Storlien [ˈstuːrˌliːən] is a village and ski resort located in Åre municipality in Jämtland , Sweden, two kilometres from the Swedish-Norwegian border . The primary bases of the settlement are tourism and outdoor life – alpine skiing , snowmobiling , cross-country skiing , hunting, fishing and hiking. During the 2000s, retail sales to customers from Norway become important, and most of the tourists in Storlien are Norwegians . The Swedish royal family has a house in Storlien, where they usually celebrate Easter and the New Year . There was also previously a sanitarium . Storlien was formerly the centre of winter activities for Skidfrämjandet , now Friluftsfrämjandet , an organisation that promotes outdoor leisure, and played a major role in developing downhill skiing in Sweden.
31-524: Storlien has, among other services, a hotel called Storliens högfjällshotell ('Storlien Mountain Lodge') and a holiday village called Fjäll-lien . A large part of the village is owned by the Lars Nilsson estate, a real estate agent. The hotel was formerly the largest in the country. In 2011 Ulrich John, a Stockholm real-estate investor, bought it, the lifts and "a few thousand hectares of mountain", but he sold
62-610: A Ford Model A . Wallace "Bunny" Bertram took it over for the second season, improved the operation, renamed it from Ski-Way to Ski Tow , and eventually moved it to what became the eastern fringe of Vermont's major southern ski areas, a regional resort still operating as Saskadena Six . Their relative simplicity made tows widespread and contributed to an explosion of the sport in the United States and Europe. Before tows, only people willing to walk uphill could ski. Suddenly relatively nonathletic people could participate, greatly increasing
93-543: A centre for the activities of the outdoor activities organisation Skidfrämjandet . In 1924, on the initiative of female instructors, they held a four-day course in "modern ski technique" at Storlien in collaboration with the Swedish Ski Delegation and the Swedish Tourist Association . The instructor was Gunnar Dyhlén , who taught different ways to turn the skis, and the course is thus also considered
124-439: A hill. The grade of this style of tow is limited by passenger grip strength and the fact that sheaves (pulleys that support the rope above the ground) cannot be used. A development of the simple rope tow is the handle tow (or pony lift ), where plastic or metal handles are permanently attached to the rope. These handles are easier to grip than a rope, making the ski lift easier to ride. Steeper, faster and longer tows require
155-509: A railway carriage. In 1942 the first ski lift opened in Storlien, the second one to be built in Sweden. In 1958 the hotel was expanded to a capacity of 550 guests; it was the largest in the country and in the mid-1960s employed 274 people. Between 1972 and 1995, the industrialist Matts Carlgren was majority shareholder of the hotel, which went bankrupt in 1998. The following year Lars Nilsson bought
186-416: A series of pulleys to support the rope at waist height and hence require the use of some sort of "tow gripper". Several were designed and used in the 1930s and 40s, but the most successful was the "nutcracker" attached to a harness around the hips. To this is attached a clamp, much like the nutcracker from which it derives its name, which the rider attaches to the rope. This eliminates the need to hold on to
217-557: A small grocery store in the village centre, the shopping selection sharply increased in the 2010s, with a Coop Extra opening in 2011, and Eurocash in 2014, culminating in the shopping centre Fjellhandel opening in 2020. The ski area at Storlien has nine lifts and 23 slopes. However, the vertical drop is a comparatively low 191 m (627 ft), and consequently the slopes are quite short. There are three children's areas with platter lifts and easy slopes, and night skiing under lights every Friday at Slalombacken. Storlien's climate
248-657: Is a maritime-influenced subarctic climate . Considering it being a ski resort, Storlien has a relatively mild winter climate, being influenced by the North Atlantic and its warming influence. This means that in spite of the relatively high elevation Storlien averages milder winters than the coastline of the Bothnian Bay on the east coast. It is also the Swedish weather station closest to the main Atlantic, if weather stations located by
279-521: Is a type of cable transport for snow sports in which skiers and snowboarders remain on the ground as they are pulled uphill. While they were once prevalent, they have been overtaken in popularity by higher-capacity and higher-comfort aerial lifts , such as chairlifts and gondola lifts . Today, surface lifts are most often found on beginner slopes, small ski areas , and peripheral slopes. They are also often used to access glacier ski slopes because their supports can be anchored in glacier ice due to
