Vemdalen ski resort

I spent Christmas 2021 skiing in Vemdalen, Sweden. It was my first visit there and if I had decided destination all by myself I had probably not even been there yet. There are many ski resorts in Sweden and I like to visit different ones rather than coming back to the same one all the time. Funäsfjällen and Idre fjäll are also on my wishlist. Vemdalen is a ski resort owned by Skistar and a fun fact is that if you are a shareholder of Skistar shares you get discount on skipasses. Nevertheless, shareholder or not I will share my thoughts about skiing in Vemdalen.

How to get there and where to stay

Vemdalen is located just more than 500 kilometers from Stockholm. If you don’t have a car yourself the most convenient way to get there is by renting one. I planed to go there by train but it go canceled (like often happens when I aim for train journeys in Sweden) so instead I flew to Östersund and got picked up by car from there. From Östersund airport it takes 1,5 hour to drive. There is a regular direct bus-service operating from downtown Östersund by Länstrafik Jämtland but it doesn’t operate every day. Yet another way to get to Vemdalen is by bus directly from Stockholm. The journey takes about six hours and you book it with Härjedalsexpressen.

Self service catering apartments is very common in the Swedish mountains and also in Vemdalen there are mostly this kind of accommodation. There are some hotels offering the whole package near the slopes. If heading to Vemdalen I would strongly recommend a car and a self catering apartment to get the most out of your visit.

Skiing

I guess the most interesting part is the skiing. The lift pass includes three resorts, Vemdalsskalet, Björnrike and Storhogna/Klövsjö so a great idea is to try them all during a visit. Vemdalsskalet where I spent two days skiing at I would rate as a medium difficulty resort. Its not the alps nor Åre but I would compare it with family friendly Sälen when it comes to skiing. I have been skiing for 30 years and would consider myself as an intermediate skier. I go in all slopes but I can really feel my improvement when I go for the same slope more than once and know the drill. The blue and green tracks were perfect for beginners since they were long rides. The black and red felt a bit short and there were no parts which I thought was really challenging making me wanna think “how should I get down here, it is so steep”. So during the skiing days I focused on improving my technique and speed. Got some really helpful tips for skiing faster last year which made a noticeable difference.

What I really liked with Vemdalsskalet were that there were many chair lifts. Only one had a wind cover though and one day going up at the mountain where there was no coverage it was -17 degrees in the valley and with the cooling effect and wind on the top it was above -20 degrees and that wasn’t really enjoyable. Also there wasn’t any heating in the seatpans. I know, skiing is a winter activity but I hate freezing.

For two or three days you can definitely enjoy skiing at Vemdalsskalet itself. If you spend more time in the area I would recommend sharing the time between the different resorts.

Food & drinks

I always get extremely hungry from skiing but in the same time I don’t want to waste too much time eating. Due to covid the bring your own food places were closed but the restaurants were still open. There were not to many but for a quick lunch I had a vegan burger one day. There was a nice restaurant with a view on the top but waiting time was to long and there were also a few restaurants serving hot food if you prefer to sit down for a longer break.

Kids friendly

Vemdalsskalet was suitable also for kids. My brothers two kids (2 and 4) were also on the ski trip and for the youngest it was her first time skiing. She loved it although tough winds, very cold. There were of course ski camps for the youngsters with Skistar’s rockstar Valle.

After all I think Vemdalsskalet was a good ski resort. Not the best I been to in my life but for being in Sweden I would rank it as number three after Åre and Björnrike. As of now I do not plan a revisit since I like to try different places rather than going back (Åre is an exception) but could definitely recommend it.

/ Pernilla that love to try out different skiing places