DUBLIN, IRELAND (Geared Up Blog) - Shane Ohly has set a new winter record for the ramsay round in 29hrs and 59mins and 34seconds. To date there have been only 45 successful finishers of the ramsay round. Charlie Ramsay was the first person to complete the round in 1978 in a time of 23hrs and 58 minutes. It was another 9 years until the next successful attempt and also the first person to complete the round solo an unsupported.

Shane Ohly:

“My round was solo, unsupported and largely ‘on-sight’ as my recce efforts earlier in the winter were consistently thwarted by poor weather.

I chose to travel clockwise taking on Ben Nevis and the Aonachs first. I wanted to get the highest and most technical section of the round completed first, when I was fresh, and I also didn’t fancy descending the stony path down Ben Nevis at the end of the round.

The first 10 hours or so were a joy. I chatted with walkers on the summits, felt fresh and was comfortably keeping under my sub 24 hour schedule. Then my body died. I’ve analysed my food wrappings and calculated I ate less than 5,000 calories the entire time I was out! I was basically ‘bonked’ for the last 2/3 of the round. I don’t know why I stopped eating but it’s something I need to think hard about before my next attempt. The last 1/3 of the round was truly painful. I was seeing sleepmonsters (think mythological creatures) and hearing music (despite being alone on the hills). In the final stages, cutting down through the forest near Achriabhach, I caught myself on some brambles and nearly burst into tears. As for winter conditions, I was hoping for the hills to be ‘whiter’ than they where. However, I am happy that the Round was sufficiently wintry and in keeping with the other winter rounds of the Ramsay.

I definitely believe that the Ramsay Round can be done in sub 24 hours in winter and I have already decided to have another go next year. The whole experience was fantastic with the long night section being particularly memorable….and cold!”

-Eoinod-

SINGAPORE (Team Geared Up) - At present it may be U.S. resorts only, but Liftopia.com is attempting to get cheap ski-tickets to snow sports enthusiasts.

Liftopia partners with leading resorts across the nation in an effort to get people like you to their slopes more often. We work directly with our Resort Partners to identify opportunities for discounts and promotions that give downhill adventurers more opportunities to ski and snowboard for less. Liftopia is the best place to find great lift ticket deals at mountain resorts nationwide.

From what I make of this, ski-resorts will post up cheap tickets on Utopia for low-days where not enough are forecast to be sold. It doesn’t cost them any extra to have a skier on the slope once the lifts are running. Better to have some money than none. I guess this is not far off the RyanAir / Budget Airline model of once the plane is flying you may as well fill it.

It’ll be interesting to see if this is a success and transitions to Europe.

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - So, you may get the hint here, I’m a little giddy :-) As of today I’m all booked up - flights Dublin>Chicago>Denver, greyhound bus Denver>Vail, hotel, ski rental & ski-pass. I’m ready to hit Vail in the Rockies, North America, for 8 days in 2 weeks time. How good will this be!

Video:

Just advance warning, as you’ll hear more on this one at Christmas! Mind you, I’ve still to write up part 3 of the Summer Alpine Mountaineering!

I want to do the advanced sessions, herself things I’m a joke on skis and thinks we should join the intermediate group. Hmmm. Look what happened the last time TGU went to a ski resort!

-Robin-

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - With a tagline of “The Other Desert Race”, Sleepmonsters emailed me this Canadian ultra race notice yesterday. I suspect some of you guys may have got it too, it’s the Rock & Ice Ultra.

COLD FOOT CLASSIC
A 75 km, continuous foot and snowshoe or XC ski race. Compete solo, as a three+ member team, or as a 2 - 7 member relay. The Cold Foot Classic is a fully supported race. There are 5 road accessible check points along a well marked trail and racers are encouraged to cache food, gear or have a support crew on stand by.

K-ROCK ULTRA
A 135 km foot and snowshoe or XC ski race. Compete solo or as a three+ member team. The K-Rock Ultra is a partially supported, 3-day / 3-stage race following a well marked trail. Racers are required to pack a gear box including all the necessary food and equipment for camp. The gear box will be transported to stage camps by Rock and Ice volunteers.

