Ulrika Arrhenius – entrepreneur, co-owner of Tärnaby Alpint

Name Ulrika Arrhenius
Lives Saltsjöbaden, Stockholm. Holiday home i Tärnaby
Occupation Entrepreneur, co-owner of Tärnaby Alpint

Text: Elisabeth Aagård
Photo: Hemavanfly

We ended up here by accident, me and my husband Lasse. We came up with a good friend who is an estate agent, and he had some spaces available on a property-showing trip up to Hemavan. By the time we returned home we had bought two plots of land. Beforehand we had been about to buy a place in Härjedalen, but we fell completely in love with Tärnaby. And it was also the right time in our lives too. We were 45 years old and had young children. We still had plenty of time to be able to establish ourselves in Tärnaby. Then it all went very quickly. We built the first house in the first year and the second house the year after.

At the same time I opened a shop in Hemavan, Happy Hemavan. Both my husband Lasse and I saw the potential in the region. Many people were saying that things weren’t moving, that nothing was happening. But things were simmering and bubbling, and now so much has happened in five, six years, and I think that’s what I sensed. We’ve spent a lot of time in other places in the Swedish mountains that are way too exploited, places that are a long way from Stockholm but that hardly feel like the mountains any more. Hemavan has an authentic feeling about it, and the people that live here are positive to the development happening and welcome in people from the outside. We have been so well received.

We actually came here for holidays, but as we love developing and growing things and saw what was going on, we soon became involved in a whole bunch of things. And last summer we became co-owners of Tärnaby Alpint. The previous owner and our current partner Hans Bromee had worked hard for three years to turn the ski resort around. Now we can make a new three-year plan together, which includes investing in snow guns to get the pre-season going as early as possible. We think that with early snow and the conditions we have here, we can attract even more alpine ski training teams and put Tärnaby on the alpine world map once again.

If I were to give you a tip for Hemavan it would be the west side of Laxfjället. We have been here for six years but I only discovered it this Easter. Take the cable car up for your last round of the day, and ski down on the west side! It’s lovely off-piste skiing and you see the whole of Hemavan and all the way to the Norwegian peaks. It’s a lovely long ski through the forest and all the way down to Laisan lake. At Easter we had a full house, we were three families so we had to we had to go back and forth picking up people down at Konäset. Those that had ski touring skins with them managed to make their own way home. Laxfjället is magical all year round, but that freestyle skiing, when you constantly find virgin snow, it’s wonderful.