SKIING ON MOUNT KENYA

"The Christmas programme for the Mount Kenya group includes a slalom from Point Lenana to the Curling Pond on Christmas Day and, if sufficient interest comes forward from both sexes, a 'He and She Run' on Boxing Day. For the evening the Ski Committee plans a punch party in the Arthur Firmin Hut. Entries should be made to the Functions Organiser not later than 1st December, 1963."

It would be nice, wouldn't it?

Not that skiing on Mount Kenya was a novel experience. The battered pair of skis over our bar, and another pair in the store - real old-time laminated hickories, made in Norway - plus two skiing sticks a la Rosa, latest fashion, give sufficient proof that several people here have been extremely interested in this sport in the past. Yet the writer could only get one Club member to admit that he had once used the skis. No trace was found of the kind donors.

With so much of the way paved already, we decided last July to follow suit and take a skiing holiday on the mountain. Our little group consisted of Barry Cliff and myself as 'the skiers', Peter Campbell, I carrying a brand-new camera (coupled with a determined grin not to let us get away with anything) and Tony Carr (professional cameraman) to secure dividends from the adventure - not yet arrived.

When we started off in pouring rain from Nanyuki, we felt still very uncertain as to what snow conditions to expect. We needn't have worried - they were excellent! Since our trip fell in the beginning of July, a usually dry month, I think it is fair to conclude that skiing on the Lewis Glacier may we quite good during perhaps eight months of the year. It certainly will always be fair on a sunny day. The sun melts the hard surface layer thus creating 'firn', a well-known and much liked snow formation in the Alps. It has the one disadvantage that it freezes again very quickly and then becomes extremely fast.

I also noted that the Lewis glacier possesses a series of gentle slopes which form an admirable ski run for the not-so-expert. The top part is, of course, rather steep; but in new snow an average skier would have the whole length from the summit down to the tarn - an approximately two mile run, and comparable with almost any high altitude skiing in Europe.

Crevasses do present a certain problem. Prussiks may be one answer, and the other would be to first practice emergency brakings on the hut slope. Although very much out of training, neither Barry nor I landed in a crevasse; but this was perhaps luck, because crevasses are not easily discernible from above. Although they yearned down on us all over the glacier on the way up, they seem to vanish miraculously as soon as one's skis point downwards.

Another aspect of skiing on the mountain is, of course, the altitude. Unfortunately, we did not have sufficient time to wait for acclimatisation. The carrying up was therefore a rather slow process - at least as far as I was concerned. With his usual zeal, Barry proved a treat for the photographers, indefatigably moving up and down. My most frequently recorded pose was the strictly classic one. Fortunately there are so many views to admire on Mount Kenya.

Our holiday was limited, and Barry and Peter had planned to do some climbing. So we had only three pleasant days on the Lewis during this first Kenya skiing holiday. But the skis are still waiting in the bottom bunk of Arthur Firmin Hut (the second shorter pair belongs to Barry), and whoever wants to try the art or pass a few idle days between climbs will only have to carry up bindings and sticks.

And perhaps next Christmas .....