All World Skiing | Past Trips

Mongolia

This was the first time I used a pocket digital camera rather than the Nikon FM2 that had accompanied me on my travels for years. May 2007. I’ve never been one for new kit or new technology – I like the boring old, tried and tested stuff. However of course I now have to admit that I was a bit slow on the uptake with digital photography. Mongolia was 13 years ago but it is shown ...

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Kazakhstan

When I was a youngster one of my favourite books was The Children’s Picture Atlas in Colour. Mine was published by Hamlyn in 1975, price £2.95. The chapter on the Soviet Union shows smiling Young Pioneers, endless fields of wheat and industrial plants with enormous chimneys clouding the skies with smoke. The text speaks of great efforts and sacrifices, planned socialism, world class ...

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Crete

Crete? You’re going skiing in Crete? I didn’t know there was any skiing in Crete. Is there snow? I’ve encountered such incredulity with other destinations but Crete seems to really puzzle folks. There is indeed snow on the mountainous island of Crete. Not every year, but pretty reliably and what’s more, the limestone peaks were unquestionably formed by the Greek Gods with ski touring in ...

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Liechtenstein

What do Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein have in common? They are the only two doubly landlocked countries in the world. We had skied in one so we felt duty bound to visit the other. Europe’s fourth smallest country, the Principality of Liechtenstein has an area of about 160 square kilometres and one ski resort, Malbun. From there we managed one very nice day tour before we were pushed south ...

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Germany – Bavaria

Thanks to Wolfgang we now know the difference between apfelstrudel and topfenstrudel and a lot about Bavarian culture and history. We heard about his ancestors, the development of Garmisch-Partenkirchen and of the winter Olympics there in 1936; we sampled seven different Wiess biers, worked our way through the local specialties at the delightful Bräustüberl and we even managed to ski tour in ...

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Matsuo Basho Powder

Matsuo Basho switched sword for pen and became Japan’s most famous poet. He embarked on four pilgrimages including one challenging journey on foot through Tohoku, northern Honshu in the late 17thcentury. The poetic work he penned after this walk, Oku no Hosomichi romanticised the beauty of Tohoku’s natural environment and has inspired many to follow in his footsteps. On our quest for low ...

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79°39’N Spitsbergen

Japanese night in Hamburgbukta a tiny near-perfect horseshoe of a bay in the far north west of Spitsbergen. Akiko, Kumiko and Hiro had brought the ingredients all the way from their homeland and David, the Japanese music to accompany the meal, from Manchester. Talk ranged from the pleasure of visiting and skiing in Japan to the options for a memorable day in the mountains on skis the ...

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Russia Ural Mountains

The twentieth century art at the New Tretyakov Gallery blew me away. It’s sensational. Socialist realism masterpieces were the perfect end to twenty four hours of culture in the transformed city of Moscow, the heart of which is now tourist hell. Prior to my gallery visit the morning service at the reconstructed Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was a magnificent performance with the three ...

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Alaska

Snow machines, mega RVs, light aircraft and helicopters are all part of the Alaskan scene. This is not BMW country. Here is the land of the mammoth pick-up truck, guns and gas station coffee. Unsurprisingly we stood out. We ski touring Europeans travelled unarmed, by people carrier and van, stopping for ‘fancy coffee’ where we could. Snow machines have pretty much a free reign and ...

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Montenegro

Vanja and I had been in contact for many years and so it was a pleasure finally to meet and to ski in the beautiful mountains of his home country. Like many of his countrymen he’s a tall chap so it was also fun for me to be the small guy. Montenegro, I had read, has an average altitude of 1000m and 15% of the country is over 1500m. During our short visit I saw so many ski touring ...

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Bosnia Herzgovina

Everyone in Bosnia smokes; or that’s how it seems. Our cigarette smoking hotel owner said his mother gets through four packets a day. Walk into any public place be it a restaurant, bar, café or service station and the air will be a toxic fug of tobacco smoke. Why do Bosnians have such a universal disregard for their health? Perhaps the answer is partly due to the tragic recent past? Why ...

