Hello sweden, where to ride?

[glowa]

I am very happy that I found this forum We are two guys from Poland, both riding polaris rmk 800 pro, Last winter was really terrible, we had almost zero snow in our mountains and also very little snow in Alps, I hope this winter will be better but so far we have no snow. Can someone tell me about current snow conditions in north Sweden? We would like to go there for snowmobiling this winter, we are also looking to find riding partners, people who share the same passion for snowmobiling and people who know the local mountains! So if you want to meet new people let me know Also if you could tell me some companies who organise snowmobile guiding, thank you for all, cheers

 

[psike]

Saxnäs marsfjäll mountain lodge could surely be The right place for u

 

[A.Holm1]

I am very happy that I found this forum

Welcome!

psike has a really good suggestion for you, i think.

I am a little curious about how and were you ride, also what rules you have regarding snowmobiling in the places were you ride.
You say you ride in the Alps...
Were, more exactly?

Would be nice to see some pictures of places were you ride, to what kind of terrain you have.

 

[glowa]

Hello guys, thank you very much for your replies I was not expecting the replies to come so quickly

We ride powder only, unfortunately in my mountains (in the south of Poland on the border with Czech Republic) there is no regular snow fall, therefore there are not so many days in winter that you can ride real powder. The closest mountains here are not very high, the highest peak is 1500m, the mountain behind my house is 1000m, there are lots of trees therefore we mostly do tree riding on the uphills. Riding with motorized vehicles in the mountains is generally not allowed, however there are no guards to enforce this rule, we do not ride in the national parks or anything like this, as long as you are not stupid you can do whatever you want in our mountains - yes I know some of you Swedes can find this kind of rule breaking surprising but this is how we live in this country Unfortunately I have no sled pictures of our local terrain but I post some general pictures of the terrain below

Regarding Alps, as far as I am aware it is not allowed to ride snowmobiles in Austrian Alps, therefore we are traveling all the way south to the Italian alps where selected areas allow sleds. There are several places like this but maybe you heard of Madesimo, the most famous one It is a huge area with absolutely amazing views on the border between Italy and Switzerland with a base height of about 2000m, there are lots of steep uphills and also some flat terrain but no trees at all. I find lack of trees a little bit boring after some time, I like forced turns

This is how mountains over Madesimo look like:

I looked up Saxnäs marsfjäll mountain lodge as per your suggestion and the terrain on videos looks pretty similar to our terrain, however because Sweden is much more to the north I am sure you are getting much more consistent snow. We are definitely looking to put our snowmobiles on the trailer and travel to Sweden this winter Maybe you heard of Hokkaido Island in Japan, I was there for over a month last winter freeriding on my snowboard, it is a place with the most amazing snow in the world with average yearly snowfall of over 20 meters!! During the first 10 days of my stay there the snowfall was over 4 meters, it snowed day and night for 10 days straight, unbelievable. Unfortunately snowmobiles are not allowed, but if you like nature and quiet sports like snowboard it is the ultimate place to go

 

[glowa]

I have another question regarding Swedish roads, in the past when I traveled to Finland (not for snowmobiling unfortunately) all roads (in exception of freeway) behind Helsinki were white and local drivers had spiked tyres Is it the same in Sweden? if I go there with my car should I expect that most of the way through Sweden will be made on snowy roads? When looking up Saxnas mountain lodge I found a picture of a Mercedes Vito with a trailer, I believe these cars are only rear wheel drive, this must be a real pain to drive this car on a snowy road for extended period of time

 

[Mr_Smurf]

With snow tires of good quality (Studded preferable), there's no problem to drive on snowy roads in Sweden even with rear wheel drive.

 

[psike]

I think the Vito can be ordered with 4wd/4matic? However, you absolutely can drive an RWD in northern sweden - but M+S-tires with spikes is almost a must. Definenitely.

As i live 800km north of stockholm i always run tires with spikes and also always 4wd (xDrive).

Especially when you leave the coastline in Sweden - if you go to Saxnäs i would guess that will be in lika Örnsköldsvik (absout 550km from Stockholm) and then you could expect Snow/ice-roads the last 250-350km to your destination

Arjeplog "fjällen" has a lot of destinations that you surely could look into also - very nice conditions, but maybe a little harder to get proper guiding there if you don´t find a group of swedes to go with...

(i think "wesslan" in marsfjäll still can do guided trips from his lodge...)

