northern lights and skiing

[greygirl]

Next year I would like to incorporate seeing the northern lights into a skiing holiday (i know it is weather dependant).
Has anybody been to scandavia? if so did you see the northern lights? would you recommend any resorts? I am looking at the arctic circle resorts in finland - Yllas, Levi and also Are in sweeden.
How cold was it in january february? what are the arctic suits like? was the skiing good for a week (kids will be on 5th week of skiing by then).
I don't want to go in december and see santa.

SCANDANAVIA!!!

I will be able to answer your questions in about a month, we are going to Finnish Lapland at half term, staying about 45 mins away from Levi but going there for 2 days skiing.

Went to the same resort 5 years ago but for New Year to do the activities like husky sledging, snowmobiling etc and we did see faint Northern lights one night but are hoping this year will be much better, I have heard it is supposed to be the best time to see them for 50 years.

New Year wasn't as cold as I expected, maybe -10 but it doesn't feel cold in the thick suits! One thing I would say is don't forget the daylight hours will be really short, at New Year the sun just hovers on the horizon for a couple of hours and sets again, we are hoping to get more daylight this time. Scandinavians tend to go to the Arctic Circle at Easter when there is more daylight I think although I would be worried that the snow might be sparse if it is a mild winter.

We are only beginner skiers so I won't be able to provide advice on the quality of skiing but will come back in a month and tell you how it went!

Hi
We skied in riksgransen, Sweden mid march and saw them, though we were lucky astheyre easier to see in Jan / Feb.

Riks is cold but we had rab extreme coats so never felt it. Snow was fab, soft, fresh, fab ski conditions. Sunny. Not at all crowded.

No nightlife to speak of and only really three places to eat, but the hotel had free sauna and an (expensive but worth it) spa.

Hth

Oh and you're not far from the ice hotel which is well worth a visir if not an over night stay

thank you for the info.
Cluttered you will be ablwe to comment on the slopes YOU skied, which is all any of us can do. If you say 'there was a lot of brown muddy stuff/lots of white fluffy stuff/no room to turn it will say quite a lot i think.

Can you hire the arctic suits?

Well we are back having had a great time and we saw the Northern lights on 3 nights.

We only skied at Levi on 2 days as we were staying in the wilderness on the edge of a National Park, I thought 45 min away from Levi but actually it was only 30 min. I didn't want to travel too many days but actually it was fine and we could have done 3 or 4 days.

The temperature was about -10 at the bottom and -15 at the top of the mountain so completely fine, that is a normal temperature but it can get colder at that time of year, when we had the cold snap in the UK a few weeks ago it went down to -30 there!

Lots of intermediate runs at the front of the resort and beginner runs to the south of the mountain, I didn't get as much time on the beginner slopes as I would have liked as DC1 made amazing progress from complete beginner to the intermediate runs in 2 days and I couldn't leave a 12 year old alone on the other side of the mountain! Not so many advanced runs although there is at least one that was used for the World Skiing Cup (held there in 2000?).

There was lots of snow and it wasn't crowded at all however this year half term didn't coincide with Finnish school ski holiday whereas next year unfortunately it will be the same as the holiday for schools in Southern Finland apparently. We are still keen to go back next year though, this time staying in Levi!

thank you for that report cluttered.
Who did you go with? where did you stay?

We went with Activities Abroad using their tailor-made option where you can choose as many or as few activities as wanted and then only opted into a few of their activities and used our spare days for skiing which we arranged ourselves by contacting the Levi Ski school. Definitely not the cheapest way to do it as we had to travel to Levi by taxi but I wanted to revisit the hotel we had so enjoyed a few years ago and which DS2 couldn't remember while giving DS1 some skiing experience for his school trip this Christmas.

The hotel is called Hotel Jeris, it is set in a lovely area on the edge of a (frozen) lake and National Park, ideal for activities like husky sledging, cross country skiing and snowmobiling but not an obvious choice for downhill skiing. When I booked Activities Abroad suggested skiing at Olos which is only 15 minutes away but it turns out this year the resort wasn't opening until the following week to coincide with Finnish school holidays.

I wouldn't stay at Jeris if I was doing the whole week skiing at Levi but I don't regret our choice, it's a lovely spot to stay in, Levi has lots of amenities but is not nearly so picturesque. Activities Abroad isn't a skiing company per se although they are doing activity combos now which do combine downhill skiing and their traditional activities but I don't think they do more than advise you on the downhill ski options for you to book yourselves, if you want to concentrate on skiing I would book with a ski company and organise the other activities myself personally.