310-548: The Austrian and Swiss Alps and returned with lots practical knowledge of alpine skiing. On his return in 1934 he established Slalombacken at Storlien; this was the first purpose-built slalom slope in Sweden after the old slalom course at Östeberget in Östersund . In 1935, under Rimfors' leadership, Friluftsfrämjandet held there the first international slalom competition in Jämtland under International Ski Federation rules; it
341-477: The North Atlantic low pressure systems, snow accumulation can be very high. In May 2020, 148 centimetres (58 in) of snow was remaining on the ground in spite of being during late spring. Storlien is cooled down sizeably by its elevation of 600 metres (2,000 ft), which renders summers a lot cooler than in coastal towns on similar latitudes such as Trondheim and Sundsvall in spite of being located in
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#1732859495690372-568: The Norwegian side not being electrified). There are no night trains here anymore, they end in Duved now, but formerly there were night trains run all year in both directions between Storlien and Gothenburg , Stockholm and Malmö . The closest airports are Trondheim Airport, Værnes , approximately 70 kilometres (43 mi) to the west in Norway, and Åre Östersund Airport , about 150 kilometres (93 mi) to
403-632: The Ski Hoist at Charlotte Pass in Australia dating from 1938. The first T-bar lift in the United States was installed in 1940 at the Pico Mountain ski area. It was considered a great improvement over the rope tow . An earlier T-bar was installed at Rib Mountain (now Granite Peak Ski Area ), Wisconsin, in 1937. In recent years, J-bars are no longer used in most ski areas. Some operators have combined T-bar and platter lifts, attaching both types of hanger to
434-478: The appeal of the sport. Within five years, more than 100 tow ropes were operating in North America. A rope tow consists of a cable or rope running through a bullwheel (large horizontal pulley) at the bottom and one at the top, powered by an engine at one end. In the simplest case, a rope tow is where passengers grab hold of a rope and are pulled along while standing on their skis or snowboards and are pulled up
465-414: The cable, giving skiers and snowboarders a choice. Hangers designed to tow sledges uphill are installed on some slopes by operators, and some operators convert hangers in the summer to tow cyclists uphill. A variant of the platter lift is the detachable surface lift, commonly known as a “ Poma lift” , after the company which introduced them. Unlike most other platter lifts, which are similar to T-bars with
496-534: The east. The E14 highway passes through Storlien. Storlien is mentioned in The Boys From Brazil . Holiday village A holiday village (abbreviated HV ) is a holiday resort where the visitors stay in villas . There is a central area with shops , entertainment , and other amenities . One example is Center Parcs . This tourism-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Platter lift A surface lift
527-406: The grip attaches to the cable, the passenger's acceleration is lessened by the spring-loaded pole. A magic carpet is a conveyor belt installed at the level of the snow. Some include a canopy or tunnel. Passengers slide onto the belt at the base of the hill and stand with skis or snowboard facing forward. The moving belt pulls the passengers uphill. At the top, the belt pushes the passengers onto
558-515: The hotel and the surrounding land, around 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres), for 37 million kronor . In July 2011, Stockholm real-estate investor Ulrich John bought the hotel and a substantial part of the mountain. The hotel did not open for the 2012–13 season, but a new owner has held it open during the 2013–14 season. Storlien has been popular among visitors from the Norwegian county of Trøndelag , who go there for border shopping, mountain cabins, and skiing. After traditionally only having
589-511: The hotel in 2013. Until the beginning of the 19th century, Storlien was mostly used by Norwegians for hunting, fishing and summer pasturing. The village was first settled in 1844, and late in the 19th century began its development into a tourist centre. The Central Line opened in 1882, and the physician Ernst Westerlund opened a summer practice there in the same year. A few years later, two hotels opened. Thanks to its easily accessible high mountain terrain and railway station, Storlien soon became
620-512: The interior. Storlien Station , in the centre of the village and at almost 600 m (2,000 ft) above sea level the highest in Sweden, is on the Central Line / Meråker Line which runs from Trondheim in Norway to Sundsvall in Sweden. Norrtåg operates trains between Sundsvall and Storlien. SJ Norge has trains between Trondheim and Storlien, so now Storlien is a border station where passengers need to change trains (the railway on
