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When leaving the Kiruna city border for the last 100 km trek to Riksgränsen, you notice you have already passed the last tree a long time ago. Except for bushes and some mountain birches the vegetation contains not much else at all.

The road passes over great bogs and winds in valleys in between great mountains. The unfamiliar arctic landscape is everything but friendly but still spectacular and beautiful. Riksgränsen is the location of the worlds northernmost ski resort and is at the same latitude as Victoria Island in northern Canada. This means that in May the midnight sun will give you an unforgettable experience. Riding at 2.00 A.M. with the sun shining down from a clear blue sky is something you can only experience this far north. 

Mining and hydroelectric power was originally the reason why this area even got populated. Today mining is still the single most important business in the Riksgränsen area. The mining company LKAB provides most of the working opportunities and dominates the region. The closest city, Kiruna, is totally based on the mining industry and everything that is going on there is in one way or another related to it.

The city was built a hundred years ago to provide homes for all the workers and is especially designed to help people stand the isolated life on the tundra. The mine is located just next to the city and the gigantic pile of gravel dug up from the mine dominates the view entirely. The word is that it contains enough gravel to build a four lane freeway from Kiruna to southern Spain. The vein of ore stretches down under the city and due to all the blasting the mountain is cracking beneath it. Since the city threatens to collapse LKAB has taken the resolute decision to actually move the city and the 20,000 citizens a couple of kilometers to safety. Some of the oldest buildings will be moved with gigantic trucks others will be replaced with new ones.

The railway between Kiruna in Sweden and Narvik in Norway was built in the end of 1800 to transport the iron ore from the mines to the coast. Without it the city of Kiruna, most of the mining industry wouldn’t exist in the region. At the time, building the railway was a huge project that demanded hard work and many sacrifices in blood and lives. The workers had to blast themselves through the mountains and construct shelters for avalanches and the cold weather. Most of the work had to be done during the long and cold winters since there were no other roads than frozen lakes and horse trails to transport supplies, tools and workers. The railway was finished in 1902 and the trains laden with ore immediately started to traffic the distance to Narvik where the ore got loaded on ships for further transportation to Europe. In 1923 the railway was one of the first in the world to be electrified.
Most of the small villages along the railway originate from that time when the trains needed to be maintained and refilled with water and coal. While driving along the road you can still see the old buildings that remain today, preserved in the arctic climate. The name Riksgränsen means “country border” and the village was built on the Swedish side as the common border station between Sweden and Norway. With the railway open tourists now had access to an area hardly even explored before. Kiruna locals soon discovered the great skiing and in 1928, the first hotel with room for 18 guests opened.


Today Riksgränsen is a world famous ski resort, well known for hosting extreme skiing competitions and receiving fame from numerous ski movies. The resort has six lifts and 18 groomed slopes although the best skiing is found off-piste. For snowmobilers, there is a well groomed system of trails offered even though the best riding of course is found off the trails. From November until the end of March the season is quite slow, mainly because it’s only daylight a few hours every day. It changes drastically in spring time though when the sun never sets at all. For that same reason, the hotel is a great party destination once the sun and the tourists arrive, but I have a feeling that in January it can look more like scene taken from “The Shining”. Riksgränsen is also famous for its capricious weather with an amazing blend of deep powder and rain. During the peak season that stretches from March you are pretty much guaranteed to get a little of everything.

To sum it all up, one can establish that Riksgränsen is neither the Rocky Mountains nor the Alps, but the quality of the riding is great and the beautiful arctic wilderness is not to be found in many other places.

PHOTO HANS WÄRDELL

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