Past Trips

Dee from Gqeberha, or Port Elizabeth as it used to be, was banging out rock classics on a genuine vintage Les Paul to a receptive, and fairly well-oiled audience.  It was past closing time but he was enjoying the fun as much as we were so, keeping him fueled with Maluti premium lager ‘Pride of Lesotho’ and plenty of tips in his plastic cup, the songs kept coming.  We had arrived at Afriski ...

Four May’s ago in Reinfjord we skied powder to the beach whereas this time the trees were green and the snow was a twenty-minute or more walk up the mountain.  The snow was good though and the welcome from our hosts Heidi and Jan-Tøre as warm as ever.  It was nice to be back. Once again Heidi produced the most delicious meals with impressive efficiency.  She spent many years cooking for 90 ...

We didn’t know what was in store as we boarded the Snelandia Hurtigbåt to remote Bergsfjord for mid-May spring skiing.  It had been a very strange winter in Norway with low snowfall and warm temperatures so expectations were low.  Our base was to be Bergsfjord Lodge. The views create new dreams It turns out this was one of the best weeks of the 2026 season.  We were most fortunate with the ...

Tateyama since ancient times has been a sacred place.  The three thousand metre mountain, and those surrounding it are believed to be the dwelling place of the gods  – the Kami.  The mountain tops are on the path to heaven and worshipping there allowed pilgrims to avoid falling into Hell – symbolised by the steaming, sulphorous Lake Mikurigaike at their base. On the wall of our Murodo ...

A forty minute drive from the hustle and bustle of Chamonix brings you to the ski resort of Les Contamines Montjoie.  This quieter corner of the Mont Blanc Massif offers accessible off-piste terrain, easy day tours, steep skiing and access to the high mountains surrounding the Tré la Tête Glacier – the fourth largest in France. Two hundred years ago, the Tré la Tête Glacier flowed all ...

What is new to write about the Dolomites after so many visits?  Thinking about the trip over morning coffee, I jotted down a few thoughts.  Here they are, in no particular order: HelmetsFrom this year it is compulsory to wear helmets when resort skiing in Italy.  Crossing the Dolomites on skis requires the use of lifts, so we had to comply.  Easy enough for those who habitually wear helmets, ...

Pomegranates and Powder Hovhannes welcomed us warmly to his house, greeting us with freshly squeezed pomegranate juice and Armenian coffee.  Delicious, and for the first time in several days, drinks I could appreciate. Eating cold, cooked food which has sat out in a food court is an ideal way to catch food poisoning—and catch it I did.  I had felt it coming on during the opening act of Madame ...

Last minute spring snow The High Atlas come as a surprise to most ski mountaineers.  Few expect such sharp, steep peaks and challenging ski objectives. This was a last-minute, mid-March, visit to enjoy good snow conditions and sunny, blue-sky skiing. For two members of the team, this marked their seventh and final ski continent. Classic Atlas ski lines Sitting on the terrace of our gîte in ...

The Power of Spring Snow Water rushed down the rusting iron half-pipe to the turbine wheel which spun wildly in a shower of spray.  Installed in Soviet times, before transmission lines reached Ghilon, it still provides the village with a modest but reliable 6kW of power. This water then flows into the Aksu River and on to the huge Hisorak reservoir and dam.  Built in 1987 at the entrance to ...

Ski Touring in the Shadow of the State   Emomali Rahmon – The Beloved Leader. His photo is everywhere. Looking down at you with benevolent eyes, arm often outstretched, acknowledging the love of a grateful people.  Rahmon, Tajikistan’s “Founder of Peace and Unity” and “Leader of the Nation,” watches over the country from billboards and the outside of buildings.  One could be forgiven for ...

Cigars, raki and ski touring Admir is a cheerful, welcoming man with a humidor full of expensive Cuban cigars.  Empty cigar boxes lie piled up next to an eyebrow-raising selection of cognac, whisky, grappa and raki.  We are the only guests for three delicious dinners in Admir’s restaurant which sits high on a hill overlooking Plav, a muslim town in Eastern Montenegro. Many people from this ...

