As ski resorts around the world continue to face the effects of climate change on the beloved mountain sport and on their economies, Sweden may present one answer to the problem of increasing temperatures and lack of snow. Ski tunnels.
Sweden built its first ski tunnel at Torsby in 2006 and, at the time, it was the world’s longest example of its kind. Some may be resistant to the idea of indoor skiing, “to some degree that is still there,” location manager Therez Söderberg has said: “[The idea that] skiing, that’s something you do outside.” But, it’s worth noting that many other “outdoor” sports take place indoors, including swimming, ice-skating and ice-hockey.
Sweden has been pioneering skiing for millenia, with its Sami people considered by many to be the inventors of the activity and a museum in the northern Swedish city of Umeå exhibiting one of the world’s oldest pairs of skis, dating from 5200 years ago. The tunnel is no exception to that spirit. It has two 1.3km tracks that run parallel to each other and can be skied both ways, creating a total “piste” of 2.6km. The loop begins and ends in a bright indoor space the size of a sports hall, with a floor of snow and two tunnel mouths in the walls.
The Torsby tunnels are eight metres wide and four metres high, with concrete walls that form a crescent- shaped pipe around skiers, lit by strip lighting in the ceiling. The temperature is set at -4°C and the air is still and precipitation-free. An innovative cooling system uses a network of underground pipes that are covered in permafrost, and a layer of artificial snow created outside in late winter.
Users of the facilities come in many guises, from recreational learners to American World Cup cross-country teams from the US. Some visitors come to train for the world’s oldest and largest annual cross-country skiing competition, the 90km Vasaloppet, which celebrates its 100th race on 3 March 2024 with a colossal field of 50,000 participants.
You may hear the fan system in the roof instead of birdsong or the wind in the pines, but at least you are skiing. With the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute recording a 16-day drop in snow cover from 1991-2020 compared to the previous 30 years, and headlines in the country bemoaning the lack of snow, perhaps being able to enjoy the sport under concrete is nothing to be sniffed at.