DIAMOND ULTRA
A 225 km foot and snowshoe or XC ski race. Compete solo or as a three+ member team. The Diamond Ultra is a self-supported, 6 day / 6-stage race following a well marked trail. Racers are required to pack a kit including all the necessary food and equipment to survive for the duration of the race. Racers must also possess navigational and map reading skills.

Set in an extreme Canadian environment, a recent city climate study ranked the nearest civilisation first in 13 categories, including: Coldest Winter, Coldest Spring, Coldest Year-Round, Most Cold Days, Most Deep Snow Cover Days, Extreme Wind Chill, Most High Wind Chill Days, Driest Winter Air.

Photos of previous years here.

The prizes are crazy:

1st place foot and snowshoe: a 1 carat, brilliant cut EKATI Diamond valued at $13,000!
1st cross country ski : a 1 carat, brilliant cut EKATI Diamond valued at $13,000!

This would be a great race to compete in, and if not, even volunteer as a marshal.

-Robin-

DERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND (Team Geared Up) - Climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre peaks is old hat, so a new generation of adventurers is gearing up for what could be mountaineering’s next great challenge — getting down them on skis.

Heading into Nepal’s Himalayan mountains this month is Fredrik Ericsson, a 32-year-old extreme skier from Sweden, who will be trying to get a head start in what he predicts will become a race to take his sport to new heights.

“There are not that many people trying to ski all 14 8,000s (26,400-feet mountains), but I think in a few years there will be,” he told AFP before heading off to attempt the first ski descent of Dhaulagiri, the world’s seventh-highest peak.

“I hope to finish all of them before I am 40,” said Ericsson, who has already chalked up one “8000er” — Gasherbrum II in northern Pakistan — and has skied down from just below the summit of another, Shisha Pangma in Chinese Tibet.

“Skiing all the 8,000s is one of my big goals. I am not sure if I am going to make it. So far I have done one and a half… and if I am going to do all 14 I’ll have to go back and do that one again,” he said.

The first to make it up and down all 14 8,000ers on foot was Italy’s Reinhold Messner, who completed the challenge in 1986. He was closely followed by Poland’s Jerzy Kukuczka, who used no oxygen, and put up several new routes.

Since then a steady stream of climbers have completed the challenge or have died in the process. Several sporadic ski and snowboard descents have been made, with several fatalities also recorded.

“In Europe there is anywhere between 50 and 100 doing extreme skiing. I myself know about 20,” said the Swede, who skied cross-country to school as a child in the icy Scandinavian north and has been extreme skiing professionally for five years.“It’s not that big but it’s growing,” he said of the sport, which essentially consists of descending hair-raisingly steep slopes, sometimes on sheet ice, where the slightest error can result in a very long fall and possible death.

At 8,000 metres there is also just one third of the oxygen there is at sea level and even the simplest task — let alone performing a jump turn — in the so-called “death zone” can be incredibly difficult.

“Avalanches are the thing you can do the least about, because you can never be 100 per cent sure,” said Ericsson, who will not be using supplementary oxygen but will spend around a month acclimatising at the mountain’s base camp.

If all goes to plan, it will be four days walking up — and then the first ever ski descent of the 8,167 metre Dhaulagiri.

“I’ll get back down in around five hours,” Ericsson said

LONDON, UK (Team Geared Up) - The Ski Club of Ireland will re-open for the 2007/2008 Winter Season on Monday 3rd September 2007 for practice session and classes for all
abilities.

The dry slopes are located in Kilternan, Dublin, and boast two ski lifts, two nursery slopes, an intermediate slope and a 180m main slope.

The Ski Club is run by a committee of volunteers and trustee’s. There are over 120 fully qualified Ski & Snowboard Instructors actively teaching weekly from September to April each year.

TGU can point you to Special Offers for September!

-Robin-

(Image Credit: Skiing in Alpe D’Huez, Jan ‘07, by the author.)