Unwelcome encounters The E4 motorway service station just north of Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture had automatic doors which weren’t working.  On investigation they had been disabled and had to be pulled apart by hand.  This retro step was necessary to prevent unwanted customers in the form of black bears from activating them.  Signs on the doors explained the problem and it is a very real one ...

Landing in Quito in the rain, we wondered if we’d done the right thing by coming to Ecuador and by bringing our original dates forward.  For the first two days the rain didn’t stop and nervous laughter accompanied weather talk. We didn’t know what to expect though we did have hopes for some sunshine, some skiing and for a fun time.  Mountaineering boots were on the kit list should there be ...

It was 3am and the hut warden was tidying up after breakfast.  Upending stools and placing them on the tables he was keen to get to bed.  We too were about to return to bed, much to his surprise.  ‘You’re not going to give the weather window a go’ he said to me with a look which said, ‘you loser’.  No, we weren’t, we were going back to bed, the only group in the hut to do so.  Outside, ...

When it’s good, late season ski mountaineering can be bloody good.  These eight days were about as good as good can get.  We enjoyed a white velvet carpet for our turns, magical sunrises and the fun and satisfaction of reaching the summit of the 4634m Dufourspitze, Western Europe’s second highest mountain, on an absolutely perfect day.  All in all a wonderful week.  

Svolvær, the main town in the Lofoten archipelago, is one of the historical centres of the Norwegian fishing industry.  Up to five million tons of fish, mainly cod, are landed and processed annually.  For thousands of years the cod has been air dried on racks to make the famous stockfish or tørrfisk as it is in Norwegian.  Up here fish is number one. Tourism is number two and with rapidly ...

If our day on 5469m Mariposa Sur in the Cordillera Vilcanota were a play it would be written in classic dramatic form comprising five acts with no intermission. Act I – our intrepid ski tourists ascend to the glacier accompanied by an arriero, his two children and a mule.  The mule does the heavy lifting until it can go no further at which point the man and his children shoulder the burdens.  ...

Stuck in the centre of a slow-moving low-pressure system we didn’t have the best of weather for this week in the Abruzzo, Central Italy.  Led by Francesco we did get off to a cracking start with two memorable days in Majella including the justifiably famous Rava della Vespa.  However, cloud and rain followed which severely limited our achievements to a lightning ascent of 2331m Monte ...

Several of my ski touring mountain guide colleagues are fed up with Norway because the weather is always bad.  Personally I like it,  though it certainly doesn’t make guiding easy.  The dramatic mountain and fjord-land scenery combined with an ever changing light show is simply spectacular. Our week started at the warm and welcoming Bjerkvik Hotel and the weather was indeed foul.  Outside our ...

The chapels of the fourth century Geghard monastery are architectural and acoustic wonders.  We were fortunate to be alone to explore them, some hewn out of the lava stone, and some partially build with it.  On that grey, snowy, late afternoon it was a magical place. As we entered the main chapel we were greeted by a beautiful melodious ‘mum…ble, mum…ble, mumble’ from a solitary ...

The Al-Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, can be heard five times a day all over Turkey.  In the bustling Anatolian city of Erzurum it blasts out of loudspeakers, amplifiers turned up to eleven, in a coordinated call to the faithful. Here in the tiny mountain village of Yaylalar there is a mosque for the winter population of ten.  It would be snowed under were it not for the efforts of the ...

My room hotel room in Trabzon has a pillow menu – just call reception.  This is a service I don’t think I’ve encountered on Wayoffpiste ski trips before.  I sit down and, as we all do these days, go to connect to the hotel Wi-Fi.  To do so one must enter passport number and room number to connect.  Unlike reception knowing what kind of pillow I like I do find this sinister.  Later that ...

The bright night time lights of Hirosaki City sparkled at my feet.  I was outside in the dark sitting naked on a green plastic garden chair as one does.  Our hotel would have been totally forgettable were it not for the wonderful 10th floor outdoor onsen I had just been soaking in.  Onsen’s, natural thermal hot springs, are the perfect way to relax after skiing Japan’s famous powder and in ...

