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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Granby, CO
Day 6 – Thu 13th Jan

A cold but clear day! The plan was to head way out and start to ski some of the areas we had briefly looked at from the high point the day before, where we had built the road. We were the first ones up and there was a steep untouched slope ahead of us. This time, there was no evidence of the reactive windslab I had interacted with the day before and the skiing looked good. We couldn’t see the big face we were about to ski, but Mihael and Bobo had skied it many times before and with the better-looking snow, it would be a good option. Mihael dropped in and he was out of sight after 2 turns. Then it was a long wait for him to pop out at the bottom, but there he was. This was going to be a long run!

I traversed a little bit to the right of his tracks and then skied next to them, this was a steep face and a lot of vert (30 plus GS turns) and it definitely had my attention. This was quite the warmup run! The top turns were really nice, probably about 6 inches of soft snow, then getting pretty firm towards the bottom. There was definitely some hooting and hollering going on by the time I got to the bottom. Then I set up my handheld cam to film the rest of the bottom. Then we had a really long ski all the way down through a valley, past a few summertime shepard’s houses before pickup in the treeline. The snow in the treeline was awesome!

We did a couple of quick forest laps before heading back to the top of the mountain and the big open face. There was plenty of room for another set of tracks in it and this time, the face was in the sun. This run was even better as the sun had slightly softened the snow at the bottom. It was creamy turns all the way to the end, definitely one of the best runs of the trip (got it on video, will post that when I’m back in the US). We had the same long ski down to the bottom of the valley and our cat was waiting for us for lunch. We had a lovely pasta (creamy mushroom penne) and some fruit to restore some energy.

We finished the day with some really nice laps in the lower 1/3 of the zone, staying in the cold, less wind affected snow. The skiing was really great in that zone. Sadly, my POV cam died so I didn’t get much footage in that zone. We had a couple of beers to celebrate another great day in the Popova backcountry. Then we had an amazing dinner at a Macedonian steak house on the mountain road, on the way to Tetova. The food there was really good and it was a nice change from the hotel (which has also been awesome!).

271812664_10159421090016690_217888474395819814_n.jpg 271812848_10159421090036690_3737103800129961869_n.jpg 271813013_10159421090006690_3351633635639775543_n.jpg 271828721_10159421090021690_115636493739505087_n.jpg 271831021_10159421090046690_1794780908679873226_n.jpg 271839151_10159421090041690_4266326953624607443_n.jpg 271879196_10159421090031690_1497229581350797412_n.jpg 271881426_10159421090026690_5406316010832922941_n.jpg 271821162_10159421090051690_5041275463321404712_n.jpg 271887550_10159421090011690_3125797716748735970_n.jpg

- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 7 – Fri 14th Jan

The sun was still out and it was a lot warmer, but the winds had really picked up and the snow was blowing everywhere. This was the last ski day for the group sadly….. Unfortunately it would be a challenge to find good snow that wasn't all slabby and crusty. We tried a few spots, but it was hard going. The energy levels were pretty low, so a few of the group (myself included as my knees were pretty sore), called it quits early and only two of the group (plus Mihael and Bobo, the two Macedonian guides), kept going till around 2pm. They actually found some good snow further away, down in the trees and had a fun time. Tomorrow we leave for Skopje and a few cultural days which I am really looking to.

271843821_10159422405481690_8510473655187484888_n.jpg 271852757_10159422405486690_7172521656248181511_n.jpg 271880884_10159422405491690_1960649512886759179_n.jpg 271887860_10159422405476690_1671442671373552334_n.jpg 271975365_10159422405471690_5709997590257945461_n.jpg

- Matt
 
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Thread Starter
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Day 8 – Sat 15th Jan

Time to head back to Skopje. We had a bit of a lie in and then met for breakfast around 9am. Checkout was 11am and then we jumped in the van (about 21 seats for the 5 of us!) and headed out of the resort. It was slow going as there was quite the buildup of traffic, being a Saturday. Once we were out of the resort, then we made a lot of progress. We got to see a lot with the clear visibility and there were some great views of Tetovo. We could also see the old cable car that used to run from Tetovo to Popova Sapka. Apparently, it was damaged during and the the 2001 Macedonian war and subsequently abandoned.

Then we took the freeway to Skopje. All in all, it only takes about 1 hour 10 minutes to get to Skopje from Popova. Meto (owner of Shar Ourdoors) was waiting for us at the Alexander Square Hotel (the really nice hotel I stayed at on arrival) and then he took us on an amazing cultural tour of the city. He told us a lot about the history and what all the statues and buildings were. We started in Alexander Square and then took the famous Stone Bridge over the Vardar River towards the Old Bazaar.

The Old Bazaar is the oldest part of the city and has a lot of Turkish (Ottoman) influence. There are many mosques, Hamman (Turkish baths) and narrow, shop lined streets to explore. We had a lovely lunch in a Turkish restaurant with kebabs, beans in clay pot and fresh baked bread. Then we headed up to visit the Mustafa Pasha Mosque, the largest mosque in the area. Inside the dome was beautifully painted and very serene. Then we visited the Kale Fortress (Skopje Fortress) with its commanding views of the city.

