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Skiing I learnt to Cross Country ski on a course at Glen Feshie Hostel, Scotland with my Dad and a group of friends in 1989 before I went to Antarctica for the first time. (My Dad and my friends did several more courses whilst I was away.) I've been addicted ever since as such a fun and efficient way of getting around in the snow. I've never tried 'Downhill' although I have come down pistes in either 'tele' skis or ski mountaineering (but usually with the heels free otherwise that would be too weird!) Snowboarding, well if the thought of having your heels fixed is weird, there is no way I am going to strap both feet together on a plank!! Winter sastrugi at Halley teach you how to cope with rough surfaces and I made several longer trips of about 15km between bases and to the coast to spend nights at the hut. Downhill was simulated by Ski-jouring (being pulled behind a Skidoo or Snocat). On my way home I had half a day in the mountains above Santiago, Chile with a group of female Paraguayan doctors on a conference who had never seen snow before!! We built snowmen and shared one pair of hired skis. Come to think of it, they must have been downhill skis so I have done 'Downhill' and the doctors thought I had great technique! After some trials with small plastic sledges as pulks up at Glen Shee, Scotland we formed a group to tour near Kebnekaise and Sarek in arctic Sweden in spring 1994. This lasted a month and the driving there and back was as much of an adventure as the ski tour. I've spent a couple of holidays at Geilo, Norway which is an excellent area for touring but has pistes and lifts as well as an inexhaustable number of tracks. I took my parents to stay in a half-board hotel in the centre. The second time we had a last minute deal to cabins on the outskirts with my Dad and I introduced a girlfriend to skiing, not entirely successfully. We did the standard Flam railway tour. I'd done this before in the summer, but in winter you travel through different seasons in a single day. We also tried running dog sleds on a nearby lake. The charter flights from Stansted to near Geilo are excellent value and you can be skiing by lunchtime, but they end in March when the Norway season is just beginning. I returned to Norway, this time to the Hardangervidda plateau with a great friend Jon for three weeks touring into the middle and back to civilization. This is where Amundsen trained before he went to Antarctica. The most recent trip was with Jean and my Dad to Jotunheimen in Norway. Right amongst the mountains. It's a place I'd love to tour some more. I did some skiing being pulled by a parachute at Halley before the sport was well developed. I'd love to use it on a decent length trip - a Greenland crossing maybe?? | ||
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