonderful. At many of our ski resorts we've had 30-50 cm of fresh snow just over the last few days," said Linda Morell, PR Manager at SkiStar.
Parts of SkiStar's skiing area in Hemsedal, Trysil and Vemdalen opened on Friday 11 November.
"It's brilliant that we've had so much snow across large parts of Scandinavia already! It's great to see kids and grown-ups alike rediscovering the joy of snow and that eagerness to get out in the fresh air again after a dark autumn," exclaimed Linda Morell, PR Manager at SkiStar.