Finally, we hit a craft brewery back in the Bazaar before heading back to the hotel for a couple of hours. At 6:30pm, Meto was waiting in the lobby for us again and we took taxis to the Kamnik Winery for a five-course food and wine tasting. What a place! It has a large restaurant that has a hunting lodge theme. We were served with 5 wines which were 2 whites, then 2 reds and finished off with a sweet dessert wine.

The food was incredible, we had: a fish mouse with squid and caviar; tortellini filled with pheasant and a shaved truffle on mushroom sauce; rabbit and then some duck; finished with desert with several different cakes/mousses. It was an amazing experience and very well-done. We had a great time. Then we went out for a couple of drinks for Scott, one of our guests, for his birthday.

The next day, we had a slow start and all the guests had to take COVID tests (Rapid Antigen Test – 1,000 dinars/$20) about a 13-minute walk from the hotel. Results were available via email, about 30-minutes later. I took one just to make sure I was negative for my next group (which I was). Now I have a couple of days off to recuperate and get ready for the start of the next group, on Jan 19th.

271902800_10159426593041690_3299367252094984238_n.jpg 271941005_10159426593016690_9205898771395839450_n.jpg 271945138_10159426593056690_7646826048315269870_n.jpg 271948304_10159426593036690_1312468831610082864_n.jpg 271948792_10159426593026690_306774073383462153_n.jpg 271953996_10159426593031690_282414725084166471_n.jpg 271954012_10159426593046690_6475656224344527873_n.jpg 271964140_10159426593011690_5798085255345805178_n.jpg 271965719_10159426593051690_6966247454596407173_n.jpg 272051789_10159426593021690_6191272668560002871_n.jpg

- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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As I now have some decent internet here at the hotel in Skopje, here's a sneak preview of some raw footage from one of our runs in Popova Sapka (shot on the 13th Jan). This was our second run down a really fun, steep face, with great contrast..... hope you like it!



- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

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Love that powder!
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Had a nice day off today, exploring the Matka Canyon and caves, about 25-minutes outside of Skopje. It was nice to get out of the smog of the city for a few hours..... back to work tomorrow with the arrival of my next group and our return to Opova Sapka. Round 2 is about to begin....

271949490_10159429368846690_2096647104972331424_n.jpg 271952144_10159429368831690_8302249424115809478_n.jpg 271970192_10159429368876690_4993176707799115268_n.jpg 271989134_10159429368841690_4748390190844475563_n.jpg 272022156_10159429368836690_8512828943408948455_n.jpg 272024677_10159429368866690_7068803474538086669_n.jpg 272026263_10159429368861690_3253219289439360457_n.jpg 272027180_10159429368871690_6539443253490630167_n.jpg 272043241_10159429368851690_1025459346002318212_n.jpg 272130151_10159429368856690_7212798530250680136_n.jpg

- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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G'day gang!

And that's a wrap for North Macedonia 2022. Tonight (2am) I will be heading to the airport to begin the long journey home. I got my COVID test back (negative) and now I am fit to travel. I will Macedonia but am happy to be coming home as hopefully the next adventure (Uzbekistan) is just around the corner.

I had intended to blog about session 2 but there was not much to report as I had to stay locked down in my hotel room in quarantine as I had tested positive for COVID and missed all of the skiing with the second group. Thankfully we had excellent local guides to guide the group when i was away so the guests did not miss out on any of the skiing. This is what transpired.....

On the 16th of Jan, all of the guests needed to take their Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) as part of the requirements for travel back to the US. I decided to take a test just to see how the process worked. There is a lab (Biotek) about 1km or 13-minute's walk from the hotel in Skopje, costing 1,000 dinars or about $18. Results are available by email in about 30-minutes. My test came back negative.

After everyone left, on the 18th, the day before the second group arrived, I decided to take another test, just to make sure I was negative. The test came back negative but later that same night, I started to develop a scratchy throat which turned into a strong cough. I didn't sleep that well that night, so the next day, I decided I should take a PCR test, just to make sure. I had two guests already in country (staying at a different hotel and I had no contact with them) and then two more guests arriving in Skopje on the morning of the 19th (our official start date for the trip).

I sent the group a message by WhatsApp and advised them they should go up separately to Popova Sapka whilst I got tested again. The transport picked everyone up whilst I got tested (20 dinars/$36) with the PCR test and it took about 3-hours to get the results by email. Unfortunately I had tested positive. It was decided that I would do my quarantine in Popova Sapka so it would be easier for Meto (owner of the cat skiing operation) to liaise with any help I needed.

So he organized a driver (driver knew I was positive and was fully-vaxxed and masked up as I sat in the back, double masked with the windows open) and they transferred me up to Popova. I went straight to my room at the Scardus and then began the quarantine. Thankfully the Hotel Scardus had given me a much bigger room so I could be more comfortable. By this stage I had flu-like symptoms with a cough, congestion, headache and body aches, but nothing too bad.

