if there's anything that I've learned in the last decade of challenging myself in
the mountains is that this is an environment that really demands
preparation and respect because otherwise accidents happen
I wasn't one of those kids that grew up skiing I grew up in Tasmania we had one resort close by
that had like, eight runs, no lifts only tows like most of the time it was
ice but I always wanted to do skiing because I felt that that was such a good
way for me to combine all these sports together in one perfect activity and all
although it's fun to you know work on your speed and challenge yourself coming down the mountain
for me there's nothing that even compares to the fulfilment
that I get when I climb at the top of something under my own steam and I get
that feeling of accomplishment and I think the only thing that can possibly
beat that is to be able to strap on a pair of skis at the end of the day after
this huge day of hard work getting to the top and the sun is setting and be able
to put my skis on and like hammer down the mountain in a fraction of the time I
feel like that's the perfect scenario for me so the next few days are about me
learning as much as I can sharing it with you and building my skills and my
confidence is a skier so that I can go up and climb mountains and ski back down
them because I am NOT a skier
so we had a good ski day today we climbed up to pic de la mina
on the skins and we climbed up you know 700 meters up to the top of this
peak and just kind of sussed out everything that was happening on the
other side of us we did have some rough goals in mind but we're really playing
it by what's happening with the weather so looking forward to tomorrow in the
next few days and I want to ski in the afternoon just like on the piste just to
practice my turns and stuff I'm so happy out here it's great
one thing I realized from spending a few nights sleeping in ski field car parks
especially as we entered this strange little country of Andorra, is the impact
that skiing has on the mountain environment. When you start to think
about the insane amount of gas and diesel it must require to groom the
slopes and keep it lifts running hard not to feel a little bit guilty. I mean
more and more ski areas are relying on snow making which also uses a hell of a
lot of water and energy in order to produce and so I see this is a good a
reason as any to choose human-powered skiing over the downhill variety
Having said that there really is no better way to sharpen the skills so
I'm not calling for a downhill skiing boycott just yet but it's something that
I definitely want to be conscious of as we see global temperatures rise yearly
and our winters become a little less fun every year
good morning! Man, it's nice to wake up in the mountains we are in Grau Roig, which
is a part of Andorra. It's probably one of the biggest ski fields
in the Pyrenees and probably one that gets the most action. We're gonna have a
ski day on piste today I just need to get some practice in on piste and get my
ski legs back because I haven't really skied much in the last...life
It's time to make some coffee I think probably as we don't have a filter but one of you guys
commented about making cowboy coffee I think on my hiking kitchen kit video so
we're gonna try make cowboy coffee. Without anything just pot and some coffee. Let's see how that goes
This is the important point you have to pour cold water very slowly. Then pour the coffee.
ok, the verdict....
it's good but its a little cold. Better than nothing.
so it was time for me to silence the part of me that is a woke leftist
millennial and just buy a lift ticket the morning session was pretty cloudy
with very crusty snow and bad visibility but after lunch the Sun came out and it
was time for us to experience just how good skiing and Andorra can be
We've been skiing all day, until 5 o clock. It's been a great day.
It's been absolutely magic especially the afternoon
But tomorrow we're gonna go climb and ski down. I feel my ski skills now have been touched up a little bit
Feeling a little more confident on the skis, so i think we could probably climb something tomorrow
and ski down it
so in the hope for finding a north-facing couloir with cold enough temperatures
we cross the border intoSpain and into the Catalan Pyrenees.
Roger grew up climbing and exploring this area and he's got an incredible knowledge of the mountains and also far
more experience with things like reading the weather and managing avalanche risk
and despite my very average Spanish and our limited ability to communicate we
are beginning to learn each other's strengths and weaknesses and to trust
each other which is the basis for all good climbing partnerships but when it
But when came to discussing potential route options for tomorrow over dinner I was
pretty happy to leave that decision entirely in his hands
well it's not very cold. And when it's this warm you have a lot of problems especially with
falling rocks unstable snow avalanche potential so we don't know what we're
gonna do we're just gonna see what happens in the next sort of
arrow to so it's totally a little warm to go climbing but we're gonna take the
skis and axes and try and find something in the shade that we can climb because
that's what we came out here to do pretty loose goals wise kind of lost in
translation as to where we're going oh shit seems to have an idea black nun
I think we're gonna do try and find a corridor that's got some decent sort of
frozen ice and snow on it but as far as what it's called where it is your guess
is as good as mine
we checking out these corridors a little gulp up we're gonna be climbing in the
sharing the tools so much coffee yeah yeah
so this is I think my first time climbing on rock with skis on my back
and it's ski boots really so as we were topping out and finishing this route I
decided to take the rock which is a lot safer than going over the snow bank
especially in the afternoon that's a big avalanche risk
so I'm belaying Rogero up and he gets to a spot that's nice and flat and I
decided to take my phone out to take a photo of him so I take a couple of
photos I put my phone back in my waist pocket and the next thing I know my
phone is tumbling down the rock past my feet bouncing back down the route I see
my phone case come off I sing my MetroCards flying up into the into the
wind and I'm thinking great not only have I smashed my phone but I'm also a
little buggy at the same time you know I've smashed a phone rock climbing
before and when these things happen my tendency at least is to be like super
irrational to get down there straightaway and just start looking for
the phone luckily Roger was there and he's like no
just hang on a second belay me up I'll lower you down and you
can spend as much time as you want looking for the phone so he lowers me
down and I'm looking for like three or four minutes I didn't see anything and
then out of the corner of my eye I see this glimmer that looks like a metal and
it's kind of down in like a crack in the snow up against the rock and it's just
wide enough for me to get my hand in oh my god
I just dropped this phone I'm recording this on it fell down 20 meters and it
landed in this tiny crack oh my god I'm so lucky something smashed
my screen is perfect thank you hole thank you glorious so as you can
probably tell this phone is pretty important to me
I mean phones are important to all of us but I think especially for me at this
time like I'd risked a lot to come here to
Spain to build this online business and the YouTube channel and for me being
financially comfortable enough to buy skis boots bindings and skins and all
the rest of it was a bit of a milestone so to break a phone on that same day
would have been quite ironic and kind of very upsetting so I'm so so grateful
that my phone was in like perfect condition and while I'm at it I'm also
really grateful for you guys for following along to the channel and if
you've been watching for a long time especially if you've been sharing it
with like-minded people I really really appreciate you guys and
I hope that you're enjoying these videos you know we finished the route we
reached the top of the mountain everyone all the skiers had got home we were the
last two people on the mountain so Rosia and I clip the skis in and we got one
run all to ourselves while the Sun was setting and beautiful
soft afternoons - no it was incredible
to rest my weary soul
although me being a noob I forgot to lock my ski boot into ski mode that was
still in warp mode so I had a bit of a stack on the way down so yeah it's
pretty clear that I still have a lot to learn but I love sharing it with you
guys if you're not on my newsletter I will be sharing a couple of tips that I
picked up specifically to ski mountaineering from this trip so if
you're in just came out and hearing or if you want to get into it then jump on
my newsletter I send out an email once a month just with things I'm up to future
videos that I'll be working on over the next month and answering questions from
people that email me their questions so if you want to jump on to that
newsletter you can do it in the link in the description that's it for this video
guys thanks for watching I'll see you on the summit
oh that's my very soul