22 | Sport BRIDGE | December | 2009 Back to the Wilderness Adventurous

If traditional skiing is not for covered landscape, there is a wilder version of wild landscape – which can be both flat or very you and you want more of an cross-country skiing for you. In backcountry, steep. You need lighter downhill , special andrenaline rush from your you ride over flat land or mild hills, not binding which can be used both for downhill winter sports, perhaps you should following marked paths. You need comfortable skiing and for going uphill, and special boots, consider some other versions warm boots and cross-country skis with free- lighter and softer than usual boots and of an old favourite. How about heel bindings. having a solid sole, so they can be used even freeriding, backcountry or even for walking. Another handy thing is the skins ? Though they require Ski touring you attach to the bottom of skis to be able to go different equipment and different When you set out on a longer trip, this sport uphill without sliding down. In the past, they techniques, they have one thing in is called ski touring. In ski touring, you do not used to be made from animal skins, now they common: They take people from use ski lifts, you just travel on skis over the are made from nylon. the marked ski runs and return them to the dangerous wilderness. Czech champions Freeriding Radek Groh Freeriding is the easiest way of skiing in natural terrain. It means going down Brother and sister Karolína unmarked slopes, usually on freshly fallen and Radek Groh have been snow called powder. You can use a to competing in ski touring since childhood. They come get to the top of a hill; snowboarders can also from Krkonoše and now findsnowshoes handy if they want to start study at a grammar school their ride from a nearby peak and need to in Jilemnice. They have both get there through deep snow. Otherwise, all won medals at the European you need is the same equipment for downhill championships and have skiing, and you should be physically fit and been among the European know the local avalanche risk. elite for a long time. In the Czech Republic, they even compete successfully Karolína Groh Backcountry against adults. If downhill skiing is not your cup of tea and you prefer a romantic trek through a snow www.bridge-online.cz | 23

If you choose an extreme terrain, we call this ski . The goal is to climb a mountain and then to ski down. Sometimes The most famous races you have to take off your skis and carry them on your shoulders or even attach them to Trofeo Mezzalama the Wilderness your backpack and use equipment, Back to The most prestigeous and most difficult such as a rope, ice axe and crampons. It’s one-day competition of teams of three. It very popular to go for a weekend trip to some has been in existence since 1933. It is held mountain cottage, sleep there, reach the each odd year at the height of 4000 metres top of the mountain on Sunday and then ski above the sea level, on the Swiss‑Italian down. border around the Matterhorn. Races Dachstein Xtreme Ski touring can be competitive too. It is one A very quick and technically very difficult of the most demanding sports. For safety race held around Dachstein in Austria. reasons, people usually compete in pairs Racers have to run up steep hills and and the obligatory equipment includes ski down flat glaciers and slopes like a kamikaze. a helmet, rope, ice axe, crampons, first- aid kit, shovel, avalanche transceiver* (often called pieps) and avalanche probe*. Sella Ronda Exhausting runs uphill in high mountains This race takes place on well-known ski slopes in the Italian Dolomites. But while are very hard, but it is usually the hellish recreational skiers ski there in the daytime, downhills which decide the winner of the using ski lifts, racers do it at night and rely race. Imagine going down through a valley, only on their own strength. several kilometres long, surrounded by rocks and avalanches, without any path. Pierra Menta At the end, racers often have to run on The French region of Savoy hosts this foot across a snowless meadow or a forest, four‑day race in which teams of two have Competitors in the carrying skis on their shoulders. to travel a combined height difference of Pierra Menta race Jakub Turek (CR), www.horydoly.cz ten kilometres.

Vocabulary downhill skiing – sjezdové lyžování obligatory [@"blIg@t(@)ri] – povinný Glossary * trek – putování first-aid kit – lékárnička rush – příval cross-country skiing – běh na lyžích shovel ["SVv(@)l] – lopata avalanche transceiver – a device that ski run – sjezdovka free-heel bindings ["baIndInz] – hellish ["hElIS] – pekelný emits a beeping sound and helps slope [sl@Up] – svah vázání s volnou patou locate a victim buried in an avalanche powder ["paUd@] – prašan steep [sti;p] – příkrý, prudký THE MOST FAMOUS RACES (lavinový vyhledávač) ski lift – lyžařský vlek sole – pata odd – lichý avalanche probe – an equipment with snowshoes – sněžnice to slide – sklouznout above the sea level – v nadmořské which it is possible to examine the peak [pi;k] – vrchol ice axe – cepín výšce snow, several metres in depth, to find avalanche ["&v@lA;nS] – lavinový, crampons ["kr&mp@nz] – a victim under an avalanche (lavinová lavina horolezecká stoupací železa sonda)

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