Sweden’s best spot for urban skiing? Try this slope on a former rubbish dump
Built from waste and surrounded by city spires, Hammarbybacken has none of the usual Alpine trappings. But for Stockholm residents, parents and the curious, it offers something unexpectedly appealing.
In Stockholm, just south of the city centre, there’s a ski resort built on a hill of rubbish – that is, if you can call Hammarbybacken a resort. There are no chalets, no fondue fumes, no fur-lined après bars. Instead, as you descend the slopes, the skyline of Sweden’s capital stares back at you – hotels, offices and apartment blocks standing in for peaks and pine forests. No altitude sickness or hair-raising transfer roads. When I took to the pistes of this ski site in early spring last year, there was no snow on the surrounding streets – only two thin white ribbons trickling down a 93.5-metre mound towards a café and ski hire centre. Val-d’Isère it is not.
While Stockholm’s outskirts host several similar downhill runs, Hammarbybacken – operated by Skistar, which also runs more conventional resorts – is notable for its proximity to Sweden’s political heart and for its peculiar origin story. In the 1980s, construction waste raised the attraction’s height to 87.6 metres. In the late 2000s, another deposit pushed the summit to its current elevation. Stockholm quite literally piled up its leftovers and called it a ski slope. And it worked. But who visits?
Norwegians, it’s often joked, are “born with skis on their feet”. But the Swedes, it turns out, are partial to a warm up. Hammarbybacken is home to many a novice and has a convivial atmosphere that attracts families and locals. Alf Orvesten and Roger Rosenberg are both lugging rucksacks up the slope, having ditched the T-bar lift and opting to ascend the hill using cross-country equipment. “Hammarbybacken is unique,” says Orvesten, who hails from Sweden’s north. “In a month, we’re going skiing in Norway. This is a good chance for us and others to practice, particularly parents with small children.”
Locals Therese Goding and David Nordblom fit the bill, chaperoning their two children, aged four and six. “This is our first time here and I think it’s really nice,” says Goding. “It’s the perfect place to learn [to ski] before taking to the mountains.” With only a handful of runs (there are four courses for varying skill levels) you’ll start to recognise faces quickly, a novelty for anyone more familiar with the sprawling Alps. The bottom of the slope arrives in no time, after which the T-bar loops you back up past a Hollywood-style Hammarbybacken sign. At one point, a casual dog walker appeared at the summit. Try that on a Swiss black run.
Daily hire and a lift pass, collected via a machine in a wooden kiosk, came to a total of SEK749 (about €70) per person. Not bad value for a day of introducing children to the slopes or feeling accomplished by skiing the entire resort before lunch.
