In addition to the skiing, they took the opportunity of seeing the sights of Armenia and take in the local culture. Thanks to Tim for this article about the trip. Feel free to be envious!

Sue is keen to return in February 2027 and is hoping to be joined by more Loipers. There is lots of good skiing to be had including plenty of easier off-track day tours, harder routes up onto the plateau, and also nearby track skiing. Sue is hoping to book the 3rd week in Feb, to fit in with the Snowsport England track skiing week at Geilo the previous week. Hoping that some of the Loipers will be able to join us!

Here is Sue’s article on the Solheimstulen week this year.

It was a lovely week with great company. Top telemarker Ros has produced this lovely article here!

Interesting to note how we all got there…! Tim and Penny took the Amsterdam ferry and drove all of the way to Dobiacco where they skied for 5 days on the cross-country ski tracks. Ros took the plane from Manchester but had the previous week in Dobiacco where she was acting as coach for the Manchester XC Ski Club. Jon took the most straightforward journey and flew from Manchester, whilst Alan, Neil and David took the long route going by train, via the Eurostar to Amsterdam and the overnight Jet Train to Innsbruck. Fourteen hours overnight on the train was pretty uncomfortable! We just missed out with booking a reservation in one of the sleeping compartments.

Neil and David stayed on in Austria for the hut touring trip in the Stubai Alps (more of which in another news article I hope) and each of them had a solo sleeping cabin for the return journey. But meanwhile Alan had more adventures on his return rail journey, despite reprogramming his Interrail ticket and taking advantage of a daylight train journey from Innsbruck to Amsterdam and then an overnight stay in an (expensive) Amsterdam hotel. On the Sunday morning at Amsterdam Central rail station, everything went wrong with long delays waiting in the departure lounge for the Eurostar train to London and then finally the news that the train was cancelled! Caught in the same situation as a couple of hundred other passengers, none of us knew whether or not the subsequent Eurostar trains were going to run (it seemed probably not – and in any case they were probably already fully booked). Fortunately I learnt from Tim and Penny that the Amsterdam to Newcastle ferry was going to run later that afternoon and I would have a good chance of getting a ticket if I could turn up. An expensive taxi ride took me from Amsterdam to the ferry terminal and I did indeed manage to get a ticket. Exhausted, relieved and very lucky, I found the way to my cabin and I was delighted to join Tim and Penny for a drink in the bar (a lucky coincidence that they were travelling on the same ferry).

South of Kebnekaise the route passes through the Sarek National Park which is a wilderness area in which there are no mountain huts and no access allowable for skidoos (for supplies and backup) which probably means camping and skiing with a pulk.

Charlie Fischer skied the northern section of the Kungsladen with his two teenage kids in April 2025. Thanks to Charlie for his article here.

Another group of Loipers (Alan, Greg, David and Lewis) did a very similar route in 2015, skiing from Abisko to Kennekaise Fjallstation and south to Nikkoluokta. Our story is here (previously published in the October 2015 Loipers Newsletter).

It is interesting to compare the experiences of the four of us in 2015 with that of Charlie and his kids in 2025. In 2015 we went right through to Nikkoluokta and caught the bus back to Kiruna. We also did a lovely excursion day from Kebnekaise to a scenic remote STF cabin at Tarfala at 1200m above sea level. Also, like Charlie, we deviated from the Kungsladen to visit the lovely wee hut at Nallo. Charlie headed back north to the railway with a massive last day of 39km following close to the Norwegian border.

In addition to the one-hour challenge with skies covering as many laps as they can within the hour, there is also the opportunity to compete in a single-lap sprint race, run in heats. There will be prizes for both races!

For more information and entry details follow this link.

We hoped and expected to have lots of good skiable snow! But sadly that was not the case – this was Norway’s least snowy year for at least 50 years. We picked our routes carefully and had plenty of good skiing. We did indeed manage to do Glittertind though sadly we were forced to stop just short of the summit, beaten by strong winds.

Read the full article here.

We stayed in a nice hotel in the town of Ortisei (not far from Selva). Local skiing was accessed by fast gondolas ascending from either side of the town. In both cases, the lifts whisked us up from 1200m to over 2000m altitude, with easily a full day’s skiing to be had on the upper slopes. We did 3 days of skiing on these local runs and a lot of the time we had the slopes almost to ourselves. The conditions were perfect for telemark skiing.

On one day we took the bus to Selva (about 30 minutes on the ski bus) and we skied the whole of the Sella Ronda – a 40km ski circuit which can be done in either direction (clockwise or anti clockwise) with chairlifts and gondolas connecting up the runs the whole way round. We were more than 30% round after the first hour and a half, and joked about skiing it in both directions in one day. It can be done, but we would have needed to move much faster, and we would have finished with tired legs!

