News

Tyneside Loipers hosted another great day of roller skiing on the Summerhill Track at Hartlepool. The 3rd in this year's Northern Roll Series with the other events hosted by the Yorkshire Dales and Manchester and Lakeland Clubs. We had a good turnout with 18 competitors (including 6 of us from Loipers) with everyone enjoying the superb track which is a twisty 750 metre circuit, great for participants and spectators alike. There was some excellent racing and we had great weather. 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…

Ten Loiper members had a wonderful trip to Sweden. Nearly a year in the planning, some of us had fond memories of our last northern-Norway Lyngen Alps trip in 2017. This time we went with Mountain Spirit and stayed for a week on the NW side of the Lyngen peninsular doing day trips with Wolfgang and his assistant guide Pere. Neil, Jon, Keith, David, Alan, Tim and Penny, and Peter and Alison (9 of us) managed a warm-up week in northern Sweden, staying at the hotel in Riksgransen, close to the Norwegian border. That gave us the option of skiing on piste at Riksgransen, or day touring from there, or from nearby Bjorkliden which was just a 40 minute drive away. No excuse for not being fit for our following…

Loiper members Steve, Martin, and Greg had two weeks of hotel-based track skiing a week later than the trip previously described by Dave Legg. They stayed first at Venabu and then had a week at Hovringen coinciding with John Mordue and Stefan Janik. They also teamed up with ex-Loiper Barbara Gibbons and another colleague who some of us know from various trips to Canada. This is the report from Steve... "Martin and I met up with Sue Fuller and Greg Buick at Oslo airport and travelled on by train to Venabu. Sue and Greg had been at Mosstrond the week before, so they were in good shape for the “ski safari” days, offered at Venabu hotel. "Our week’s skiing at Venabu was pretty good, although both Martin and I had…

Norway has had another great year with plenty of snow. More than 30 Loipers (over half the membership) will have been to Norway, making up for the dismal lack of snow here in the northeast. Venabu, Dalseter and Hovringen have been the most popular destinations (as ever). Dave Legg has written this nice article about the Loipers holiday in Hovringen in early March - see this link. Another 10 Loipers are heading off to arctic Norway and Sweden in early April, culminating in 6 days of guided skiing in the Lyngen peninsula, northeast of Tromso. It is a fabulous area with high mountains and amazing views into the fjords, with usually snow down to sea level. Snow conditions this year look really good.

Tyneside Loipers joined forces with Tyne Valley Mountaineers for a long weekend in Braemar at the end of February. We stayed at the lovely Rucksacks Hostel and Bunkhouse. We had superb weather but there was little snow, so it was a weekend of walking and mountain biking. Driving north past the Glenshee ski area, we saw only one patch of artificial snow and one short Poma running, so it was clearly the right decision taking mountain bikes rather than skis. On a frosty sunny Saturday morning, we weighed up the possible summit options (An Socach, Carn Bhan, etc). Paramjeet and Richard went with colleagues from TVM and biked up to a high bothy. Dave Legg and Howard and I chose a tough mountain bike route up through the Mar Lodge…

In September this year Tyneside Loipers hosted the final event in this year's 'Northern Roll' Race Series. The northern clubs in Snowsport England (Manchester, Yorkshire Dales, Lakeland and ourselves) came together to create four events through the summer at venues throughout the north. This was the driving force for us to identify a better track than Hetton Country Park (which we had been using for many year). The super new track at Summerhill Country Park in Hartlepool has a much better surface and also we were able to have exclusive use and not have to contend with dog walkers and other local users like at Hetton. The track is also great for spectators, being a very compact circuit with lots of twists and turns. Each race in the 'Northern Roll'…

The 2023 hut tour explored the Langsua National Park - covering new ground for the Loipers. Neil, Lewis, and Peter and Alison, plus non-Loiper Andy Roberts set off from Dalseter in late March. Andy, as the only one with any prior knowledge of the area, helped considerably with the planning. The overnights were all self-service DNT huts apart from one charming private hut which was pre-bookable and allowed us to avoid what would have been a very long day's skiing towards the latter part of the tour. The huts were great - one was brand new! The snow was good and the weather was great. The route took in several lower summits. See the full story, as written by Neil, here.

Back this year to two of our favourite destinations in Norway. Seven of us had a week in Dalseter with the GB Nordic team and five Loipers followed up with a week in Hovringen. Other Loiper groups headed to Venabu or went hut touring in the Jotunheim and Hardangervidda. Read the story of the Dalseter/Hovringen trip - follow this link. Dalseter is always good. We joined the second week of the GB Nordic season with guided skiing provided by Dagmar, Glennis, Stefan, Pete Curwen and Nigel Williams. The skiing was great and the social atmosphere was excellent. It is a great hotel too. Unfortunately we didn't have the best of snow on the high tops - they were very blown and icy. But the track skiing was mostly very good…

Early December – the met office promised a week or more of freezing conditions and supposedly there would be several days of snow showers.  Mostly along the North Sea coast, we were desperate for snow to come far enough inland and enough of it to ski. By the weekend of 10/11th December we had had only a half inch of snow but it was staying cold and frosty.  Not enough to ski.  But some dogged research by Jon Mellor revealed a Facebook posting showing snow on the summit of The Cheviot (815m).  Neil, David and Alan were persuaded to team up for a trip north – and thus we arrived in the Harthope Valley on Monday morning.  More in hope than expectation.  But it was soon apparent that we could…

Tyneside Loipers is 40 years old this year. The club was founded in 1982 by Helen Charlton and Sylvia Dowse. We are celebrating on 22 October with a meal and social event at The Badger near Ponteland. After a speedy AGM at 7pm, we will be having the meal at 7.45 and then a half hour slideshow celebrating the last four decades of the Loipers. Please come along and share some memories and amusing stories of past Loipers events and the characters that made the club what it is today. Contact Alan or Charlie to tell us that you are coming. Menu details will be sent out shortly. Who are these guys from the first ever Loipers Norway hut touring trip in 2001? Some of them will be there on…