After one last turn, I was gliding on my skis towards a stand covered in two feet of snow bearing the word “McSki” and the familiar yellow M.
I paid the smiling waiter and a few minutes later I was skiing away with my prize: a sizzling apple pie in a McDonald’s paper bag to enjoy in the snow.
This was my third attempt at filming a scene that would find its way among the dozens of viral clips of the world’s only McDonald’s, and it wasn’t going very well. “It’s always been a trend, but last season was special,” said Mustafa Ghannam, who manages a team of fast-food seasoners at the restaurant in Sälen, Sweden, as he scrolled through the screen to find the most viral video.
It belongs to a 22-year-old Dutch woman named Irene De Wit, and Ghannam’s own bearded face is grinning in the window.
“There are so many videos, but the one I was in” – he checked his phone – “had 7.57 million views. And this is not the only one. “There are at least five videos, and all of them cost more than five million.”
He said most of the McSki clips were posted by skiers from outside Sweden and McSki, who had been a fixture at Sälen since 1996, was something new for them. “This season has been extraordinary because there are so many people from other countries here, so many people from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands,” said Aron Johannes, the restaurant’s manager.
Linda Morell, public relations manager for SkiStar, which owns everything in this part of Sälen, including the McDonald’s building, estimates the rise is down to the lowest Swedish krona. “What is particularly interesting this year is that there has been an 80 per cent increase in the number of British visitors. We’ve never had so many British guests. This is an all-time high,” she said.
There was a near-blizzard outside the day I visited, and aside from my efforts to recreate viral stardom, the only traffic the ski pass received was a Danish woman buying takeaway coffee.
Inside the restaurant, I walked towards one of three screens in my skis and saw that the McDonald’s staple Filet-O-Fish was priced at 34 krona (£2.60), surprisingly cheaper than the UK price of £4.69. The regular cheeseburgers I ordered for my kids cost 15 crowns (£1.13), which is cheaper than in the UK (£1.39).
The price isn’t the only difference from the average British McDonald’s. To mimic a Swedish hunting lodge, a rattle bell hangs from a column in the center of the restaurant, and the walls are a mix of stone and wood paneling. Families and groups of friends sat at long tables with weather-bleached faces, adding to the Alpine atmosphere.
Besides the McSki collectible display, a McCafé concession was trading hot chocolate, cinnamon buns and pralines, and waiters were rushing out with table orders; We would return between runs to boost our energy with hot chocolate and coffee.
“Going to the ski slopes was a really big thing when I was little,” recalled Matilda Håkansson, a 20-year-old SkiStar instructor who has been coming to Sälen and playing with Big Mac all her life. . His colleague Rasmus Månsson, who maintains the snow park, told me he saw one of the clips: “Someone sent it to me because they thought it was cool that this is where I live now. Because it’s different. It is unique in the world.”
Morell also attributed the increase in foreign and particularly British visitors to the opening of nearby Scandinavian Mountains Airport in 2019, direct flights from London Gatwick between February and April, and twice-weekly flights via Copenhagen during the season.
“I also think more and more Brits are starting to look north for snow safety,” he added. His boss caused controversy a few years ago when he predicted that there would be snow in Sälen long after the Alps.
“A very special McDonald’s. Everyone is happy, everyone is in holiday mode,” Johannes told me.
“When we’re not working, we ski or snowboard and then party at the afterski,” he added, using the pseudo-English word for après-ski that you hear over and over in Sälen.
As I was about to leave, Ghannam told me that De Wit, the person behind the most viral post, was part of a group of Dutch influencers featured by SkiStar; This perhaps explains why her post has almost eight million views. mine is less than 50.
When I tagged her she commented: “Aww beautiful!! ”
Fundamentals
SkiScandinavia offers seven nights at SkiStar Lodge Lindvallen from 7 April 2024 from £1,169, including direct flights to Scandinavian Mountains Airport and transfer based on two adults and two children sharing. For more information about visiting the resort, visit skistar.com.
Richard was a guest of SkiStar.