Photos
Background
The following are photos and videos, primarily of travels and Ibiza. Pre-2015 photos were taken with a Panasonic Lumiz TZ30 .. a good compromise travel camera with a 20x zoom. New toy for 2015 was an Olympus Stylus 1, which has a better lens, bigger CCD, albeit being heavier and smaller zoom. I run the phots through picassa for simple cropping, editting, and sharing on the web. 2022- of course time has moved on and phone cameras are pervasive to the point that I dont use a camera much, and wouldn’t know what to upgrade the Olympus with. Also Picassa has been long retired and I use (free) Adobe Photoshop Express and Snapseed for photo editing. The videos are taken with a second-hand gopro and compiled with videopad .. although the Antarctica videos used the Olympus Stylus.
In 2024 I moved totally to a decent phone. Photo technology has changed such that the camera and processing power of a phone matches all but the best DSLR cameras .. and you always have a phone with you !
The life of a faffer evolves, having spent five years indulging in winter holistic hedonism, complementary warm-weather adventures have matured to now deserve their own section .. welcome to adventure motorcycling.
FAFF: To muck about, wasting time doing something not necessary. (just in case you've forgotten)
Ski Mountaineering
Kyrgyzstan Jan 2023
A weeks trip to the Picos de Europa was cancelled and Jim was struggling to find an alternative with minimal snow everywhere in Europe. A chance reach-out with a Russian guide Andre got Jim to resurrect a trip to Kygyzsytan that was planned pre-covid. It turned out to be another classic ‘stan adventure complimenting the others I’ve travelled to. We started visiting the capital Bishtek and after the smog headed out the far East into the mountains at Jyralan. We had five days staying in a ‘lodge’ – great food, frozen loos (it was -30o) and the mountains to ourselves. We then spend 2 days, with a faff of a broken minibus travelling to Arslanbob, spending a few days skiing amongst the worlds largest walnut forest.
I was humbled with the quality of my friends photography and I enclose links to Gordon and Peters great offerings.
After several years of postponements due to covid we finally manage to go on our greenland adventure. Travelling via Iceland to Kulusuk, the only eastern coast place with an airport we join pirhuk for a couple of weeks of mountain fun involving ski mobiles, boats, skins (yeah), lodge, camping and hut.. We spent 5 days camping on the shoreline skinning and skiing to 800m or so summits through glaciers and then 3 days including a traverse to a remote hut. All the mountaineering toys were in good use from ropes through ice axes. Conditions were warm with mixed heavy and corn snow. Greenland showed us extremes of beauty and the rougher side of inuit life. Similarly the weather showed us sunny days and three storms.
Dolomites Mar 2022
Kazakhstan Dec 2019
I went to S Balkans in 2016 and wanted to return for more mtns and culture going to N Balkans this year. We started in the Julian Alps, Slovenia straight in at the deep end with hard, icy, steep slopes but magnificant jagged scenery. Nicely technical pulls all the tools and skills out but good weather and a nice base. We flew to Sarajevo, picked up buses and headed for a few days into Bosnia, a country destroyed so many times by war and genocide. Poor, smokey, bombed out and every village having a terrible story it left a huge impression of me. A great drive south to the Durmitor National Park in Northern Montenegro where we had 3 days skiing very relaxing mtns accompanied by the local dogs.
It would have been rude not to ski NZ once in a lifetime as its a unique ski experience. The weather patterns set the agenda and we were blessed, starting in Wanaka we had a few days locally, then headed N and E to local ski fields before heading for two trips at huts in the glaciers E and W of Mt Cook. To cap it all we had a week or so of sublime biking round the S island on Africa Twins and I then spent time with my bruv.
I must have been nuts agreeing to go ski-mtneering into the highest ranges in the world, where base camp was as high as the summit of mt Blanc. Reality proved worse than expectations when I became more ill as the days went by, belly problems galore. Nevertheless the country was fascinating to see and a unique experience camping 4800m at the top of the Khara Koty valley. We achieved 5 summits over 5000m in 5 days whih was some going as we were climbing 150m/hr max at this altitude. The glaciers have strunk so the emphasis was on the mountaineering more than the skiing.
Heli-fusion, CMH’s name for ski-touring using a helicopter to take us to remote areas in the mountains near Revelstoke.
Greece is typically known for beautiful islands and sun but sshh it has a number of superb mountain ranges to ski tour. We started from Athens, had a few days skiing with the gods near Delphi and then headed north to the Tzoumerka Mountains and onto the Pindos. Nicknamed the ‘Precipitation tour’ (after the borderline rain/snow all week) we had the mountains to ourselves with great days out, superb history and outstandingly good-natured greek folk.
It couldn’t be resisted, a return to Japan for sublime powder, onsens and cold fish for breakfast. This time we travelled to a number of peaks in Tohoku, the far north of Honshu, the main island. Flying into Aomori and out of Sendai we had 9 days of sublime conditions, 1.5m of snow dropped on the first night and it continued to top up throughout the trip. Grey, blxxdy cold and perfect powder conditions until the sun finally burst through on the last day.