On another day we skied a different set of runs from the nearby town of Santa Cristina. Sadly that was the day that the weather was not so good. True to the forecast, it was a very grey day and we skied most of it in the cloud, with limited visibility. We skied multiple times on one slope, with a nice gradient, bounded by a barrier on one side and a chairlift on the other, so it was easier to make out where we were going. Later in the day, one long descent was very murky and difficult to manage (for me at least) with bad visibility and fogged up glasses! Four of us avoided the final run and descended on the lift.

My favourite day was an Inghams-organised trip to ski the 12km long Hidden Valley. An hour and a half from Ortisei, we were dropped of by the bus at the impressive Lagazuoi cable car, which took us up to 2778m. From there, it was an amazing ski run down to 1600m, with incredible views all the way down, plus an impressive frozen waterfall too. At the bottom of the valley, there was a 10-minute horse tow to pull us back out to the ski lift system at Armentarola (from where we were able to connect back to the Sella Ronda and finally catch the ski bus from Selva).

Next year the Dolomites area is hosting the Winter Olympics, so it wont be the best time to go back. Though hopefully we will return in 2027 or after.

Huge thanks to Ros for scoping out the trip and organising everything with Inghams! Thanks to the team for the nice photos.

The good news was that it was going to stay cold and sunny all week!

Slaley Forest and Waskerley Way were the favoured locations through the week and various loipers were out most days. Tim and Ben did a great job establishing a 5km circuit around Slaley Forest with nice tracks for everyone to follow. Sarah and Ken (new member) were there 3 days running. John Dark and Alan, Paul and Cath all enjoyed the unbroken trail on Day 1. And a host of Loipers have used the trails since.

John, Paramjeet and Graham were defeated getting to Parkhead on Tuesday. The road from Edmundbyers was almost impassable and it would have required a great deal of digging to get parked. Paul discovered a parking option at Rowley, which gave easier access to the Waskerley Way.

On Tuesday, Jon and Alan and Cath went to Weardale Ski Club in the wilds of the Durham Dales. It was their first opening of the year. Loiper members Kevin Moore and Keith Lambley had spent much of the previous day getting the lift system running. They had plenty of snow cover but the skiing was quite challenging. Jon and Alan and Keith managed to show off our telemark skiing skills (and also managed a couple of spectacular falls). There was a narrow ‘piste’ but the ground is quite lumpy and the piste consisted of a mix of snow and frozen bare ground! There would have been very good skiing the following day after a bit more work with the piste-basher.

Alan achieved a moment of fame when he was interviewed by Tyne Tees Television. The link to the evening TV programme is here. Worth seeing… there are some great drone shots of skiing at Weardale.

Alan and Jon also managed a day out on Kilhope Law, skiing from the roadside near Allenheads. The snow was very good with easy skiing lower down – and also good near to the summit. We also skied some distance along the top but in a lot of places the snow was unconsolidated and lying over deep heather. It was tricky returning down the upper section of the return track! Nevertheless it was another lovely day with full sun and great views.

There are more photos on the Loipers Facebook page. And lots more available on the Yad Moss, Weardale and Allenheads websites, all the local ski areas having been running on most days this week (see links page).

The main race was a one-hour endurance event with everyone skiing as many laps as possible within the hour, using classic technique only (double poling or diagonal stride, or double-pole kick). The overall winner, Ros Brown Grant from Manchester, got to the finish just ahead of Mike Smith of the Lakeland club. They each completed 23 laps in a fraction over the hour. Adam Pinney from the London club was third with 22 laps. It was excellent race with good results from everyone, including Tyneside Loipers – Mike Smith, Alan Mitcham, Neil Waters, and Kate and Vassily Konopalov.

Frustratingly for Carl Brown, he had to drop out after only 8 laps after losing a front wheel from one of his skis! Fortunately he was uninjured.

We are looking forward to seeing Ros (now also a member of Tyneside Loipers) at Hetton Country Park at the end of this month. She has offered to give us some rollerski coaching (classic and skate).

In addition to the one-hour race, we also ran a one lap sprint race, which we organised into 3 heats and a final. Adam Pinney just won the sprint race, skiing 750metres in 2 min 26s and just holding off Mike Smith and Ros in 2nd and 3rd place.

Thanks to everyone who took part and thanks especially to our helpers on the day, Dave Thomas, Sally Hall and Alison Aldred, and photographer Catherine Tolman.