One year after missing out on her fourth World Cup overall championship by just three points, American ski racer Lindsey Vonn finally reached that goal and has left no doubt as to who is the top woman in the sport today (March 9) as she set several U.S. records and claimed her 52nd career World Cup win with a GS victory in Are, Sweden. Vonn, who won the first World Cup GS of her career at this season's opening race in Soelden, Austria in October, had just a 0.07-second lead in the first run today. Continue reading 'Lindsey Vonn seals U.S. record fourth World Cup overall title with GS win in Are'  Print This Post

The new six-chair express lift will be the biggest in the country with a length of just over two kilometres (2,043m) ascending over a vertical of 470m. With chairs travelling at six metres per second it will also be Scandinavia’s fastest. Continue reading ‘Christmas gift: Scandinavia’s fastest lift coming to Björnrike’

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Fredrik with Talung in background

Swedish ski mountaineer Fredrik Ericsson has announced plans to complete ski descent of K2 again this summer, a year after his first attempt was curtailed by the death of his expedition partner, Italian Michele Fait, who fell to his death while skiing down from K2′s C2 on the SSE spur.

Continue reading ‘Extreme skier Fredrik Ericsson attempts to ski K2 again’

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In a few years, you might be able to ski, stay in an ice hotel, and literally fly into space all in one trip, if you’re rich, that is.

As it turns out, Sweden’s Ice Hotel is a part-owner of Spaceport Sweden, which is one of the possible launch sites for Virgin Galactic’s space flights.

The Spaceport is located in the nearby city of Abisko, which is close to a number of classic ski areas in the Swedish Arctic, including Riksgransen, which offers skiing under the midnight sun in late May and in to June each year.

The famous Ice Hotel in Jukkasjärvi, in northern Sweden, recently extended its relationship with Virgin Galactic, which staged the first flight of its SpaceShipTwo last week. The company’s first passenger flights in to space should begin late next year or in early 2012.

Continue reading ‘Icehotel wants to become spacehotel’

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The famous Swedish Ice Hotel, the world’s first hotel made entirely of ice, began celebrating its 20th anniversarywith a New Year’s Eve party featuring a ‘tractor ballet’.

The performance involved three ‘dancing’ tractors and was performed on the Ice Hotel stage on the Torne River. Throughout the whole season, the local Sami theatre group will give performances on the stage whilst a Jubilee menu will be served at the Ice Hotel Restaurant.

Continue reading ‘Dancing tractors kicked off 20th birthday of Sweden’s Ice Hotel’

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This winter officially marks 100 years since the first funicular and a tourism association opened at Åre in Sweden, which is now Scandanavia’s most popular winter sports destination.

Åre will host celebrations throughout the season, which the resort says will focus on traditions and heritage.

The Åre Bergbana funicular was opened in 1910 and the Åre tourist association was founded in the same year. That began a long history of attracting visitors, from the first pilgrims en route to the tomb of St Olav in neighbouring Norway, to ‘air tourists’ seeking the pristine alpine air, and more recently skiers eager to explore the 102 alpine pistes.

Continue reading ‘Sweden’s Åre turns 100′

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