Lesotho - Members of SA’s small but enthusiastic skiing community are waiting with excitement as more snow falls around the country.
For the first time since the storm of 2003 that saw the Sealand Express run aground off Table View, a succession of fronts have laid the foundation for a bumper, though short, snow season.
Thursday’s snowfall in Johannesburg and Pretoria (the first time in Pretoria since 1968, say weather services) follows the Quiksnow SA Snowboard Championships held last weekend in the Maluti Mountains of Lesotho, at new resort Afriski, who will have been happy to launch their multi-million facility between two snowy cold fronts.
Top snowboarders from SA and overseas competed, with pro rider Jojo Krivec from Slovenia taking the main title, while KwaZulu-Natal’s Marcin Jekot won the SA division.
As a result of all the snow, many Western Cape mountains already have a frozen layer, which makes a good base for fresh snow, and maybe even the holy grail for skiing and snowboarding – powder.
This light, dry snow is fresh and uncompacted, and as long as it does not melt, it makes for pristine riding conditions.
“I have been monitoring the snow for the past few years and we’ve had very little, only light dustings, but with this storm, we could be seeing some very interesting conditions,” says Axel Zander, of Cape Town’s Downhill Adventures.
Zander is one of SA’s most experienced snowboarders. He knows that in SA a snow trip is not a glamorous jaunt on to pristine alpine pistes, but normally gruelling treks by foot up jagged mountains.
They’re not called snowboarding “missions” for nothing. Unless you belong to a ski club with access to rare ski lifts on private farms, or live in KwaZulu-Natal near Afriski, the sport is tough and perfection is rare.
Zander sees this in a positive light: “It’s closer to the pure idea of what skiing was about.”
South Africans are spoilt and expect ski lifts, he says.
“But it’s normal to hike. You only get a lift if you’re riding the piste, the groomed slope. The best snow is off the piste, in the back country. We have plenty of that right here.”
He recalls two trips that showed just how good it gets.
In 1994, a three-day dump snowed him in at Tiffindell, recently bought for R5.5 million in a liquidation sale.
“We couldn’t move. The mountains around us were covered in powder. We trekked to the top and rode to the resort, well over a kilometre.”
He has experienced the best powder during a heli-skiing trip with Red Bull above De Doorns.
The helicopter would drop them off at the top of the mountains and they would snowboard through pristine powder, stopping at the edge of the cliffs, one of the landmarks of the area.
“That was one of my most insane trips ever. It was proper snow – some of the best I have ever seen in South Africa.
“We get the snow here, but it’s just getting to it, particularly after it has snowed, because that’s when the roads are blocked. We don’t have snow ploughs, chains and other machines or tools to clear snow.”
It’s best to head there beforehand, he says.
Weekend Argus