Southern Hemisphere Special, Safe and Sane Cycling For Seniors, Zany Videos, El Nino Coming.
Yes folks, it’s the start of the ski season in far away places below the Equator. Here’s a picture of downtown Santiago, Chile, which received a highly unusual coating of snow for the first time in years.
And in New Zealand, The Remarkables, those beautiful, mystic mountains from Lord of the Rings fame near Queenstown, are open for the season. Check out the video of opening day at the bottom of this article. Nearby Coronet Peak has been open for a couple of weeks. Here’s what the early season skiing looks like down there.
Skiing Chile
If you’ve ever wondered what it might be like to follow the snow during the summer and weren’t quite sure how to do it, we have a new series that might get you started.
In celebration of the beginning of the snow season in the Southern Hemisphere, we have an orientation to skiing in Chile by a new SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Casey Earle, an American ex-pat who lives and skis down there. His first article describes the different resorts what line the magnificent Andes mountains. You will hear more about skiing in Chile in the coming months.
Biking With Young Hammerheads
Veteran cyclist, skier, and SeniorsSkiing.com correspondent Pat McCloskey offers some advice for seniors who ride with a gang of younger riders. He has strategies for going around the loop safely and saving face at the same time. It pays to recognized the limitations that senior status brings, especially on a mountain bike.
Have You Seen These Videos?
Here’s Opening Day at The Remarkables, Queenstown, New Zealand. Click below for the festivities.
And, Check Out What Happens To A Show Off When His Ski Flipping Trick Doesn’t Work. Click the picture below.
Finally, mountain biking down Corbet’s Couloir? First time ever, but you can be sure it isn’t the last. Thanks Teton Gravity Research. Click on picture to view.
And Looking Ahead. El Nino Is Knocking.
Weather worriers are looking at an emerging El Nino pattern forming in the eastern Pacific. El Nino comes around when the surface water temperature increases ever so slightly in the ocean west of the Peru and Ecuador. Since everything in the weather world is connected, that water temperature change impacts the atmospheric wind patterns which impacts the everyone’s weather. From the Weather Channel Explainer:
“If El Niño conditions are present during the winter, the jet stream pattern over the U.S. shifts and can result in a wetter-than-average winter across the southern tier of the U.S., including portions of California.
“During an El Niño winter temperatures are also typically cooler-than-average from the southern Plains into the Southeast and warmer-than-average from eastern Alaska into western and central Canada and into the Pacific Northwest, northern Plains and Midwest.
“The strength of the El Niño plays an important role in impacts across the U.S., including in the tropical Atlantic. At this point, it is too early to know when an El Niño pattern may develop and how strong it might be.”
Happy First Day Of Summer.
Onwards. Have you bought your season ticket yet? Time to pay attention to whatever deals are left.
And tell your snow loving buddies about SeniorsSkiing.com. Remember, there are more of us everyday, and we aren’t going away.
