Three days before we were set to leave for our winter Finland visit I received my climbing skins. I got them at the same time as new skis a week or two earlier but since at the time I didn’t have the bindings yet they were left sitting in the garage. When I finally got them all together I wisely decided I should do a short test run up and down Pohorje to see how it all worked together before doing any serious touring. I took all the stuff out of the car and was ready to start when I realized the skins don’t fit. I fought against the obvious until the lesson that it’s best to do this in the comfort of your own home sinked in.

Turned out the front attachment nut was made with the slightly thinner profile of the new ski model in mind. I bought the last years (at a substantial discount) so it was off by a millimeter. Could have been a centimeter for all I cared. It just wouldn’t work. I called up the factory shop where I got them, sent the package and they returned it in 3 days with a custom fix. Nice customer service. And this time I immediately tested the whole thing at home.

Now there were only 2 days before we left for a vacation and with perfect snow and weather conditions I wanted to make the most of it. Since it would be the first time on the new setup I needed something relatively short and easy so I went north to Weinebene and from there to Moschkogel in the direction of Koralpe. Half a meter of powder from the day before was great (where it wasn’t blown away) but the terrain sucked. Not a fan of touring on the flat and all I earned during the two hour sightseeing tour was a decent blister that wouldn’t go away for the entire time we were in Finland.

So when I got back to the car I took one look at Handalm across the road and went for it. I just left most of the stuff in the car…water, food, camera, shovel. Everything. It’s so short I didn’t even consider it beforehand. But after the depressing stroll I really needed a boost of a steep powder run, no matter how short. I fought the deep powder upwards for 30 minutes and skied down in about 30 seconds. But that was all I needed to save the day.

I just wished I’d done 10 laps of that in the first place…

The first time I probably heard of Sharm El Sheikh & Dahab was 10 years ago on the Lonely Planet Thorn Tree diving forum. Everyone was (and still is) constantly asking the same questions. Where should we dive? Who should we dive with? Where should we stay etc. ad nauseam. All the attention, even way back then, was putting me off the idea of ever going there. The aversion was further reinforced when I saw the first pictures of friends, relatives or others who went there (or Hurghada) and all I could see were hotels in the middle of nowhere and dozens of dive boats moored on the same dive site. Not my idea of fun.

It’s all on the opposite side of the scale from what I look for in a holiday and/or diving destination. Too many people, too many hotels & all very fake.

But then the revolution happened, every paranoid fool started avoiding Egypt and their tourism industry tanked. Suddenly there were no crowds in Sharm, suddenly the idea of coming to a dive site and being the only–or one of a few boats–became a reality. Even the boats left running were half full if that. Suddenly the idea of going diving in Egypt didn’t sound so bad. The same hotels and fake feel are still there but the prices are down and crowds are gone. So we seized the opportunity over x-mas and went diving.

Mind you, I was still feeling crowded with what was apparently only about 20% of normal capacity.

We took the easy way out and just got an all inclusive offer @ the Sheraton as the total price was lower than flights alone. Not that we actually took advantage of the “all inclusive” part as the only time we actually spent a substantial portion of the day at the hotel was our last day before the flight. We pretty much went diving straight off the evening flight there and more often than not our dive guide Ahmed picked us up around sunrise and dropped us off in time for dinner. In between we were either on the boat, underwater, in the desert or at Al Mawardi coffee shop.

Perhaps more memorable than the diving (quite nice, especially the Thistlegorm) was the night drive to Dahab and climbing around Wadi Gnai and Wadi Shahira at sunrise. I was always a sucker for the desert.

So was it worth it? Under the circumstances, most definitely. 3 years ago I wouldn’t even dream of it.

Sharm & Dahab underwater slideshow

Some photos copyright by Dejan Kovač, Janez Burkeljca

Sharm & Dahab above water slideshow

My head is totally wrapped in everything to do with snow avalanches as I’m trying to sort out some prototype web based bulletins. So much so that I need a break now and then. Guess these videos are a reminder of why I’m doing it in the first place.

TV Mountain – Avalanche au Sautet (embedding not allowed)