My 7th ski continent has finally been achieved, but it was not without further glitches.
We had no problems with the driving Wednesday. The border crossing was colder than Monday at 25F but it warmed rapidly in the cloudless sky. Some Lesotho locals sharing the road:
Frozen waterfalls near where the road was iced Monday:
Partially frozen Malibamatso River at 8,300 feet:
The road peaks out about 10,500 feet, which we reached about 9:45. From the western approach it was not obvious where Afriski was in the basin to our right. When road curled around to the east we got our first view.
Zoomed view of lower area:
The lowest snow in the pic serves a tubing park and the true beginner Poma. I only used that poma once as it stopped frequently as beginners fell. The 3 lower lifts are metal cable tows with a handle and Poma platter attached. These were somewhat of a PITA, but make sense for kids, who are the primary users. We were told at Moolsmanhoek that pre-pandemic Afriski had a strong business with families using it to teach their kids to ski before taking them to Northern destinations during summer school holidays.
Afriski’s arrival/setup process is currently very tedious. Before driving down to the resort there is a checkpoint where you go inside a building, pay a ~$5 per person entry fee, get a parking pass and an attendant opens a gate. View just past the gate:
The parking is just to the left of the buildings at the bottom of the snow.
Apartments off to the right are named for famous ski resorts.
We parked, booted up and walked to the nearest building, which is the rental shop. We were told to walk part of the road back to buy tickets at an office near the Sky Restaurant.
This was despite Sky Restaurant still being closed from the COVID recession. In fairness it took about this long to find a ticket office at La Plagne in 2022.
Diagram of facilities:
We walked back to the rental shop and got skis and poles. They brought me a pair of 150’s and I told them I usually ski 180’s. They gave me their longest ski, which was 174cm.
We had noticed right away that only the 3 rope tows were running, but not the T-bar. Upon being told the reason was wind, I suspected a midweek “money hold” and asked to see whoever was in charge. The operations people told me that it was an old lift that was vulnerable to cables derailing at a couple of towers, and that a violent event damaging that cable would shut it down for the rest of the season. They assured me that employees were present and that two of them were up the hill reporting wind speeds every 20 minutes. They were hopeful winds might let up sometime after noon.
So we finally got on the snow at 11AM, using the two upper Poma tows. Liz’ first run in Africa:
And my 7th continent:
Liz was in her 2014 Aspen/Jim Lindsey boots and no surprise they began to annoy her riding those tows so after about 4 runs, she retired to the deck and lodge to wait for the T-bar.
I was quite aware the T-bar might not open at all and that we might have to hike it later. So I decided to ski 1,000+ vertical on the tows, then wait with Liz for the T-bar. I skied 16 runs totaling 1,170 vertical by 12: 30.
There was some interesting décor in the Gondola Lodge.
The Capitol Steps would appreciate the drink we ordered in honor of our home ski area.
Amurula, by the way, is a tasty South African liqueur we had a couple of other times on the trip.
Liz taking a break from those Jim Lindsey boots:
At 1:30 I found out that there was indeed a cable derailment. While they were trying to fix it we decided we should undertake the hike. Here I’m starting up just past the Poma tows.
Liz farther up:
Liz at the top of groomed snow:
It was about 2:30. As noted before I’m now a slow hiker at 10,000 feet. The snow surface by the way was good manmade packed powder with minimal hard spots. Presumably the snow machines have been on at night in the recent cold weather.
While we were there employees came up in a snowmobile to inspect but weren’t there long.
Then to our surprise skiers approached from above on the ungroomed.
Liz and I greeted them.
They were impressed with our grunt work. They said they were running a car shuttle and invited us to join for a run.
Liz skiing the T-bar run:
And me:
That run was 410 vertical.
It was a cozy car shuttle with 7 people in 3 seats.
I'm on the other side of the stacked skis.
Unloading just a few hundred meters off the road:
The top of the T-bar is in right background.
Here I’m even with the top unloading area:
Looking down the top 200 vertical of the T-bar where Afriski has not yet made snow.
I asked about that and got lots of info from Greg in the yellow jacket. He thinks they will eventually do it this season, but it’s a new ownership group. Afriski lost a couple of seasons to COVID, then had a ownership that didn’t get along well with the locals, thus resulting in last year’s closure. The new people are still shaking things out, as evidenced by the ticket logistics and the as yet incomplete snowmaking coverage.
Greg lives on a farm near Tiffendell, which has been closed since COVID. He said Tiffendell is completely covered with natural snow right now and also has some very challenging natural terrain. Unfortunately he agreed with me that the logistics of getting there will make it difficult to find a buyer to reopen it.
Looking back up at the uncovered slope:
The grass hiking down reminded me of New Zealand tussocks.
Liz then I skiing the ungroomed snow:
We cruised to the base, this run being 500 vertical. My total for the day was 2,080.
Driving out we closely inspected the top of the T-bar.
In retrospect we could have spent the whole day doing car shuttles, as it’s that close. But we didn’t see this approaching from the opposite direction. We were also deterred by the gated checkpoints entering and exiting the resort. The gate guards knew our car shuttle hosts and waved them through easily.
At any rate, if anyone reading this is enough of a nutcase (Patrick?) to make this trip, you’ll know what to do.
