I have been coming to Bansko for several years now and thought it would be nice to spend 5 weeks to get my legs going while skiing with friends and enjoy the local culture at the same time. Over the…
Travel reports of me, Paul Roggeveen
Category: Europe
In the last decade I have visited the Écrins on multiple occasions. In 2014 I skied couloir Est de breche Cordier in perfect conditions, probably the best run of my life. I have visited la Grave a few times, some…
In recent years I have visited the Balkan region a few times. Since I enjoyed its variety with mountains, beaches and plenty of culture, I wanted to explore a bit more. Albania is a fine example that ticks all these…
In 2017 I traveled for about 6,5 months with my skis and part of the plan was to ski in Bulgaria. I arrived in Sofia in the beginning of March of that year and explored the Balkan region but, due to bad conditions, I did not ski in Bulgaria. Instead, I went ski touring in Kosovo and Greece. The mountains of Bulgaria have been in the back of my mind ever since and this year I have spent a week in the end of March for some exploration of the Rila and Pirin mountains.
When it comes to skiing in a different culture not too far away from home, the Balkan region offers plenty of opportunities. A wealth of culture and history can be found in the many countries that form the region, making a trip to this part of the world very interesting. However, snow coverage, the weather, finding reliable ski partners, language barriers and tough logistics can make a ski mountaineering trip difficult. So, while facing many challenges, was I able to make something happen?
One of the up-and-coming ski destinations is definitely Georgia and especially a region called Svaneti. Clearly I’m not talking about one of the states in the USA but about an exotic country located in the Caucasus. People are supposedly very friendly and welcoming and some remote skiing is on offer in several parts of the country. In February 2017 I boarded a plane to check it out!
September is usually a perfect time for some spring skiing in the Southern Hemisphere. Since I visited the Andes last year (you can read about that trip here) and my last trips had been ski trips anyway, I figured it was time for a change. After all…variety is the spice of life, so I planned a nice summer holiday. I waited for the high season to finish, so temperatures would drop a little bit to a more convenient 25 degrees Celcius and the huge crowds would hopefully be back home. Dubrovnik was a city high on my list of places to visit, so I planned a trip around it and visited Croatia. I started in its capital Zagreb and slowly made my way South through the Plitvice lakes, Split and the islands of Hvar and Korčula and finished in Dubrovnik.
For years now I have been dreaming of several lines in the Alps. I call it my bucketlist of skiruns. At some point in my life I want to have skied all of them. After traveling for a while now, I couldn’t think of a better way to finish my trip than to ski at least a couple of the runs on my list…
Skiing for a long time and exploring your limits means you will eventually create a so-called bucketlist of skiruns. Lines you have spotted on previous trips, couloirs others tell you about or pictures on the internet can add just another run to the list. Most of the runs on my list are located in the French Alps so when I have some time left, I’d better go and try to shorten my list…
Initially I only wanted to visit Istanbul, a city everyone seems to love. Because my schedule of traveling changed I suddenly had 2 more weeks to spend so a bit of skiing and a visit to Cappadocia were soon added to the itinerary. Skiing in the Alps is pretty popular but skiing in Turkey, what is that about?