Day 7 Snowdrifts, Snow Village & deep snow skiing in Ylläs

Day 7

28.3.2024

It snowed all night long - and it's still snowing. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was right today. Skiing in this snowfall is not an option. We therefore decide to drive to the snow/ice hotel " Snow Village " after breakfast. The Snow Village is about 40 km away, but we don't make much progress on the snow-covered road because nothing has been cleared from the turnoff in Kittilä. The last 5 km to the Snow Village are particularly exciting. It goes straight through the forest - like on a ski slope!

When you arrive at the Snow Village, you can't really see anything of the snow hotel. Just the entrance and huge igloo-shaped piles of snow.

We pay €23 per person (seems like a lot, but when you see the works of art that have been created out of snow and ice, it is justified).

Every year, 1.5 million kilograms of snow and 300,000 kg of ice are used to create an icy work of art in which you can even spend the night.

By the way, you can look at all the hotel rooms, as they are "free" again from 10 a.m. and are not "occupied" again until the evening.

Fun fact: there are smoke detectors in the ice rooms 🤔😜

This year's theme is "Nordic mythology", which you can see right at the entrance by Thor's hammer. We are totally thrilled by the rooms, the sculptures, the illuminated ice slide (my "boys" test these out straight away, of course) and the ice bar, where you can sit on the throne or enjoy a shot drink from ice glasses (yes, made of ICE!) or (like us) a hot berry juice in a mug. On ice chairs at the ice table - that goes without saying 😅

After we have seen everything and watched the film about the creation of the snow village in the in-house "ice cinema", we leave the snow village.

It has almost stopped raining and it has gotten noticeably warmer, which is confirmed by the temperature display. Only -1 degree! That's crazy!!! Yesterday the daytime temperature was still -10 degrees.

We have our ski equipment in the car - thanks to the station wagon - so we drive to the nearby Ylläs ski resort to go skiing for a few more hours. Since the lifts in Lapland currently run until 6/7 p.m., it's worth hitting the slopes for 3 hours or more in the afternoon.

In the ski areas there is a 3-hour pass or a day pass, but there is not much difference in price. In Ylläs it is €6 per person, so we opt for the day pass at €52.50 per person - it is more relaxed.

The Ylläs ski area is a little bigger than Levi. There are 53 km of slopes for skiing and snowboarding, which can be reached with 26 lifts. The winter sports area is at an altitude of 255 to 719 m. The summit of the mountain Yllästunturi, one of the highest mountains in the region at 719 m, can be reached by gondola.

This means that Ylläs is higher and larger than Levi (531m/26 lifts/39km), but we like Levi much better than Ylläs because it is much more varied.

After we had lunch at the Finnish McDonald's alternative "Hesburger" (they have really tasty vegetarian wraps), we hit the slopes. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't improved much. It's not snowing anymore, but the sun isn't shining either.

We take the gondola, then alternate between taking the chairlift. Otherwise there are only drag lifts - but that's too strenuous for my men 🤷🏻‍♀️

However, all slopes can also be reached by chairlift and gondola.

We ski on the south side of Ylläs and want to switch to the north side in the afternoon. However, nobody told us that the connecting lifts to the south side close at 5 p.m. Great, it's 4:30 p.m.! That won't work then. Damn! It annoys me already, because we chose the day pass because of the size of the ski area.

No matter, there's no point in getting upset now. We console ourselves with the fact that we are now on the "nicer" side - with a gondola and chair lift.

Skiing is a challenge - at least for me. Since the slopes were not groomed during and after the snowfall, we ski "through" 20cm of powder snow. You can't see your skis, the slopes, or what might be underneath (luckily, there are no stones, etc.).

The snow is the finest powder, it's great to ski on, but I like to see where I'm going 😅

There are also two fun parks in Ylläs, some of which have huge ski jumps. Crazy! We found them really fun in Levi, but the deep snow ski jump version is even more exciting (my son loves it!).

We ski around in the deep snow under the lift - very fun - but are completely exhausted after about 4 hours.

The wind is now picking up and it is getting noticeably cooler on the 719m "high mountain", so we leave the ski area at 6:30 p.m. and set off on the almost 1 hour journey back to Levi.

There are no northern lights along the way, but there is a great sunset!

Key data:

Accommodation: Levilehto Apartments

Snowvillage costs: 23 € / person

Ylläs ski resort :

26 lifts / 52 km of slopes / 2 fun parks

Cost 1 day ski pass: 52,50 € / adult

Weather: Snowfall / cloudy at -10 to -1 degrees during the day

Distance travelled: 116 km