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Thread: Esoteric Global Descents?
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04-14-2022, 12:49 PM #1
Esoteric Global Descents?
Came across this rad ski in Tasmania and I'm curious what other people have found around the world.
I've travelled to some interesting corners of the world and always been enthralled by the possibility of obscure, esoteric descents if the stars/storms were to align - Lethoso, Mt Kenya, Indonesia, Oman. Brody Levin's trip to the Mountains of the Moon a few years back was cool. Touring on Crete and the highlands of Lebanon, Sardinia and Corsica has always caught my eye. What you got?
A pretty rad and badass undertaking on Federation Peak when the stars aligned:
https://www.australiangeographic.com...deration-peak/
Last edited by alpinevibes; 04-14-2022 at 04:12 PM.
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04-14-2022, 12:51 PM #2
NYTimes had an article on skiing in Crete this winter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/t...ce-skiing.html
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04-14-2022, 02:37 PM #3
June in Chamonix?
or 260km from the Caribbean? Venezuela's lost glaciers and skiing:
https://www.sierranevadademerida.com...ezuelaano1956/
https://comunicacioncontinua.com/64-...ada-de-merida/
Once the longest and highest cable car in the world, rising 3000m over 12.5km of cable, and for the entire decade of the sixties, year-round skiing was possible on an approximately 300-metre-length slope near the top of the cable car station.
In 2014, we were in northern Colombia, sweating under mosquito nets in the jungle with dim knowledge that 5700m peaks loomed just behind us, 45km from the sea. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is a wild, jutting cluster of peaks that have been off limits for decades. The snow and glaciers remain, but the access is nearly impossible. In 2017 Chad Sayers, Ptor Spricenieks and Steve Ogle made a first descent.
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04-14-2022, 06:20 PM #4
Damn, that Tasmania thing was maybe the worst type 3 fun thing I've ever seen.
I've seen those mountains from Santa Marta, rising above the Caribbean. Super cool looking, but it's also in coca growing areas so not ideal.
Morocco has been on my list, seems like the coolest place to go skiing in Africa.
I'll be in Pakistan 3 weeks from today, not sure if that qualifies for this thread. We'll be in the Shimshal valley, which is the first half of the movie Doo Sar, highly worth watching. https://www.redbull.com/us-en/films/...ski-expedition
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04-14-2022, 08:16 PM #5Registered User
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I've seen a few of these reports. Always have been intrigued by this stuff.
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04-14-2022, 09:13 PM #6
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carstensz_Glacier
Irian Jaya glacier ski would be wtf
There is a cool gold mine documentary on the area
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04-14-2022, 09:14 PM #7
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04-14-2022, 09:42 PM #8
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04-14-2022, 09:51 PM #9
mt etna.
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04-14-2022, 10:05 PM #10
Klar posted a TR from there
https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...d.php?t=289432
And Morocco:
https://www.tetongravity.com/forums/...d.php?t=244534Last edited by abraham; 04-15-2022 at 06:59 AM.
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04-15-2022, 05:46 AM #11
This story about skiing in Baja always interested me.
https://www.powder.com/stories/skiin...baja-ski-club/
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04-15-2022, 06:23 AM #12Mike Pow
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Faroe Islands
Rarely in condition
https://www.instagram.com/p/CNQLLMFD...AocmVBDBsPCqn4
Ski in, ski out
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CMkcD...fNAMrlbAk1qD98
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04-15-2022, 06:29 AM #13Mike Pow
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My back yard is pretty tasty
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLVr0pAD45a/
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04-15-2022, 07:05 AM #14
That's rad, super rad. Who else is going?
We went to Indonesia in 2014 and were supposed to be in New Guinea for a week; didn't happen but I went down the ski Carstensz rabbit hole. Really intriguing history and still some glacier now:
https://snowbrains.com/2nd-highest-s...rth-indonesia/
A guide here in the RFV ice climbed the Diamond Couloir in ~2011 and that lit a spark of intrigue for us to climb Mt Kenya. I think someone tried to ski the Diamond in the last five years, but it didn't go.