“If you start to slide I’m out”.  Brownie was on the uphill side of the van with his hand on the door handle.  I was concentrating on the drive and with the void on my side, jumping out was not a option. The old Hiace was four wheel drive but the problem was the gearing and the crap tires.  First gear wasn’t low enough so I had to brake and when I lost traction, the ABS came on and control ...

The white painted concrete Esplanade Hotel could be a monstrosity but it isn’t.  Beautifully renovated, it is simple and stunning.  Apparently it used to be pink. We parked up in the van and I went to see Peter, who was a man of few words judging by our phone conversation earlier.  Effortlessly deadpan, he took the money and gave me the keys. “Is breakfast included” “No” “Can we buy ...

Ken Fujikawa had skied the Japanese Alps from Murodo to Kamikochi before.  His record-setting, twenty-hour traverse, was fuelled by 20 Powergels and one and a half litres of water.  He and Kei Karino were supporting our attempt at the traverse but this time there was nothing fast nor light about it.  No records were in sight which is just as well as their rucksacks weighed in at a ...

There are never any weather or snow guarantees and certainly not in destinations such as Iceland.  Probabilities are as good as we get.  So in Iceland you would not be surprised to encounter grey skies, wind, snow and rain. We had all of this, except the rain, double XL.  It was mid-April and it felt like we had stepped back into winter. On our drive to Eskifjordur we were stuck at the ...

Kirketaket.  The church roof.  1439m.  Described by Halvor Hagen in his Romsdalen guidebook as one of the top 10 ski touring peaks in Norway which is quite an accolade. It was 26 March and a perfect, windless, bluebird day with avalanche risk about as low as it can be.  And boy was it busy. We’d hardly seen a soul on our previous tours but here we had families with rucksackless teenagers, ...

A huge, rather unsightly glass-fibre troll stands guard by the entrance of The Grand Hotel, Andalsnes.  Somewhat off-putting, its purpose probably to remind the summer bus parties where they are for the night – some 10 minutes from the famous Trolltinden?  The Troll Wall. Step inside The Grand Hotel and all thoughts of trolls disappear with the warmth of the welcome.  The staff here are ...

In every country there are childhood treats that have survived, reminding us of our former selves, all those years ago. Kofola is a Czech and Slovak survivor from the communist era and a was a rival to Coke and Pepsi.  Kofola took off in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s and is still enjoyed to this day, often served as draft from a keg.  Helena likes her Kofola with it’s associated memories and by day two ...

Hungarian Ski Tourer was always going to be a long shot and a hard sell.  Hungary is not the flattest country in Europe but is not far off it.  However, bordering the plains of the Danube are a few wooded hills and on some of them pistes have been cut to create tiny ski areas.  Bankut is largest of these minnows offering five pistes totalling 3.5km in length and a similar number of lifts.  ...

We are enjoying a beer at the 10 Barrel Brewing Company, Boise, Idaho.  Not long landed from Amsterdam we’re surprised to see some of our fellow early evening drinkers carrying firearms.  What does the law allow in this, the fifth most Republican state in the US?  A quick internet search gives us – ‘Idaho permits the open carrying of handguns on the person with no permit or ...

The hotel complex was pure Soviet.  Everything built from concrete or steel – decaying or rusted.  The gates were shut with no guard in the gate house.  Obviously closed, the place was as empty of guests as the outdoor swimming pools were of water. Andrey pushed open the gates in silence and down we drove in near darkness to the main building.  We all looked at each other.  This was it for ...

‘No, no, no.  You buy the beers.  I do the talking’ Propping up the bar in his usual spot the Antarctica Bore had captured an unsuspecting audience.  The man had just tried to get a word of his own in, perhaps a sailing anecdote, but that was never going to happen. ‘…fifty knots on the beam……dragging anchors…..growler packed seas…..leopard seals and blizzards…..’  the bellowing monologue was ...