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Slovenia

Mala Mojstovka was our initial objective and it came as a bit of a shock, especially to those used to cruisy skinning in the ultra-light powder of Japan. Here it was hard, icy and steep straight from the car; some wondered what they had let themselves in for. Mala M is a magnificent ski peak with extraordinary views and great run down, albeit on character building snow. The tone was set ...

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Ukraine Telemark

Seven hours to drive 250 kilometres of potholed tarmac from Ushhorod, four hours by bus then ten by train followed by another two by bus from Cherkasy, ten hours by car from Kiev. Telemark family bonds are strong so although getting to Mykulychyn for the festival was no easy affair no complaints were heard from The Ukraine Telemark Team. Our invite came from a chance encounter with Misha, ...

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Iran Azeri Ski

Iran ranks near the top of any adventurous ski tourers wish list. Historically and culturally a ski trip here in on a par with Greece. What’s more, like the Greeks the Iranians one meets whilst travelling are universally friendly and most welcoming. We went to the Azeri north-western part of Iran which has a real ethnic and linguistic mix and is rarely visited by westerners. The Sahand ...

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USA Classic Rock

We entered The Wort Hotel, Jackson Hole and that classic line from the 1980 John Landis film The Blues Brothers came to mind, « Oh, We got both kinds, we got, country and western ». After the show Anto and David were talking guitars with the band. ‘Where should we go now?’…. ‘Well the Willie Waldman Project is playing at the Rose & Thorn’…… Sticky carpets, padded plastic vinyl ...

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Val Maira

Many of us firmly believe that when possible an espresso should be taken before ski touring. We were at the bar doing just that. Alessandro has superb coffee and as we delighted in the strong, silky smooth nectar he shared his thoughts on La Scienza del caffé. Firstly, the glass of water is to cleanse the palate. It should not be drunk after the coffee unless the latter is bad! One then ...

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Valais 4000

This was billed as a pre-Bolivia acclimatisation trip but as Bolivia was already taking up a large chunk of valuable vacation time the group was a small, but very select one. Three days of superb spring ski touring which brought back happy memories of past visits to the high peaks of the Valais.

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Morocconoski

‘Oh, il y a de la neige Inshallah, il y a de la neige Inshallah, Inshallah’. That’s all I’ve ever had from Mohamed in the twenty years that I’ve known him. Calling Morocco for an update on conditions always gives the same response. This, my sixth trip, was no exception; however on this occasion God did not will it. He had not been generous and what snow was there was brick hard and icy; ...

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Casies Corvara

Breakfast was laid out with military precision with each room allocated a table. At 7am the team entered and chaos reigned. Room 51 sat at table 43, one of whose occupants ate at the table for room 56. 53 sat with 32 at table 45. The Breakfast Dominatrix was not amused and boy did we know it. Our status sank to unimaginable depths when she caught the Senior Member making an illegal ...

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Italia – Appennini

I’ve rented vehicles in many countries over the years. Invariably there are bad surprises and in fact I can’t think of a positive. Sometimes an upgrade might happen but usually I’m dealing with bald tires, dubious excess charges or outright dishonesty. The vans Francesco and I were offered in Rome looked as if they had been used for stock car racing. ‘We’re professionals’ we said, ...

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Tohoku

I’ve a day in Sendai and I feel awful. I’ve picked up a flu bug from one of the team and the last couple of days have required ‘additional effort’. Trail breaking in deep snow with a fever really isn’t fun. Down town Sendai has nothing to offer but shops and I have a strong dislike for shopping. There’s hardly a foreigner in sight contradicting the article that I have just read on tourist ...

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Not Crete

Nobody had booked a beach holiday so we couldn’t go to Crete. Fortunately Plan B was a good one as snow was bountiful on the Greek mainland. An hour or so on my very smart phone from Japan was pretty much all it took to make the changes – we were off on a Greek road trip. The mountains were empty and even sites of huge historical interest such as the Parthenon and Delphi were ...

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Corsica

We had tried to ski in Corsica before but ended up in the Georgian Caucasus, not because I’m poor at geography or got lost but because there was no snow on the Île de Beauté. In 2018 there was the most snow for thirty years and just prior to our arrival 15cm fell overnight on the beach at Ajaccio. The three ski areas, Val d’Ese, Ghisoni Capanelle and Haut Asco were packed with locals at ...

