AllWorldSkiing
Ski touring and ski mountaineering holidays – way off piste. If you love being in the mountains on skis, you like adventure and discovering new places then you may find something of interest here. Check out the Upcoming Trips page to see what’s happening; Past Trips to see what’s happened.
‘Excuse my ignorance but isn’t it still a bit dangerous there’ was the reply to ‘Tehran’ when I was asked from where I had just flown in from. We were in the taxi heading for Chamonix from Geneva and my fellow traveller’s view of Iran conformed not unsurprisingly to the image westerners have of this fascinating country and its welcoming people. Iran the pariah is the standard line in the western media. The first hurdle the budding visitor has to overcome is to convince family members that a ...
I love skiing in the Dolomites with my friend Francesco and there’s no better objective than a full traverse from Passo Rolle to Sesto. I also love the food. How about this for a mountain hut dinner menu? Insalatina di maialino, chiodini e orzo soffiato con sifonata di patata Zuppa di pesci d’acqua dolce, foglie di cavolo e zenzero Tortelli di grano saraceno alla rapa rossa, semi di papavero e ricotta affumicata Spalla di vitello al fieno e pàche selezione monograno Felicetti alla ...
Majestic Yotei, the Mount Fuji of Hokkaido, lords it over the world famous ski resort of Niseko. On a rare windless, blue sky day a 2000m skin sees the motivated ski mountaineer standing on the summit, skiing into the crater then all the way back to the car; Hokkaido’s longest run. Never had I seen such fine weather here in February. This was our turn. The mountain was as busy as Hiro had ever seen it though he appeared to be the sole representative of the home nation in the quest for ...
‘It’s a long way to what…?’ Effort for no gain so we abort. This was a week of Plan B’s, about turns and making the best of what we had which was not a lot. However, everyone took the lean snow conditions in their stride and in the evenings we enjoyed delicious food and had a hoot. ‘Welcome back on a good snow year’ our friendly barman said. ‘Inshallah’ I replied as I often do. The barman’s face clouded and he said ‘that’s not a good word anymore’. Six days after the Charlie Hebdo ...
Forty two days away from home is a very long time for most people. For eight mountaineers and three sailors thirty five of those days were spent together on a 67 foot yacht in one of the least hospitable parts of our planet. I sometimes get asked which was the best or most memorable trip I have ever done. This is a question that is almost impossible to reply to, but South Georgia would have to be up there near the top. This was a big adventure, a powerful experience, and one that left us ...
Eight and a half days of sunshine out of nine, permanent daylight and the lovely mountain huts all for us. This June visit to the Kebnekaise region of northern Sweden was so good it will be hard not to compare should we return. The skiing was in magical light and on sparkling diamond dust snow. Two experiences stand out; 1904m Lillietoppen and Rick’s birthday midnight sun ski complete with whisky, Dundee cake and candle. It was also pretty cool skiing to the end of the last ribbon of ...
We shouldered the heaviest packs that any of us had ever carried on this trip. The payback? Ski mountaineering from comfortable camps in some of the most wondrous scenery imaginable. We enjoyed blissful, absolute silence throughout. It was bitterly cold as soon as the sun went down and scorching hot by 2pm which meant to get good, safe skiing we had to rise early. Brrrrr. We burnt a lot of energy and when in the valley, ate a lot of food. The waitress at Denny’s couldn’t believe that ...
Spending my life in the mountains I have met many kind, friendly mountain people. Bernard, our hotel owner in Prägraten am Grossvenediger was definitely one of those. We met at breakfast. He was a lovely man with a gentle, cheerful manner which was impressive considering that he had been out with the mountain rescue until two in the morning. A Polish lady had fallen 30 metres into a crevasse near the top of the Gross Venediger. She had been skiing alone on the glacier, in bad visibility ...
Charlotte started day one with no transceiver signal for the simple reason that she wasn’t wearing a transceiver. Oops. Back to the hotel she went with Gavin to search everywhere. No transceiver. On opening her rucksack for a check, despite knowing it wasn’t there, it was the first thing she found. Charlotte is fast so she and Gavin soon caught us up so no inconvenience to the rest of us. Mountain guides do not escape the curse of forgetfulness. I remember parking in the upper Ben ...
As we left the little restaurant in Qusar the Azeri secret service man idled up to our guide Ilgar. There began lots of earnest talking as we sat patiently in the bus. Ilgar was undergoing pretty intensive questioning as the agent obviously wanted to know everything about us. Alexey was not impressed; “Azeri KGB, pah! Useless. The Russian KGB would not need to ask such questions. They would already know more about us than we know ourselves”. This trip was nuts. I could write a book ...
Our intention was to ski in Bulgaria but that was not to be. No snow. The Dolomites however were having a bumper season so after a call to Francesco and considerable time spent trying to find suitable last-minute accommodation in Corvara, we had a plan. Our efforts paid off as we enjoyed a week on excellent, stable snow and with near-perfect weather. Six days of five-star Dolomiti ski touring; Sas dai Ciamorces, Val di Mesdi, Sas Ciampac, Monte Pelmo N, Forcella Grande, Pra de Ciamena and ...