The hairpin turns on the way back were still a challenge for some of the big trucks.
We had no problems with the driving Wednesday. The border crossing was colder than Monday at 25F but it warmed rapidly in the cloudless sky. Some Lesotho locals sharing the road:
Frozen waterfalls near where the road was iced Monday:
Partially frozen Malibamatso River at 8,300 feet:
The road peaks out about 10,500 feet, which we reached about 9:45. From the western approach it was not obvious where Afriski was in the basin to our right. When road curled around to the east we got our first view.
Zoomed view of lower area:
The lowest snow in the pic serves a tubing park and the true beginner Poma. I only used that poma once as it stopped frequently as beginners fell. The 3 lower lifts are metal cable tows with a handle and Poma platter attached. These were somewhat of a PITA, but make sense for kids, who are the primary users. We were told at Moolsmanhoek that pre-pandemic Afriski had a strong business with families using it to teach their kids to ski before taking them to Northern destinations during summer school holidays.
Afriski’s arrival/setup process is currently very tedious. Before driving down to the resort there is a checkpoint where you go inside a building, pay a ~$5 per person entry fee, get a parking pass and an attendant opens a gate. View just past the gate:
The parking is just to the left of the buildings at the bottom of the snow.
Apartments off to the right are named for famous ski resorts.
We parked, booted up and walked to the nearest building, which is the rental shop. We were told to walk part of the road back to buy tickets at an office near the Sky Restaurant.
This was despite Sky Restaurant still being closed from the COVID recession. In fairness it took about this long to find a ticket office at La Plagne in 2022.
Diagram of facilities:
We walked back to the rental shop and got skis and poles. They brought me a pair of 150’s and I told them I usually ski 180’s. They gave me their longest ski, which was 174cm.
We had noticed right away that only the 3 rope tows were running, but not the T-bar. Upon being told the reason was wind, I suspected a midweek “money hold” and asked to see whoever was in charge. The operations people told me that it was an old lift that was vulnerable to cables derailing at a couple of towers, and that a violent event damaging that cable would shut it down for the rest of the season. They assured me that employees were present and that two of them were up the hill reporting wind speeds every 20 minutes. They were hopeful winds might let up sometime after noon.
So we finally got on the snow at 11AM, using the two upper Poma tows. Liz’ first run in Africa:
And my 7th continent:
Liz was in her 2014 Aspen/Jim Lindsey boots and no surprise they began to annoy her riding those tows so after about 4 runs, she retired to the deck and lodge to wait for the T-bar.
I was quite aware the T-bar might not open at all and that we might have to hike it later. So I decided to ski 1,000+ vertical on the tows, then wait with Liz for the T-bar. I skied 16 runs totaling 1,170 vertical by 12: 30.
There was some interesting décor in the Gondola Lodge.
The Capitol Steps would appreciate the drink we ordered in honor of our home ski area.
Amurula, by the way, is a tasty South African liqueur we had a couple of other times on the trip.
Liz taking a break from those Jim Lindsey boots:
At 1:30 I found out that there was indeed a cable derailment. While they were trying to fix it we decided we should undertake the hike. Here I’m starting up just past the Poma tows.
Liz farther up:
Liz at the top of groomed snow:
It was about 2:30. As noted before I’m now a slow hiker at 10,000 feet. The snow surface by the way was good manmade packed powder with minimal hard spots. Presumably the snow machines have been on at night in the recent cold weather.
While we were there employees came up in a snowmobile to inspect but weren’t there long.
Then to our surprise skiers approached from above on the ungroomed.
Liz and I greeted them.
They were impressed with our grunt work. They said they were running a car shuttle and invited us to join for a run.
Liz skiing the T-bar run:
And me:
That run was 410 vertical.
It was a cozy car shuttle with 7 people in 3 seats.
I'm on the other side of the stacked skis.
Unloading just a few hundred meters off the road:
The top of the T-bar is in right background.
Here I’m even with the top unloading area:
Looking down the top 200 vertical of the T-bar where Afriski has not yet made snow.
I asked about that and got lots of info from Greg in the yellow jacket. He thinks they will eventually do it this season, but it’s a new ownership group. Afriski lost a couple of seasons to COVID, then had a ownership that didn’t get along well with the locals, thus resulting in last year’s closure. The new people are still shaking things out, as evidenced by the ticket logistics and the as yet incomplete snowmaking coverage.
Greg lives on a farm near Tiffendell, which has been closed since COVID. He said Tiffendell is completely covered with natural snow right now and also has some very challenging natural terrain. Unfortunately he agreed with me that the logistics of getting there will make it difficult to find a buyer to reopen it.
Looking back up at the uncovered slope:
The grass hiking down reminded me of New Zealand tussocks.
Liz then I skiing the ungroomed snow:
We cruised to the base, this run being 500 vertical. My total for the day was 2,080.
Driving out we closely inspected the top of the T-bar.
In retrospect we could have spent the whole day doing car shuttles, as it’s that close. But we didn’t see this approaching from the opposite direction. We were also deterred by the gated checkpoints entering and exiting the resort. The gate guards knew our car shuttle hosts and waved them through easily.
At any rate, if anyone reading this is enough of a nutcase (Patrick?) to make this trip, you’ll know what to do.
The hairpin turns on the way back were still a challenge for some of the big trucks.
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