 

[Chris]

I little shorter trip is to go to Sälen or Gördalen. It´s about 600km south of Saxnäs, the mountains are not so high but at lot of good treeriding. I.e. skotercenter.se can provide with both guides and rooms, or contact mr. Summit here on the forum he is also guiding groups in Sälen

 

[monno]

I have another question regarding Swedish roads, in the past when I traveled to Finland (not for snowmobiling unfortunately) all roads (in exception of freeway) behind Helsinki were white and local drivers had spiked tyres Is it the same in Sweden? if I go there with my car should I expect that most of the way through Sweden will be made on snowy roads? When looking up Saxnas mountain lodge I found a picture of a Mercedes Vito with a trailer, I believe these cars are only rear wheel drive, this must be a real pain to drive this car on a snowy road for extended period of time

Yepp.

It´s illegal driving without tires made for winter conditions between 1/12 and 31/3. I don´t know how it is with cars from other countries, but it´s kind of a problem in the winter with trucks from Poland etc. that´s stuck on the road.

Wikipedia tells me that foreign cars must have tires made for winter condition.

Edit: Hmm, when i only write in english like, once a year, it´s pretty tricky...

 

[glowa]

Hello guys thank you for all replies, it is really nice that most of people in Sweden speak proper English language )

Obviously I never planned to go to Sweden without winter tyres!! Hell, I do not even attempt to ride without winter tyres in my own country and yes I have 4wd car The problem is that when I was in Finland the roads were so icy that even the winter tyres did not matter anymore, all local drivers had studded tyres And this is a problem because I cannot drive with studded tyres from southern Europe as the roads will be mostly tarmac and not to mention the studs are illegal to use here

Last 250-300km on snowy roads does not sound that bad, I was thinking it might be all snowy roads north of Stockholm

 

[psike]

A normal week in the winter the E4 ("main road" from stockholm and upnorth...) is tarmac and they use salt to keep it that way.... but sure... in a snow storm it will be an adventure

 

[andhag]

snowconditions in sweden at the moment can be found at :

http://www.smhi.se/klimatdata/meteorologi/sno/snodjup

 

[A.Holm1]

Riding with motorized vehicles in the mountains is generally not allowed

Is it the same in Czech Republic and Slovakia also?
I guess there should be some fine terrain in the Carpathian Mountains?

Maybe you heard of Hokkaido Island in Japan, I was there for over a month last winter freeriding on my snowboard, it is a place with the most amazing snow in the world with average yearly snowfall of over 20 meters!! During the first 10 days of my stay there the snowfall was over 4 meters, it snowed day and night for 10 days straight, unbelievable. Unfortunately snowmobiles are not allowed, but if you like nature and quiet sports like snowboard it is the ultimate place to go :

Have seen several Movies from Japan were the drive in incredible snow. Do you know in which area the are riding?

When you come from the South, the nearest mountains is in Sälen.
Not so big area, but some good riding.
If you want bigger mountains and bigger areas to ride, you have to travel quite far up to the north.
There are very big areas in the Mountains that are regulated, you are only allowed to drive on snowmobile trails in these areas.
In the South there is more regulations compared to the North.

Where will you enter sweden?
Some people in sweden drive with non-studded tyres, it works quite well.
Of course, if it is only polished ice on the road it can be slippery.

 

[glowa]

Is it the same in Czech Republic and Slovakia also?
I guess there should be some fine terrain in the Carpathian Mountains?

I do not know about regulations in Czech republic or Slovakia but I am guessing snowmobiling is not allowed either - I will find out about this. Carpathian mountains in the most part are located in Romania, with only tiny part in Slovakia and Poland, Romania is a dream for motorized sports like snowmobiling, motorbike enduro riding, quads etc because they have no regulations and everything is allowed I do not know how their winter terrain looks though, I am not sure if they have trees etc

Are you planning to come to Southern Europe?

Have seen several Movies from Japan were the drive in incredible snow. Do you know in which area the are riding?

