Somewhere deep inside I have a love for snow. As a member of the Nordic ski team at Williams, I have skied thousands of kilometers, but they haven't added up to anything except for a few race results. So last year I decided to ski around the world sometime after graduation, sharing my love of snow and skiing with hundreds of small villages that are otherwise isolated during winter. The plan is to use local overland transportation in the absence of snow, and ski between villages in the prescience. Starting in S America from June until September, then heading to the Caucuses or Himalaya for early skiing and then continuing on through Eurasia.
The more I have traveled and researched in developing mountain regions, the more the need for sustainable tourism has become apparent. In some places, like the Wakhan of Tajikistan and Afghanistan, tour operators are realizing the limits and un sustainability of jeep tours, and are turning to trekking. But the question of what to do during winter, with poor road conditions but equal beauty, still puzzles many, and drives others to drinking and other social hills. Skiers tend to be a wealthier, adventurous clientele, and developing ski tourism allows a balancing of the load of tourists on the environment, spreads wealth throughout the year, and provides winter employment when agriculture and guiding are not possible.
Two big goals exist: to introduce village to village ski touring as a reliable source of winter income in villages, and create a creative work showcasing winter life in isolated villages which may never be visited by foreigners in winter.
If you'd like to follow the process, just keep up with the blog. To join in on part, make sure your company's gear makes it to ________, or chat, just shoot an email to becorwin@yahoo.com.
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