Despite my reservations we had an outstanding tour of the ‘best snow in the world ™’ covering three mountain ranges in USA over three weeks. We started our tour near Ouray, in the San Juan Mountains, moving on to outskirts of SLC and the Wasatchs and ending in Jackson Hole and the Tetons. Using local guides in each area we had outstanding remote days with more powder than knew what to do with. Yes, 12 days of waist-high powder is so tedious eh! Adding to the pow we had great experiences touring the country in suburbans and gallivanting with local brews and bands.
We undertook Norways ‘haute-route’, a hut-hut tour in the Jotunheimen region.
A tour combining visiting some of the legendary cities of the silk road, Bukhara and Samarkand and ski-touring in the Chatkal mountains. As always with trips to usual places the people were friendly and interesting, particularly wandering around the back streets of silk road cities. The skiing area was a bit restricted being on the border with Tadjikistan but fascinating with horses, people, 70’s ski equipment, skidoos and sledges all battling for the same area of snow (while we skinned away from the resort area).
The Kamchatka penninsular is in the Far East area of Russia, an area of great remoteness, active volcanoes and cabbage sandwiches (which I’ve not yet recoved from). Once again with NewRoute.ru we pretty much had the region to ourselves for touring up and into active volcanoes. Great remote-ness, good weather, good snow and congenial company .. yes, even with French friends. We based ourselves in two areas, one South, one North of Petropavlovsk in remote mountain huts nestling between the volcanoes.
Another great adventure into SE Europe and the Russian influences. It started in style in Kiev, Ukraine with me having phone and wallet stolen and proceeded into the remote Svaneti moutain region of Georgia. Good conditions, company and nicely remote.
Meeting up with Gent (from Hokkaido), he (with Jim) ran a road trip in the Balkans. The zen-master, in the 4×4 mothership, took us through Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and northern Greece. Conditions were good, company was most congenial, it was great to see South-Eastern Europe for the first time and nice to ski with Zeus on Mount Olympus.
This was a sail and ski trip into Antarctica. It was such an outstanding and memorable trip I also wrote (i.e. faffed) a website Sail and Ski Antarctica
Plan A was an outstanding adventure with a Chilean mountaineering outfit touring ‘the 10 volcanos of Chile’ over a couple of weeks. After the first week we had managed two (and a bit) volcanos and the guide was a nervous chap .. el nino was wrecking havoc with relentless warmth and rain killing the ski touring. So, a call was put into the main man and we came up with a plan B .. a hiking tour of Torres Del Paine, an outstanding national park in Patagonia. So, not the best of ski touring but an excellent introduction and adventure in South America and Chile.
Spitzbergen, nearly at 80째 latitute north of Norway is probably the nearest decent skiing to the north pole. This trip was based from a 45′ yacht and we managed to sail the western coast of Spitzbergen, stopping off to ski glaciers and summitts from the fyords. Highlights were the remotestness, superb weather (sun for 10 days – 24hrs/day), wildlife, most northerly pub in the world and the combination of sailing and skiing.
Iran is not the easiet place to get to, having to get a UK visa from Ireland and huge efforts finding insurance, but it was hugely worth it. Apart from the big mtn ranges north of Tehran, the people were genuinely then nicest and friendliest I’ve ever met. We spent time camping at 3000m in the Alamkouh region and then went over to Davamand, including summitting the highest volcano in Asia at 5700m.
Went back to Hokkaido again .. it seemed rude not to given the great powder of last year. Conditions were not as good, less snow (as everywhere this year), and very windswept, but we still got some lovely tree-skiing and good adventures. Hightlight was probably a 2km height skin up Mt Yotei to summit and then ski inside the volcano’s crater. Special ski wax was needed to cope with skiing on snow one minute and lava the next (not 🙂
This was a 6day hut-tour through the Dolomites, starting at Passo Rolle and heading steadily NE ended a bit N of Tre-Cime-di-Lavaredo. Being late-season the days started before dawn so there was stunning early light. We typically spent the morning skinning up to a col (or summitt) to spend the afternoon cruising down to the next hut. A great unspoilt european hut tour in the best Italian style.
This was a deep-powder (not!) ski-tour to Azerbaijan, virtually never ski-toured before. We stayed in two mtn villages (Laza and Khinaliq) and a weather-survey station around Mt Shahdag in the Caucases near the caspian sea. Snow was a bit (!) lacking, e.g. we summitted Mt Shahdag, although we had to walk up the blxxdy thing in ski boots, and permits were ‘challenging’ including the one from the Ministry of Extreme Sports! Very much cultural learnings, particularly in the villages and industrial ruins around Baku although we did get some good skiing in (e.g. its cool skinning up the the russian border). The Russian guide Alexey also put together a video of the trip .. thx Alexey
These are some piss-take photos of Azerbaijan
This was a ski-tour to Hokkaido, the northern island of Japan. We stayed in ryokans in Niseko and Furano areas and predominantly skinned up volcanos .. to ski down again 🙂 Powder is legendary and I liked the close feel of skinning and skiing among the silver birch trees … btw, sushi is over-rated shite.
