Hey, it’s mid-October, time to start whetting your appetite for real skiing on crystal-white snow!
No more envying those few who have time & money to travel to the Southern Hemisphere for a spot of summer ( ours) skiing. No need to drive to a ski tunnel, the walls of which , let’s face it, can’t compare with a view a real snow track provides.
And you know what October 15th means? Well, that’s the day the ski track opens in Livigno, that perennial capital of early skiing in Europe and beyond.
While we await fresh pictures from 2017, here’s some lovely shot video of what Livigno holds for a skier.
Not to be seen biased towards the valley squeezed between Italy and Switzerland, we put together some alternative spots for mid-October skiing outdoors for your active perusal – or just pure enjoyment.
The Most Popular this time of the year: Ramsau am Dachstein, Austria
– Even in Dachstein fog it’s obvious from that Team Russia video how many skeirs are there on the glacier mid-October.
Imagine how many more would be ther when the sun comes out?
The Highest: Val Senales, Italy
– Here’s a Norwegian Nordic Combined skier Magnus Krog overtaking Sergei Ustiugov himself ( who looks rather baffled – who would want to accelerate at altitude of some 3000+ metres?)
If you have an issue with that ‘Highest’ definition – here’s proof beyond any reasonable doubt: Petter Northug himself trains there. Now, he wound’t settle for anything ‘second-highest’, would he?
The Most Fragile Looking so far Sjusjøen,Norway
Sjusjøen is famous for its late snow, where most if not all of the Norwegian team is training all the way to the end of May. Alas, that’s not the case for the early snow – as evident from these pictures “plan your October skiing there at your own risk”
Sjusjøen does have its advantages, however – it’s probably the closest ski spot to a major airport and the easiest to find accomodation this time of the year.
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The Most Exotic: Aldan, Russia
– The earliest ski-ready place in the Northern Hemisphere, period: the air temperatures firmly drop below zero already in mid-September and stay that way through October ( but you probably wouldn’t want to train there in a middle of the Siberian winter)
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Yakutia might sound exotic, but many Russian ( and, increasingly, Chinese) skiers prefer low-altitide Aldan to high-altitude Dachstein and Val Senales. Little wonder that it’s Aldan where the very first races of the season are held – already on October 27th
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