Ornahög Alpincenter

On one of Brösarp’s many hills lies Ornahög—Sweden’s southernmost ski slope with a lift. It’s a small but charming ski area run by the Brösarp Alpine Ski Club, offering surprisingly varied terrain despite its modest size. The forest borders an off-piste area on one side of the slope, with apple orchards on the other.

The vertical drop is 89 feet, the longest run is 509 feet, and the lift—a rope tow built by a machine shop in the neighboring village—carries skiers 394 feet up to the top. Here, 312 feet above sea level, there’s a Bronze Age burial mound with views toward the sea and across the rolling “Österlen Mountains” around Brösarp, where, among other things, Astrid Lindgren’s The Brothers Lionheart and Bregott commercials have been filmed.

Ornahög opened on New Year’s Day 1982 after the ski club cleared the slope of heather, and since then it has been a gathering place for generations of local skiers—from beginners to seasoned racers. It has also hosted everything from a tractor concert to the Swedish Grass Slalom Championships and the Österlen Snow Championships.

The little powder pocket of Brösarp holds several snowfall records, including the most new snow in 24 hours (9.8 inches in 2018) and the second-greatest snow depth (31.5 inches in 2010) in all of Skåne since measurements began. When the snow lies deep among the apple trees, Ornahög’s sheep pasture turns into a one-of-a-kind southern Swedish ski experience—small in scale, but with a big personality.