Day after day it chucked it down.  Bucketing.  Rain of Biblical proportions pouring off the pavements and down the streets.  Cloud to lake level a metre higher than the norm.  There was weeping and much gnashing of teeth. No-one had seen anything like it – the effect of El Niño on top of global warming resulting in perhaps the greatest redistribution of heat and moisture ever.  The ...

“Everyone wants to ski Lofoten” said the young local guide with a wall-to-wall smile.  I hadn’t realised how popular a destination it had become perhaps due to me not following any social media.  It’s popular but as soon as the obvious classics are skied there are endless objectives just waiting for fresh tracks. 23 wasn’t the best year for conditions due to bizarre weather patterns (becoming ...

Tonight’s topic of dinner conversation with the group of highly inspirational septuagenarians I am skiing with?  They are discussing which of the latest ATK pin bindings to fit to their new skis.  Tucking into Trachanás, a filling shepherd’s staple made from sundried wheat flower, eggs and milk after a ski ascent of Greece’s second highest mountain, these are not your average seventy-year ...

Wanda Rutkiewicz, Voytek Kurtyka and Jerzy Kukuczka are the first three Polish greats that come to mind when I think of the golden years of Himalayan climbing.  There are many more.  They were hard, strong, determined, and talented and they all started out climbing in the Tatras. I knew nothing about the massif until I saw it for myself on this ski trip.  The heroic Poles and their exploits ...

‘There is more to see for those who listen’ stated the banner flying by the cobbled ramp up to the so-called Dracula’s castle at Bran.  I’ve no idea why these words of wisdom were there but they made me smile.  They also reminded me of Harley’s father’s adage ‘The wise old owl sat in an oak, the more he saw the less he spoke, the less he spoke the more he heard.  Why can’t we all be ...

Жолунар шыдыр болсу.  ’May your journey be smooth’.  I had spotted the road sign through frosted van windows earlier in the day.  It was -13°C.  Fast forward to midday and our smart looking Mercedes Sprinter 4 X 4 had front nearside wheel and disc lying on the ground, axle on a piston jack.  Wheel bearings finished.  Road travel in places such as Kyrgyzstan is often anything but smooth. In a ...

‘Throw the ropes!’, ‘Come on!’ came the command.  The team turned and looked at the hapless skipper, eyebrows raised, as the yacht drifted closer to the floating dock.  There were no ‘ropes’ ready.  They had not been prepared despite two members of the team having mentioned mooring warps on the approach. I’m fortunate to have done many sail ski trips now and seen a range of skippers with ...

Our time in Greenland was dominated by three deep Atlantic low-pressure zones which funnelled very strong NNE winds down the coast accompanied by abundant precipitation.  It was unseasonably warm, so this fell as rain, which is no fun on a snow camping, ski experience. The first low delayed our departure from Matt and Helen’s island of comfort in Kulusuk.  We eventually made it out using an ...

The snow in Troms this month of May was the best I skied in the entire 2022 ski season.  From 1 – 8 May it was full-on winter with abundant cold freshies.  Perhaps because of the cold wild weather nobody else was out?  It was just great. Most of our skiing was from the tiny settlement of Reinfjord which is reached by coastal ferry from Skjervøy. There we were based in the warm and comfortable ...

The 70 metre, 2424 ton Jon Kjartansson pelagic trawler dominated the little port of Eskifjordur – generators growling and lights ablaze.  Fascinated, we asked Berglind if she could arrange a visit. Jon Kjartansson was in from fishing for blue whiting south of the Faroe Islands and if I remember rightly she had landed 800 tonnes for processing.  Her foray had burnt 140 000 litres of her ...

We had been worried about the snow cover for our planned traverse but with some slight changes and a little walking it was fine.  There was enough snow, but it wasn’t snow or skiing as one imagines.  Old, crusty, bumpy, and rutted, it was at least consistent in its teeth chattering challenge. On 16 March we awoke to an ominous, orange sky with the brightness turned to low.  Large plumes of ...