Åre Kabinbana – the fastest way up

About seven minutes later, you’re 1274 meters above sea level with views over the mountains of Jämtland. Åre Kabinbana makes Åreskutan Sweden’s most accessible high mountain.

The cable car Åre Kabinbana, was built as part of the 1972 Åre Project and started running in 1976. The Government decided to spend money to create a ski area in Åre, so even “ordinary” people had the economic possibility and opportunity to go skiing.

Looking for the opening hours? Here you will find updated info for Åre Kabinbana and all the other lifts for summer and winter.

860 vertical metres in 7 minutes

Åre Kabinbana’s valley station is just above Åre square at 421 meters above sea level. In the kabinbana station there are workshops, office spaces, a coffee shop, ticket sales with a small sports shop and a control room. Each cable car holds a capacity of 75 people in perfect weather conditions. Departures are every 20 minutes or continuously when the queues are long. The journey up to 1274 meters above sea level takes about 7 minutes. Dogs are welcome to ride in the cable cars, just make sure to keep it on a leash while on the mountain.

Food, beverages and top climbing

In the mountain station there is a heat station and the café Basecamp, which is open when the cable car is running. During peak season, Toppstugan is also open with lighter dishes such as waffles. It is located at Mt. Åreskutan’s peak at 1420 meters above sea level. Do some top touring or be towed up by a snowmobile during the winter and follow the hiking trails during the summer.

When the cable car was born

The building of the Åre Kabinbana cable car began in February 1975 with a smaller transport line that would transport the workers and the material up to the mountain station. The cable car pillars were in place in June and the wire followed in the winter. That winter was one of the worst in Åre’s history and the workers from Switzerland were snowed in on several occasions for a few days in their working barracks on the mountain top before they could continue working. Around Easter, just before inspection, one of the wires came loose and fell to the ground and a new one was ordered. Nobody was injured but the deployment scheduled for Easter had to be postponed and the cable was finally ready for transportation in the fall of 1976.

Technical data and curiosities

The two cable cars run simultaneously in opposite directions, as one goes up the other comes down. The cable cars themselves hang in two wire cables, each weighing 43 tons and are 3190 meters long. They are then pulled up electrically by means of a circular dragline. Four pillars anchored into the earth hold up the cables over a long stretch of 2900 metres. The steel pillars are 40-60 meter high and stand on concrete foundations anchored in the mountain. The supports are designed to withstand defrosting and winds up to 70 m/s.