Skiing the Skiing Hemisphere

michael heyman

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Apr 21, 2002, 12:33:31 PM4/21/02

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Hi Crew,

Got in far too few ski days this season. Has anyone skied the Southern
Hemisphere? What's it like?

--
michael

michael heyman

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Apr 21, 2002, 12:58:04 PM4/21/02

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Sorry. That's skiing the "southern" hemisphere.
--
michael
"michael heyman" <he...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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JWE

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Apr 21, 2002, 1:22:48 PM4/21/02

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I skied Kilimanjaro (skated, spring crust) once, and apart from having to
laboriously explain in Swahili (a language with no easy words or phrases to
explain skiing) what I was doing the skiing was outstanding. I recommend
flying into Nairobi on Air France and then hopping the shuttle to Arusha.
Bring a pad for your ass on the bus ride to the base camp. There's maybe
better air service to the local field by now. When you fly around inside
Africa, Air Ethiopia has really nice on-board service (the irony).

jwe

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
For any journey to become a true adventure,
it must be firmly rooted in a foundation of
financial uncertainty.

"michael heyman" <he...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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: Hi Crew,

:
:

Jerry M. Wright

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Apr 21, 2002, 2:17:14 PM4/21/02

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Mt. Kilimanjaro is in the southern hemisphere.

You may want to brush up on your geography or be more specific in your
question.

Ben Goetter

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Apr 21, 2002, 4:05:11 PM4/21/02

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Quoth Jerry M. Wright:

> Mt. Kilimanjaro is in the southern hemisphere.
>
> You may want to brush up on your geography or be more specific in your
> question.

He was't refuting JWE's reply. He was replying directly to his own
message, correcting the contents of his original post's Subject: field.

You may want to use a newsreader that honors the References: field, or
else not be quite so hasty in your corrections.

sknyski

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Apr 21, 2002, 6:03:31 PM4/21/02

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Depends on what you want to do. If it's track skiing, which is the
interest of most of the posters to this NG, then I would recommend
Australia. I think that there's track skiing also in Chile and New
Zealand, but in the former you're risking getting caught in a military
coup and in the latter, the only place that grooms requires you to
share a bunk with sheep. I was in OZ a couple of years ago at Falls
Creek and the skiing was good. There are other places, too. Plus,
they speak an entertaining form of English. Don't forget that you'll
have to ski on the left side of the trail. No kidding.

bt

Ken Roberts

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Apr 22, 2002, 1:43:23 PM4/22/02

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Just for the record, at this minute there's almost certainly more and better
XC skiing in the _northern_ hemisphere, if you include exotic places like
Sognefjellet and Steiermark and Bend Oregon.

That statement _might_ even still be true in August and September. See . .
.

http://www.skiroll.it/marin/ramsau_eng.htm
(photos)

http://www.goski.com/rau/1ramsau.htm
(note report from July)

http://www.skinnyski.com/notices/archives/etale-1.html
(survey of summer alternatives)

http://www.finnsisu.com/journal20001030.html
(another discussion of summer-fall training)

Sharon and me expect that we will still be skiing in the first half of
June -- without leaving North America.

Ken

Christin...@us.mwhglobal.com

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Apr 22, 2002, 3:16:47 PM4/22/02

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Not much track skiing left in Utah, but Brighton Utah (Big Cottonwood
canyon, home of Solitude Nordic area) just closed yesterday with over 100
inches of snow, including a 3-day storm Thursday/Friday/Saturday that
dumped 43" (settling down to about 20" of spring powder, and settling
faster by the day). There will be good alpine touring in the Utah
high-country for another month at least.

Time to trade the skinny light-weight stuff for the fat heavier stuff! Now
all we need are some clear skies, and cold nights to re-form the corn. I
can dream, can't I?

Chris

taywood

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Apr 22, 2002, 2:59:49 PM4/22/02

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"sknyski" <skn...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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> Depends on what you want to do. If it's track skiing, which is the
> interest of most of the posters to this NG, then I would recommend
> Australia.

<snip>

This is also the home of the Kangaroo Hoppett,
the famous loppett race

Gavin Watt

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Apr 23, 2002, 5:37:25 AM4/23/02

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The main Nordic skiing sites in Australia are the Victorian High Country
Resorts of Falls Creek (where the Kangaroo Hoppet in held in late August),
Mount Hotham (they also have a biathlon range), Lake Mountain and in New
South Wales, Perisher Blue. New Zealand has a good Resort called Waiorau Ski
Farm near Queenstown on the South Island.
You can check out my web site for more info and links. Do a search for
"Nordic Tendencies". If your American, the Australian dollar is worth 53
cents US.
The snow season is about 10 to 12 weeks long, with July and August the most
"reliable".
Don't bring your blue or green wax, just yellow and orange. Most skiing is
done around 32F

Gavin Watt

"sknyski" <skn...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
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Eddy Rapid

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Apr 23, 2002, 6:35:08 AM4/23/02

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"Ken Roberts" <KenRob...@yahoo.com> wrote in message

> Just for the record, at this minute there's almost certainly more and
better
> XC skiing in the _northern_ hemisphere, if you include exotic places like
> Sognefjellet and Steiermark and Bend Oregon.
>
> That statement _might_ even still be true in August and September. See .
.
> .

It is certainly true, if you're interested in backcountry. On Baffin Island,
Nunavut, Canada,
I've skied for days in mid August:

http://www.canadianarcticholidays.ca/file06.htm

Check out http://www.canadianarcticholidays.ca/ if interested in that kind
of thing.

Parham.

Ken Roberts

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Apr 23, 2002, 10:06:58 AM4/23/02

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Parham -

Looks like a very exciting trip. Thanks for sharing it.

Those pictures do say it -- there's snow and cold up north in August.

Looks like you were all using the same brand of skis (rented?), and with a
special binding which could accept hiking boots instead of ski boots.

Don't be surprised if a band of crazy Americans shows up there with skis
this summer.

Ken

P.S. I was literally called a "crazy American" while skiing this year in
Europe. By some (doubtless over-educated) Dutch man who spoke excellent
English.

Eddy Rapid

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Apr 23, 2002, 8:29:52 PM4/23/02

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Ken,

It was a great trip. If circumstances allowed I would/will do more.

One of the reasons I did this trip was that Richard Weber, certainly one of
foremost North Pole explorers, and former member of the Canadian National XC
team, guided it. I learned an incredible amount from him and enjoyed his
company. BTW, Richard, at the age of 40+ regularly comes in the top 3 at the
Keskinada Classic.

You are right about the bindings. They are the Canadian Military binding.
They allowed us to do the hike+ski by using hiking boots for both. However,
they are used even for just skiing in the extreme cold expedition
conditions, because they allow you to wear much warmer mukluk style boots
(which also have dryable/exchangeable linings) Here are some useful links,
from the "Canadian Arctic Holidays" site, on the equipment used:

http://www.canadianarcticholidays.ca/file37.htm

http://www.canadianarcticholidays.ca/file23.htm

Talking about "Crazy Americans", we were called "Crazy Kablunas" by our Inuk
friends, which was really just a friendly leg pull for going off on a
useless long trip since there was no hunting involved :-)

If you go up to Baffin, it would be advisable to connect with people with
recent local knowledge of conditions (weather, bears, ice, etc.) Drop me an
email and I can provide you with some additional information, if you get
serious about this. And you've got to post a trip reports, of course.

Parham.

"Ken Roberts" <KenRob...@yahoo.com> wrote in message