Nestled high in the mountains of Lesotho, skiers and snowboarders from around the world rub shoulders at Africa’s leading ski resort, which is cultivating a loyal clientele, despite its diminutive size and remote location.
Since 2002, Afriski in northeastern Lesotho has also become a hub for the country’s young winter sports enthusiasts to hone their skills and maybe one day compete for gold at the Winter Olympics.
“Afriski was always a unique option as a destination,” said resort snowmaker Martin Schultz, 35, who comes from South African surfing hub Jeffreys Bay, but swapped his surfboard for a snowboard to take to the slopes.
Photo: AFP
“It’s been a nice progress — nice amounts of terrain we’ve been able to open up,” he added, wearing stylish wrap-around blue mirrored sunglasses and a lemon-yellow crash helmet.
Schultz is responsible for maintaining the quality and consistency of the artificial snow on the slopes, used by the 12,000 visitors who travel to the resort in the Maluti Mountains every season.
“We use high-pressure air, high-pressure water and a certain temperature and humidity,” he said of the resort’s state-of-the-art snowmaking equipment, used when snow is not falling naturally.
Afriski’s main 1km-long piste is a strip of brilliant white snow between brown grassy ridges and dotted with artificial snowmakers, although, on average, its three slopes are covered with natural snow for several weeks each year.
Both expert and novice skiers go down the pristine slope from a height of 3.2km to the compact alpine-style resort below. There, visitors drink mulled wine and listen to chart music in sub-zero temperatures.
“Ready? Go,” shouts a US ski instructor as she loads her young charge onto the lift, while more experienced snowboarders spin and flip on ramps nearby.
Schultz, who worked as a ski instructor at resorts across Europe before spending nine seasons at Afriski, hopes the resort will help the tiny kingdom one day win medals at the Winter Olympics.
“One of Afriski’s biggest priorities is to try and expand the skiing community in Lesotho and we have kids’ programs that generate a lot of interest from the local communities,” Schultz said of the resort, which employs 240 staff, three-quarters of whom are locals.
“Some of our kids, like Thabang Mabari, the son of one of the guys who works here, has been skiing for about five years and he’s brilliant. There’s a good future for kids like that,” he said.
“Hopefully in the future we can aim to get those kids to an Olympian standard so they can actually fly the Lesotho flag at the Olympics,” he added.
The 10-year-old’s mother, Mathabang Mabari, who also works at the resort, told reporters that he had started skiing at the age of three.
“It’s something he liked a lot. Of course, it’s in his blood to compete — of all the other kids of people who work here, he was the first to ski and teach the others,” said 36-year-old Mathabang Mabari, who is from the nearby village of Moteng.
Outside, slender-framed Thabang Mabari glides down the slope with ease dressed in yellow boots, a black puffer jacket and red snow trousers.
Despite having some promising youngsters, southern Africa has yet to make a mark at the Winter Olympics.
South African alpine skier Sive Speelman qualified for the 2014 Sochi Games — but was blocked from attending by the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, which said he was too slow.
His dream to be his country’s first black contender in his discipline was also thwarted at this year’s Games in South Korea and he was instead a technical assistant to South Africa’s solitary Winter Olympics participant, Connor Wilson.
Lesotho has never put a Winter Olympian forward.
Afriski is Lesotho’s sole ski resort — the only other one in sub-Saharan Africa is Tiffindell in South Africa, which has two runs and relies on artificial snow.
“Afriski has been a great help in my training. I don’t think I would have got to the Winter Olympics without them,” said 21-year-old Wilson, who was training at Afriski for two weeks. “There’s huge potential here. I always join in with the [local kids’] training... They’re copying what I’m doing and they are always interested.”
“One day, hopefully, they will go to the Winter Olympics for Lesotho,” he added.
Despite its small size and relatively limited facilities, Afriski still sees itself as a destination firmly on the global winter sports circuit.
It even pays homage to its European competitors, naming its chalets after renowned ski centers like France’s Meribel and Courchevel.
French ski and snowboard instructor Thomas Frontoni, 23, said that he would recommend skiing in southern Africa to Europeans, despite the relatively short piste.
“Try it — it’s always beautiful, perfect views, friendly people. Southern Africa is cheap for European guys,” said Frontoni, originally from Nice, France.
A full-day “snowpass,” which gives access to all the pistes and lifts, costs US$34.
“It’s a small resort ... but I think if a French or European skier came here, they’d have a good time,” Frontoni said. “I have seen lots of South African pupils, Argentine pupils, Canadian pupils.”
“They don’t come here because it’s a kilometer of skiing, they don’t come here because it’s massive mountains,” Schultz said. “They come here to ski in Africa, because it’s on their bucket list.”
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