This was a ski-tour to the western edge of mongolia, taking some 4 days of travelling from Beijing via the trans-siberian railway, local flight, russian gaz trucks, and skins. Memorable moment was finding the camels we were supposed to have for transport were no more, having died in the winter. We camped up at 3km on a glacier underneath mt khuitin and had a number of great touring excursions in the area before moving on.
Gulmarg, kashmir is supposedly the best skiing in the Himalaya’s on the kashmir/pakistan border and offers mostly back-country skiing. A gondola takes you to near 4km and you can skin off along a big ridge to huge areas of the mountain. Also you can ski down from the hotel area into the lower village. Cultural learnings come from Delhi, the gulmarg hotel (with all the walla’s), indian way of life and big army presence.
Adventure Motorcycling
Bird and I joined another Ride Expeditions trip ‘Himalayan Heights’ that had two parts over 2 weeks. The first week we traveled N from Shimla to Leh through Himachal Pradesh going through wooded hills and valleys, rural villages and varied ‘roads’. The second week we toured through the far more bleaker and remote east Himalayas, near the Chinese border going east to phangong tsao lake and west towards the Pakistan border. A superb trip, particularly given the variation in scenery, villages, roads and mountain passes as we progressed. Aptly we rode Royal Enfield Himalayans .. so much fun that a bought one a week after I got home.
We were fortunate to have a professional phot-videographer, Peter, on the trip who made this video.
ACT Pyrennes Sept 2022
We joined a Ride Expeditions trip aptly named ‘Tumble in the Jungle’ which combined some sightseeing of classic Cambodian places (eg Ankor Wat) with 6 days of enduro riding Yamaha WRF250s from Siem Reap to Phnom Penn. Original plan was Bird and I but the dotard got Covid so Snitch came instead. It was classed as ‘difficult’ and, with a combination of unseasonal downpours reducing the tracks to unpassable mud, tracks reclaimed by the jungle after 2 years lack of use and mid-30s heat and humidity it was fukkin difficult. Up in the top five hardest things I’ve ever done. Unfortunately on the first day I failed a corner, dropped the bike and dived into a canal which rendered my phone unusable. Hence the link to others photos.
ACT Portugal Sept 2021
After such a good trip in ’17 we returned to Morocco with a self-guided trip round the N and M’Goun .. it was bound to go wrong, and to our huge enjoyment it did. First day turned into a epic, ended in the dark in a storm. We used Tenere’s which were a better on road abliet not quite as good off ..but a better compromise. Three different characters made for interesting days, particularly as the weather was not kind, all roads thru the mtns were blocked but huge fun crossing swept away ‘roads’. Plans A thru Z were made resulting in an epic week. The hire company were non to pleased at the bikes on return, with a nameless person paying more in damages than bike hire.
A group of four degenarates headed from Marakkesh on a 1000km tour south to low Atlas, East to the Saraha, North to empty mtns and back West. We were guided by Chris Scott, a legend and author of adventure motorbiking. On off-road enduros we rode on pistes thru superb empty countryside, staying in remote oasis riads. The sheer scale of scenery and hours of piste rides in desert took our breaths away, particularly one degenerate who maintained his reputation of falling everyday. A bonus was the superb berber hospitality who, outside the tourist traps, were so welcoming.
A short break with incompetants setting off to mix the best of IoM off-roading with enjoying the race practise week. Having swopped a map of Peak greenlanes for IoM we headed off for a 4-day extravagnza. The original plan of off-roading to the ferry had to get abandoned after two big falls and 15 miles in 4.5 hrs. It got worse with a knackered leg, concussion and fractured heel with three half-wits all due to incompetant riding. Man-up as … the off-roading is superb, the gallivanting with the locals was relentless and the crack was second to none. To be repeated .. it would be rude not to.
The first adventure on a motorbike with a week travelling over Alpine cols from Chamonix to Nice and back with my good friend Jim. Bikes (and we) survived 1600km in days with 200 or so off-road. Great wild camping in the mtns and highlight was always the first ride of the day in early-morning light and peace.
Others
These are Ibiza photos, where we have an apartment. In addition to standard stuff there are some series, eg sun-rise/sun-set, old-shit, fish-huts
Videos
I’m not the biggest of video fans; if you’ve seen one video on a ski hill you’ve seen them all. However I enclose a link into youtube with a small selection of videos from more unusual places .. Kashmir, Japan and a scuba-dive in Ibiza. OK, and a few mountain bike specials.