We climbed Mt Kenya in July of 2017 to the summit of Batian; there was no snow below 17,000' and the glaciers have shrunk massively. Warren Miller did a ski segment on the largest glacier, Lewis, ~20 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXJ9Egjtu8I It could still be skied now for some turns, but it's lost 90% of its volume.
This, yes! We drove down the Baja in 2014 to Alfonsinas when they paved the top section along the sea of Cortez. I was pretty stunned at the scale of the mountains there and dug up Porters story; so cool. Reminds me of cool descents off San Jacinto and the San Gabriels.
Yes! After I posted the thread I walked to lunch and was thinking about you/Wales, skiing Scotland and then the Faroes as the what-if. Love itLast edited by alpinevibes; 04-15-2022 at 08:30 AM.
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04-15-2022, 07:21 AM #15Rod9301
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Don't know if it counts, but i skied in kamchatka and Russia by the black sea.
And my wife and i went to climb Mt Kenya, had only climbing shoes and a few pitches up, it started to snow. Since we were going to overnight, didn't want to lose toes, do we retreated.
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04-15-2022, 07:24 AM #16Rope->Dope
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Cool thread, even for us that rarely leave the USoA.
The western edge of Mauna Loa summit caldera has some short + steep shots, that could go when the pineapple powder is deep.
Hell, here in CO, there are some zones in the South San Juan, La Garita and Uncompaghre Wilderness, among others, that are black holes for skiing beta. Get after it!Last edited by hatchgreenchile; 04-15-2022 at 02:37 PM.
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04-15-2022, 07:56 AM #17
Esoteric Global Descents?
I twice skied on the east side of Badger mountain on BLM land above Douglas Creek. Nothing spectacular but surreal skiing with desert all around and views of Mission Ridge, Rainier and the Stuart Range above the typical January inversion.
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04-15-2022, 08:52 AM #18
Yeah, it was pretty damn cold up there but we luckily had decent weather. I brought rock shoes, but climbed in my Boulder X's. We rapped most of the descent (11? raps) in the dark; cold AF. I was a zombie by the time we unclipped and had to stumble down the Moraine another 1000ft down to Shipton's camp...
The Rwenzoris have held major intrigue, but they're emaciated like Mt Kenya.
Attachment 413202
How about Egypt? The Sinai?
Attachment 413204
Ethiopia?
Attachment 413205
West Texas?
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04-15-2022, 09:22 AM #19
Lots of ski potential down there: https://web.archive.org/web/20190121...orgia2014.html
On the opposite end of the world, I've read about skiing in the Aleutians - http://www.alsap.org/SkiBowlUnalaska...wlUnalaska.htm Still some interesting first descents to be had with good timing and the possibility of accessible weather and transport.
The disappearing what-ifs?
Taiwan, which had a ski area like Venezuela?
Yemen, after the right Cyclone?
Vietnam - a foot of snow at 10,000'?
At 13,000' in Malaysia?
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04-15-2022, 10:21 AM #20
Reading the kit deslarias 7 summits book now. The entire thing is paid for by some dude she met on a lift in Jackson.
All respect to her, and glad she met random Jackson elite money guy. Insane amts of money is what it takes to ski random places. I can't justify it. Cool shit though.
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04-15-2022, 01:19 PM #21
Me, Brittany (wife), a buddy from here in CB, a guy that worked with Brittany this year at Bluebird Backcountry, and a guy that worked with Brittany last year at Bluebird and now works at Powder Mountain. Guided (American guy), porters with horses to get us to basecamp, all that fun stuff.
We didn't have to run into a super rich dude on the lift for this one. It isn't that much more to do 3 weeks there than it is to do one week at a heli accessed hut in BC. We were going to use miles but even the flights weren't that bad. But yeah, a lot of those other ones in this thread would require a ton of money on top of the great timing.
We did our honeymoon in the Azores and climbed Pico, which is Portugal's highest point, pretty much in the middle of the Atlantic. It gets snow and would qualify: http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/ROF.php?name=Pico
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04-15-2022, 02:27 PM #22
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04-15-2022, 02:37 PM #23Registered User
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04-15-2022, 02:41 PM #25
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