The south side of Yotei gives some wonderful tree skiing. We set of at the same time as a Japanese team that put in the usual Japan style track. Straight up. Most amusing. They were our only competition for the day and after their first run they headed for home. The locals don’t hang around unless the powder is perfect. It wasn’t 100% for them so off they went though we thought it sensational! A few days later and we were back. High winds had closed the lifts and bad visibility further ...
I’m drinking beer in the Hotel Partizan, Bresoviča with ‘Radio Ilir’ on full power. He’s telling me ‘briefly’ about post-war Albanian history. Fortunately I’m very interested. Whether it was explaining the iconostasis in the Cathedral of Saint Clement of Ohrid, Skopje, the Roman amphitheatre in Dürres or the story behind the Chinese MiG’s, Ilir knew what’s worth knowing. One of my very favourite Ilir talks was ‘How to live under a dictatorship with dignity AND keep your sanity’. It was ...
We can all get hurt skiing. Each time a group gets down safely with everyone in one piece at the end of a trip, I’m thankful that nobody hurt themselves. During this week I was preoccupied by my 14-year-old daughter breaking her leg in ski training; a spiral fracture of the tibia resulting in plates and 12 screws. That wasn’t the end of it as she caught a bacterial infection in hospital. She had to return there for three more weeks on intravenous antibiotics strong enough for a horse. ...
We arrived in Bariloche to the worst weather forecast I had ever encountered there. Wind and rain every day and forever. We had to bite the bullet and drive. Far. To the North. In Las Leñas the winds were still howling, threatening to lift the corrugated iron off our bunk house, but at least the sky was blue. Fortified by Dave and Nico’s ‘Roadkill Stew’ with an accompaniment of baked potatoes, roasted vegetables and Malbec we skied the lunar landscape of late season LL. Boy was it ...
Shizuo was over 70 and he’d tried to ski Mont Blanc many times, unfortunately without success. It was my privilege to accompany him on what was the best ski Mont Blanc I have ever done. The conditions were just perfect as you can see from the photos. Superb snow, plenty of it and ideal weather with no wind. We were slow on the way up but fast on the down due to the conditions and the fact that Shizuo was a very good skier. I learnt afterwards that this day was his final ski tour. What ...
Lenin was out and Louis Vuitton in. Ulaan Baator 2013. This was one of those trips that could warrant a book by itself. I’ll focus on one particular conundrum as it illustrates wonderfully the vagaries of skiing in places like Mongolia. If you want guarantees, go to Val d’Isère. We travel all the way from the western Mongolian town of Olgii which is a two-day drive in Russian UAZ ‘Bukhanka’ vans. I’m with the same support team I had in 2007 so it’s nice to be with old friends. Finally, ...
Mid-April and it’s hot. Very, very hot. The snow is like liquid cement and wet slides are running to the valley. We had to sit in the Montenvers train for 40 minutes as an avalanche cut the track and on arriving in the Val d’Aoste we couldn’t get an espresso anywhere as the power had been completely cut, again by avalanche. I do like my coffee, particularly in Italy. The Gran Paradiso is one of the great ski peaks of the Alps. It deserves its popularity as it gives a wonderful day out ...
There are lots of great ski peaks in Eastern Turkey. 5137m Mt Ararat is not one of them unless you happen to be exceptionally lucky with conditions. I’ve seen photos of people skiing from the top, but I can’t help feeling that this must be a rare achievement. We’d had good snow conditions on a previous trip but the weather had been awful. This time the snow was poor and it was hot, but the weather was stunning. The views from the top to Mt Aragats, the highest in Armenia and to the ...
If I could remember where I’d read the following theory and the name of the author I would credit her or him. The gist of it was that after many years of operating together the customers of small service businesses tend to resemble the owners in some ways. I’m not sure if I feel sorrier for myself or for the folks who ski with me, but I do think that we have much in common! Over the years we get used to each other’s idiosyncrasies, we work with them and we enjoy each other’s company. ...
Ahh, the Dolomites. What to say? This was a great week with the maestro. Superb skiing, good company and delicious food. If there’s snow you can’t go wrong in the Dolomites!
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Click on the title to see the photos
An unbelievable experience made possible for us by skipper Stephen and is brilliant crew. The boat was perfect for the job, the food excellent and included an after ski beer and pizza delivery to the beach one particularly fine day. We saw whales, killer whales, leopard seals, penguins, dolphins……. The weather could not have been better and allowed us to ski a total of 17 days on the continent and outlying islands. We skied 12 small summits from 320m to 1354m in height. The snow ...
Ski touring and ski mountaineering holidays – way off piste. If you love being in the mountains on skis, you like adventure and discovering new places then you may find something of interest here. Check out the Upcoming Trips page to see what’s happening; Past Trips to see what’s happened.