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Etna

Déjà vu. Thunder, lightning and pouring rain. We were back for our second attempt at Etna having had the same terrible weather for the entire time we were here last year. At least it was obvious that skiing was not an option so we visited a near-deserted Taormina in the driving rain. At least there were no other tourists. The stalls packed with tat did not have a single customer. Day ...

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Sierra Nevada Secundo Vez

The Moors were looking for water when they came to the valleys of the Sierra Nevada. They found it in abundance and settled in Granada and in the mountain villages of this southerly massif. 1307 years after the Muslim invasion of the Iberian Peninsula a small group of ski tourers arrived in Güejar Sierra, one of those villages. They too were looking for water though not for drinking or ...

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Bolivia 5000+

Bolivia is a land of vivid colour, the variety and intensity of which is instantly remarkable upon arrival at El Alto. Whether it is deep blue sky, the snow-capped peaks or the rainbow costumes of the 26 de Mayo Fiesta del Gran Poder, all is clear and bright. Not an obvious ski destination, Bolivia did have the highest ski lift in the world at 5379m Chacaltaya. It was also the closest to ...

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New Zealand 18

What a place for a road trip. It seems like every bend, every dip on the South Island roads reveals a view to die for. Stops are frequent and nature’s beauty observed in silent reflection. It’s not surprising that Chinese tourists from the likes of Chongqing or Zhengzhou are now here in their multitudes. Quite a change from when I was last here in 2015. Popular places such as Wanaka ...

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Norway Goxsheim

There was a lot of snow in Finnmark this year which was unusual for young folk but as it used to be in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Due to the severity of the winter the reindeer were hungry and low in the valleys. We had to give them a wide berth as a mother, if disturbed, will abandon its calf never to return. Reindeer avoidance was thus the main criterion in deciding where to ski, the snow and ...

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Russia Elbrus

Julia, Anna and Sasha did a wonderful job of feeding us for the nine days we spent on the mountain. High Camp porridge was a particular delight and Alpine hut staff could learn a thing or two about cooking from the Elbrus ladies. World weather is becoming more unsettled and traditional patterns are no longer reliable. The mountains of the Caucasus were dry until spring when poor weather at ...

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Sicily Etna

The first rumble. Difficult to know the exact cause through a wool hat, two hoods and with the wind as it was. Perhaps a plane? Minutes later came the second, closer and much louder. Thunder. We’d skinned just 400m in the pouring rain and we were now going to have to about turn and quickly. We were totally soaked and I think everyone was secretly relieved! We reached the safety of the ...

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Sella Gran Paradiso

Plan A was a five day traverse from Valnontey to Pont staying at the Vittorio Sella, Chabod and Vittorio Emmanuelle huts. Highlights were to be a traverse of the Gran Serra and the 4061m Gran Paradiso. The latter is a most accommodating mountain allowing access in most snow and weather conditions. The Gran Serra is different. 80cm of recent, windblown snow lying on the old base meant that ...

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Uzbekistan Powder Tour

The team’s expectations were realistically low. Most were joining for the esoteric nature of the trip and the chance to visit Samarkand and Bukhara. There was talk of Azerbaijani style snow cover and Kashmiri snow stability! In retrospect the trip had it all. We visited the magnificent ancient cities under clear blue skies though with bitingly cold temperatures. The total lack of ...

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Norway Finnmark

Congenial company and a relaxed atmosphere on the Goxsheim combined with pretty good snow and weather gave this trip a holiday feel. Even I felt as if I was on holiday as once back on the Goxsheim after skiing there was nothing for me to do. This is most unusual and took me several days to get used to. Charles runs a tight ship and everything went like clockwork starting with a tasty ...

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Spitsbergen – The Deception Tour

This trip was a disappointment. Everything was disappointing. There wasn’t much snow and that what was there often unskiable. Disappointing. The permanent daylight made for disturbed body clocks and sleep. Disappointing. We were continuously warned of the polar bear threat yet only saw one in the arrivals hall at Longyearbyen and one in the museum. Disappointing. The potato salad for the ...

