Winters in the Slovenian Alps used to be cold, long and covered in meters of powder snow from valley up. Unfortunately, the last couple of Decembers were not the case. But, when snow covers the mountains: endless excitement and happiness. Luckily, this December blessed us with some perfect powder. See some winter magic footage from Slovenia.
For some time I have had a theory that our part of Europe should make a consensus and move Christmas from December 25th to January 25th. The outcome: have a proper, white Christmas and leverage that bit of powder snow dump that always happens at the end of January. The winters didn't only disappear, they started moving around.
Our hunt for snow is going beyond the manageable 800km. Last year we hiked in short sleeves to 2500m high peaks around Chamonix. That seems somewhat metaphorical. Photographer Christophe Jacrot has had even less luck. He has been chasing winter (and stormy) conditions around the world for years. Finally, he managed to get proper cold winter footage. That happened way up north in cold Iceland. Take a look at his beautiful series Snjor (Icelandic for snow).
Here is a small photo essay from a ski touring trip last week. We'll cal lit Snijeg (Croatian for snow).
Practice run for part of the avalanche gear: shoveling your parking place.
Leaving the first tracks on a forest road.
Skinning through the forest.
Views of Karavanke mountain range as we get above the treeline.
Silky snow texture. Hard work up but already thinking about the descent.
The air gets thinner and the landscape gets subtle...
....and more dramatic at the same time.
A little vista with Viševnik and Draški Vrh behind us.
Just one of those days.
See the whole video here:
Video by NevenGo
Calm end of the day with our target peak (Mrežce) just covered in clouds.
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‘Moving your limits’ isn’t necessarily about the highest mountains, deepest canyons or oldest ruins. But it is about great adventures. It’s about that constant pursuit of world’s secrets – cultural as well as natural. It’s about how we move in nature and raise our expectations about each and every place in the world - moving our mental and physical limits on the way.