Apen Bakke attracts more than 120,000 people

For centuries, snow sports have been an integral part of Norwegian culture. Predominately ruled by Nordic Skiing – Cross-County, Ski Jumping and Nordic Combined – Alpine Skiing, Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding have remained in the shadows. Over the past three years, however, Norwegian snow sports have seen a big boost in participation in Freestyle Skiing and on World Snow Day, on 20th January 2013, the focus was to give children a chance to experience all manners of snow sports that can be conducted in an snow resort. To achieve this goal, the Norwegian Ski Association joined forces with the Norwegian Snowboard Association, Alpinanleggenes Landsforening (ALF) and DNB bank of Norway to stage the Apen Bakke or ‘Open Day’. 

The concept for the Apen Bakke was straight forward, providing free lift passes for people across the country on 20th January 2013. Initial response was already very positive, but with the launch of a strong media campaign the Norwegian public responded with great enthusiasm. After weeks of strong local communication and cooperation from 99 ski resorts across Norway over 120,000 people took advantage of the great offer and enjoyed free skiing and snowboarding on the second edition of World Snow Day. Many of the 99 participating resorts used the concept as a base and created additional events on top of the free skiing and snowboarding activities.

Resort director of Norefjell Ski Resort, Marius Arnsen commented: “On a normal Sunday, we see 800-1000 people enjoying snow sports at our resort. On World Snow Day we saw over 5000 people take advantage of the free lift passes!” Initial reports from various participating resorts have shown the majority of participants were people from the cities and in particular families and children.

FIS would like to recognise the achievements of the Norwegian Ski Association and its partners and supporters Norwegian Snowboard Association, Alpinanleggenes Landsforening (ALF), DNB bank of Norway and the 99 participating ski resorts for the tireless work to achieve this great event.

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