Exploring the wonderful natural beauty of Iceland doesn't have to mean emptying your wallet. Despite its reputation for being on the pricier side, Iceland offers a treasure trove of experiences that don't cost a dime.
Concrete tunnels and permafrost: How Sweden is future-proofing skiing
12.02.2024 - 15:25 / bbc.com
On a blustery December morning, I made my way through the small Swedish town of Torsby near the Norwegian border. I had arrived well past midnight that same morning into a shadowy -13C winter wonderland. Now, snow crystals crunched under my feet as I ventured outside. I didn't so much walk as pulsa, the Swedish word for laboriously plodding through snow.
Considering my destination, the weather was rather ironic. I was on my way to the Torsby Ski Tunnel: arguably the largest man-made monument to Sweden's ongoing battle against the effects of global warming.
As a Swede, I love skiing – and I'm not the only one. Some people may know us as the home of fika breaks and ABBA, but we are also skiing pioneers. In fact, Scandinavia's Indigenous Sami people are widely believed to have invented skiing. The museum in the town where I was born, Umeå, displays a pair of 5,200-year-old skis that are among the oldest ever found. I had cross-country ski lessons at school and braved both downhill slopes and backcountry outings on family trips high in the mountains.
Each year, millions of Swedes gather around our TVs to watch the world's biggest and oldest annual cross-country skiing competition, the 90km Vasaloppet, whose 100th race takes place on 3 March 2024. In all, this year's event will feature some 50,000 participants. Much like a marathon, it attracts everyone from long-distance elite competitors to recreational skiers.
But over the years, we have noticed a big problem: as temperatures across the country are rising more than twice as fast as the global average, there is less and less snow. So, people in Torsby decided to do something about it. As an official Vasaloppet training centre, as well as a partner of the Swedish cross-country team, the town offers training facilities for elite and recreational skiers alike. That's because inside Torsby's 1.3km-long concrete tunnel, you can cross-country ski eight months a year.
When the tunnel opened in June 2006, it was the culmination of years of work for Per-Åke Yttergård, the former head of the Swedish Ski Federation's department for Nordic skiing. As we sat in the complex's cafeteria, Yttergård told me he first heard of ski tunnels when one was being built in Finland in the 1990s. Initially, he was sceptical, but only until he saw it for himself. "I was picked up at the airport and we went straight to the tunnel," he remembered. "'Damn!' I thought. 'What a fool I am. It's real snow. Real skiing.'"
Keen to future-proof the training possibilities for the local high school ski students – as well as to provide jobs for local residents and put Torsby on the map – Yttergård pushed for a tunnel to be built back home. Swedes swim inside and play hockey and handball
The website maxtravelz.com is an aggregator of news from open sources. The source is indicated at the beginning and at the end of the announcement. You can send a complaint on the news if you find it unreliable.
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