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Japan Shinetsu

It was not a good night’s sleep. The loose-fitting metal windows of our mountain hut rattled all night long in the gusty wind and just before dawn three small earthquakes shook us from deep below. These were linked to the series of earthquakes that hit Kumamoto in Kyushu causing such devastation and loss of life. Lack of sleep immediately became an irrelevance. The Japanese Alps were an ...

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España – Sierra Nevada

Luis was right to confirm the trip as the snow cover was poor but sufficient. However, instead of the Sierra Cream that a skier would expect at the end of March we had to deal with ‘variable’ conditions which included quite lengthy walks in ski boots, not without pain for some. Much of any trip’s success is down to the weather and on this one it was amazing. As we sat in the sun on the tops ...

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Georgia Svaneti

We were supposed to be making a ski traverse of Corsica but we had to accept the inevitable. There wasn’t and wasn’t going to be, enough snow this season. An alternative had to be found. One week before departure I was scratching my head thinking of somewhere that would tick most of the boxes. I was in regular communication with a Russian friend who was off to Georgia as were Faffing Jim and ...

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Greece & Balkan Road Trip

It’s only ever happened once before on a trip and the problem that time was ‘relatively’ easily solved. Hopes were high that Anto would re-join us soon. Losing one’s passport is never going to be a pleasure but for a British citizen in Kosovo it is a world of pain. Obtaining an emergency travel document in Pristina requires superhuman levels of patience, expense and complete mastery of one’s ...

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Japanese Alps

“Ski fast and take chances” were the parting words from our Swedish friends. Hmm we thought. This wasn’t the year for skiing fast in Hakuba and as for taking chances in this game…. we’ll leave that to others. It was unseasonably warm and the Japanese Alps had one fifth of their usual amount of snow. The least snow in over 50 years we heard. Japanese tree skiing ...

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Korea Republic of

The two lads at the car rental desk looked increduously at us. ‘You seriously want to rent a car, ….here?’ We pretty quickly got the idea that this doesn’t happen too often in Korea. The car rental pool had a dozen cars and this for an airport that handles 45 million passengers a year. We signed where we were told to sign, paid the money and were soon on the road. If ...

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Antarctica 15

The December 2015 Podorange team came from four nations and English and French were spoken if not always understood! Kindness and good humour shone through and everyone worked well together during our month on board. We encountered rather poor weather and ice choked seas the latter which prevented all vessels from heading south of Cuverville Island. That’s pretty far north! We enjoyed fine ...

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New Zealand – The Fellowship of Seven

Following the short pre-flight safety brief, ‘You can lean on the door once she’s closed’ our pilot taxied the Porter out onto the Mount Cook runway oviously by feel as he could see absolutely nothing through the heavily frosted wind screen. In no time we were airborne, into the sun and heading for Tasman Saddle for the grand finale to our road trip of South Island. ...

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Spitsbergen 2

Running before a steady, comfortable breeze we averaged 5 ½ knots under sail on the 15 hour passage from Ny London to Ymerbukta. With a spinnaker we would have taken 8. Speed however, was not our priority and our stress-free passage afforded us magnificent views of the mountains of Oscar II land and Prins Karls Forland. We were on our return from 8 days ski touring in the far NW of ...

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Sail Ski Spitsbergen

If a person is fortunate, he or she can choose to spend time in the wilder parts of our planet. Replacing the routine and demands of everyday life, even for a short time, with a life in close contact to nature is an uplifting tonic. Spitsbergen is the perfect place for such a tonic; 78° north, cold and austere, a land of mountains and ice. The absolute best way to discover an island such as ...

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Bulgaria – Sometimes the magic works

Time passed. We all sat in the van going nowhere due to the FIS ladies world cup race at the resort of Bansko further up the road. The policeman was adamant but Ivo didn’t relent, slowly sapping his will to resist until ‘Bingo’, off we go. Ivo winked and said his memorable words. Now skinning through the magnificent Macedonian pine forests of Bulgaria is truly magic and the experience in ...

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