651-415: The lower forces and realigned due to glacier movement. Surface lifts have some disadvantages compared to aerial lifts: they require more passenger skill and may be difficult for some beginners (especially snowboarders, whose boards point at an angle different than the direction of travel) and children; sometimes they lack a suitable route back to the piste; the snow surface must be continuous; they can get in
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#1732859495690682-515: The passengers uphill while they ski or snowboard across the ground. Platter lifts are often referred to as button lifts, and may occasionally feature rigid poles instead of recoiling cables. The modern J-bar and T-bar mechanism was invented in 1934 by the Swiss engineer Ernst Constam, with the first lift installed in Davos, Switzerland . J-bars were installed in the 1930s in North America and Australia, with
713-422: The rope are a series of vertical recoiling cables, each attached to a horizontal J- or T-shaped bar – which is placed behind the skier's buttocks or between the snowboarder's legs – or a plastic button or platter that is placed between the skier's legs. Snowboarders place the platter behind the top of their front leg or in front of their chest under their rear arm and hold it in position with their hands. These pull
744-499: The rope directly. This system was used on many fields worldwide from the 1940s, and remains popular at 'club fields', especially in New Zealand . This type of ski lift is often referred to as a nutcracker tow. J-bar , T-bar , and platter lifts are employed for low-capacity slopes in large resorts and small local areas. These consist of an aerial cable loop running over a series of wheels, powered by an engine at one end. Hanging from
775-479: The shores of Kattegat and Skagerrak are excluded. Summers are also influenced by the elevated North Atlantic air with cool daytime temperatures and very cool and sometimes cold nights. Storlien receives plenty of precipitation by Swedish standards, peaking in July, August and September. However, winter precipitation is still significant enough to nearly guarantee skiing conditions. Especially during milder winters dominated
806-482: The snow and they slide away. They are easier to use than T-bar lifts and Poma lifts. Magic carpets are limited to shallow grades due to their dependence on friction between the carpet and the bottom of the ski or board. Their slow speed, limited distance, and capacity confines them to beginner and novice areas. The longest carpet lift is a Sunkid carpet lift, 400-metre-long (1,300 ft), installed at Alpine Centre, Bottrop , Germany . Some other notable examples are
837-407: The starting point for organised Alpine skiing in Sweden. At New Year's in 1931, the first slalom course in Sweden, Möllers Backe, was spontaneously cleared on the mountain slopes of Skurdalshöjden. In 1933 Prince Gustaf Adolf and Princess Sibylla received as a wedding gift from Skidfrämjandet a holiday cabin which is still owned by the royal family. The Swedish ski pioneer Olle Rimfors visited
868-560: The stick attached to a spring box by a retractable cord, Poma lifts have a detachable grip to the tow cable with the button connected to the grip by a semi-rigid pole. Platters return to the bottom station, detach from the cable, and are stored on a rail until a skier slides the platter forwards to use it. Most detachable surface lifts operate at speeds of around 4 m/s (13 ft/s; 8.9 mph; 14 km/h), while platters and T-bars can operate up to 3.0 m/s (9.8 ft/s; 6.7 mph; 11 km/h), although are generally slower. When
899-646: The way of skiable terrain; they are relatively slow in speed and have lower capacity. Surface lifts have some advantages over aerial lifts: they can be exited before the lift reaches the top, they can often continue operating in wind conditions too strong for a chairlift; they require less maintenance and are much less expensive to install and operate. The first surface lift was built in 1908 by German Robert Winterhalder in Schollach / Eisenbach , Hochschwarzwald , Germany, and started operations February 14, 1908. A steam-powered toboggan tow, 950 feet (290 m) in length,
930-619: Was built in Truckee, California , in 1910. The first skier-specific tow in North America was apparently installed in 1933 by Alec Foster at Shawbridge in the Laurentians outside Montreal , Quebec . The Shawbridge tow was quickly copied at Woodstock, Vermont , in New England , in 1934 by Bob and Betty Royce, proprietors of the White Cupboard Inn. Their tow was driven by the rear wheel of
961-500: Was the second in Sweden if an event in Riksgränsen at Pentecost 1934, in which an American tourist took part, is included. Sweden's first slalom club, Skidfrämjandets slalomklubb , was also organised in Storlien, with the entire country as its region. During World War II Storlien was used by the military and was a restricted destination. In 1940, top-secret military negotiations between Sweden and Nazi Germany were held there in