On a skiing holiday we’d usually get up early and aim to be on the slopes by 9am, the problem in Levi at this time of year is, it doesn’t get light early enough! The ski lifts open at 9:30am, so we get up at 8:30am to get sorted for the week.
We collected our ski passes on the transfer from the airport last night, so we just need to pick up skis and boots for the kids. The hire shop opens at 9:30am, so we breakfast in the hotel and take the gondola down into town.
After we got the kids kitted out, we headed back to the hotel for our skis and after suiting up, we were back down the gondola and across to the Glacier Express chair lift. The hotel is ski in/out, but we opt for the Gondola into town until we figure out the best route.
The resort is well set up — good wide pistes, no queues, and the snow conditions are excellent.
After skiing in the Alps for so long, it’s unusual for us to see so much snow in the village, especially at only 1200m!
The trees are absolutely plastered in snow — the famous tykkylumi you see in photos, it is just magical skiing within it.
We spend the rest of the day exploring the mountain, taking in the runs and getting our ski legs back. The snow ghosts (heavily snow-laden spruce trees that look like enormous white sculptures) line every run and honestly look incredible, especially as the Arctic sun sits low on the horizon all day.
We stop for a hot chocolate at 11:30 at Bistro West, and the restaurant looks nice, so we decide to stay for lunch. We were the first to be seated, but it’s not long before every table is taken - note for tomorrow, arrive to lunch early! I have Reindeer goulash, which is very tasty, not as strong in flavor as Venison, but an experience all the same. The rest of the family is not keen on the thought of eating Rudolf and opt for other things.
The light up here in mid-February is beautiful in a way you don’t get in the Alps. The sun barely scrapes above the treeline and everything is bathed in this soft golden-blue glow. We stop for a couple of photos at the summit and the views are stunning — endless white Arctic forest stretching away in every direction.
Whilst it is beautiful, it is really rather chilly! The hot chocolate to ski run ratio is way off our usual!
By the end of the day we’d covered all the main ski areas and had a good sense of the best routes to ski for the rest of the week.
Dinner back at the hotel and an early night. Another long day tomorrow. What an amazing place to be.