Yes I know quite a lot about Japan, there are two main locations for snowboard freeriding. First and the best one is Hokkaido Island with several not too high mountains but a very consistent snowfall during winter. Usually it snows every day during winter, yes every day you can ride powder on Hokkaido island there is a famous city of Sapporo - place of Winter Olympics about 20 years ago. It takes less than 2 hours flight from Tokyo to get there. The second place is Hakuba, area around another famous Olympics city Nagano, I wasn't there because the snowfall is not as consistent as on Hokkaido, however Hakuba is much closer to Tokyo and you can take bullet train from Tokyo to get there

When you come from the South, the nearest mountains is in Sälen.
Not so big area, but some good riding.
If you want bigger mountains and bigger areas to ride, you have to travel quite far up to the north.
There are very big areas in the Mountains that are regulated, you are only allowed to drive on snowmobile trails in these areas.
In the South there is more regulations compared to the North.

I am not that much concerned how far the location is as long as the road is good I will have to drive over 2500km anyway, so 500km more or less does not really matter. I researched two ways of getting to Sweden, one is taking the road through Germany, Denmark To Stockholm and further North - the longer way. Or going to polish port Gdansk and then ferry to Nynashamn - this ferry takes 19 hours I am not sure if I like that The last possibility is to take a flight to Stockholm and rent snowmobile at the final destination, however I am not sure whether renting snowmobile is possible, also I would prefer to ride my own sled

When I researched Sweden and snowmobiling I read that it is only not allowed to ride in national parks, are there more regulated areas? Either way I would not ride out without a local guide-and they probably know where riding is allowed, I would not want to break your rules.

 

[glowa]

snowconditions in sweden at the moment can be found at :

http://www.smhi.se/klimatdata/meteorologi/sno/snodjup

this link is amazing, thank you so much, does the number on the map say how many centimeters of snow there is at certain location?

 

[m0ngoloid]

this link is amazing, thank you so much, does the number on the map say how many centimeters of snow there is at certain location?

yeah... http://www.smhi.se/vadret/vadret-i-sverige/maxmin# you can also check here to.. Just press "max snödjup" on the upper right corner.

 

[A.Holm1]

Romania is a dream for motorized sports like snowmobiling, motorbike enduro riding, quads etc because they have no regulations and everything is allowed I do not know how their winter terrain looks though, I am not sure if they have trees etc

Are you planning to come to Southern Europe?

I had a friend who was on a ATV-trip in Romania a year ago.
The terrain seems to be fine, if you look at photos on Google Earth. But i´m not sure about how much snow they get...
Not planning a trip, but you never know ;-)

Yes I know quite a lot about Japan.

I was not precise enough..
I was wondering if you knew anything about snowmobiling in Japan. Which areas and so on...
The Hokkaido Island seems to be sick!

Or going to polish port Gdansk and then ferry to Nynashamn - this ferry takes 19 hours I am not sure if I like that The last possibility is to take a flight to Stockholm and rent snowmobile at the final destination, however I am not sure whether renting snowmobile is possible, also I would prefer to ride my own sled

I would have choosen the ferry, no doubt.
It is a really long trip to go thru germany, denmark and up to the North of Sweden.
If you live in the South of Poland it will be a day-trip to Gdansk. Then it is perfect to take a sleep on the ferry and the continue from Nynäshamn.
Renting a deepsnow 800cc sled can sometimes be difficult.
guess it will cost 150-200 euro, per day.
So if you are fine to take your sled with you, do it.

I read that it is only not allowed to ride in national parks, are there more regulated areas? Either way I would not ride out without a local guide-and they probably know where riding is allowed, I would not want to break your rules.

No, not allowed to freeride in national parks. But it is quite common with trails in the parks.
It can be other rules of riding also, and it can be difficult to know where it is legal to ride. I also find it difficult to find all the rules on the web...
It is quite a lot of complaining on snowmobilers in sweden, so it is important to only ride in allowed areas. Otherwise many are happy to Close more areas. Find a guide or some locals to ride with, just like you say.

 

[Arnis]

Hello. I am new one in this site. I fell that is for long time, because snowmobiling is my new passion

To Glowa. If you are interested to come to Saxnas area, join my teem. We go to Saxnas all time. I have drive there for 2 seasons. Already get 4000 km on my boondocker. so If you are interested, there is the days when we are going:
03.01.2016 - 09.01.2016
06.02.2016 - 13.02.2016
20.02.2016 – 27.02.2016
05.03.2016 – 12.03.2016
13.03.2016 – 20.03.2016
27.03.2016 – 03.04.2016
You have to worry only about how to get to Riga ship port. All other I will arrange - route, hotells, meals. Usualy we go for 4 days. you can find my acount in facebook - Arnis Namajuns