Meto gave me some at-home Antigen test kits and on the 20th, did another test to see if the tests were picking up the infection and the result was positive again, so at least I knew I could trust the results. Then it was just a case of play the waiting game and get better. I felt that it was best to wait till I received two negative test results before leaving quarantine. The hotel brought me food each day so I was well looked after.

I was feeling a lot better in a couple of days so I tested again on the 22nd but was still positive. I kept feeling better each day and I tested again on the 24th and this time I was negative. I tested negative again on the 25th so now I could leave quarantine. That was the last day of skiing for the group, but I didn't think it wise to sit with them in the cat (plus my strength and fitness was wiped) so I met the group in the evening for dinner and didn't ski with them.

It was great to be out but it felt a bit weird being out in public again and I found myself being hyper sensitive to anyone else around who were coughing. To be expected I guess. On the 26th it was time to head back to Skopje around noon and then we met a local guide for a tour around the city and a big lunch. It was pretty much the same tour Meto had given us previously, but with a few new sites and facts thrown in for good measure. Then we had our last night's dinner at the Kamnik Winery and another lovely time.

That was a wrap for the trip as most of the guests left on the 27th. I had an appointment that morning at the dentist for some cosmetic work to be done on a discolored tooth. Meto had recommended me his dentist in Skopje and I had heard that North Macedonia is one of the cheapest places in Europe to get work done. Sure enough, I was there for 1.5 hours and the results were great. It only cost me $75 all up and I was really happy. North Macedonia Ski and Dental Trips might have to be the next program! Ha ha.....

I had a nice morning trip to Matka Canyon again with the last remaining guest (his flight to back to San Francisco via Istanbul had been delayed due to snow in Istanbul) and then I had a meeting with a new guide (US military serving at the US Embassy in Skopje) about launching our potential Siberia program in November.

Then on the morning of the 29th, I tested negative again for my pre-departure testing to be able to return to the US. Now I am getting ready to leave at 2am for my flight from Skopje - Vienna - Chicago - Denver. Looking forward to getting home again. I have 10-days until the trip to Uzbekistan and hopefully a bit more skiing this time. I do have to work on my fitness again when I get back to Granby and get back into shape.

I'll post more of the high-resolution photos and video from session 1 in North Macedonia, when I get home. All the best everyone.

- Matt
 

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G'day gang!

And that's a wrap for North Macedonia 2022. Tonight (2am) I will be heading to the airport to begin the long journey home. I got my COVID test back (negative) and now I am fit to travel. I will Macedonia but am happy to be coming home as hopefully the next adventure (Uzbekistan) is just around the corner.

I had intended to blog about session 2 but there was not much to report as I had to stay locked down in my hotel room in quarantine as I had tested positive for COVID and missed all of the skiing with the second group. Thankfully we had excellent local guides to guide the group when i was away so the guests did not miss out on any of the skiing. This is what transpired.....

On the 16th of Jan, all of the guests needed to take their Rapid Antigen Tests (RAT) as part of the requirements for travel back to the US. I decided to take a test just to see how the process worked. There is a lab (Biotek) about 1km or 13-minute's walk from the hotel in Skopje, costing 1,000 dinars or about $18. Results are available by email in about 30-minutes. My test came back negative.

After everyone left, on the 18th, the day before the second group arrived, I decided to take another test, just to make sure I was negative. The test came back negative but later that same night, I started to develop a scratchy throat which turned into a strong cough. I didn't sleep that well that night, so the next day, I decided I should take a PCR test, just to make sure. I had two guests already in country (staying at a different hotel and I had no contact with them) and then two more guests arriving in Skopje on the morning of the 19th (our official start date for the trip).

I sent the group a message by WhatsApp and advised them they should go up separately to Popova Sapka whilst I got tested again. The transport picked everyone up whilst I got tested (20 dinars/$36) with the PCR test and it took about 3-hours to get the results by email. Unfortunately I had tested positive. It was decided that I would do my quarantine in Popova Sapka so it would be easier for Meto (owner of the cat skiing operation) to liaise with any help I needed.

So he organized a driver (driver knew I was positive and was fully-vaxxed and masked up as I sat in the back, double masked with the windows open) and they transferred me up to Popova. I went straight to my room at the Scardus and then began the quarantine. Thankfully the Hotel Scardus had given me a much bigger room so I could be more comfortable. By this stage I had flu-like symptoms with a cough, congestion, headache and body aches, but nothing too bad.

Meto gave me some at-home Antigen test kits and on the 20th, did another test to see if the tests were picking up the infection and the result was positive again, so at least I knew I could trust the results. Then it was just a case of play the waiting game and get better. I felt that it was best to wait till I received two negative test results before leaving quarantine. The hotel brought me food each day so I was well looked after.

I was feeling a lot better in a couple of days so I tested again on the 22nd but was still positive. I kept feeling better each day and I tested again on the 24th and this time I was negative. I tested negative again on the 25th so now I could leave quarantine. That was the last day of skiing for the group, but I didn't think it wise to sit with them in the cat (plus my strength and fitness was wiped) so I met the group in the evening for dinner and didn't ski with them.

It was great to be out but it felt a bit weird being out in public again and I found myself being hyper sensitive to anyone else around who were coughing. To be expected I guess. On the 26th it was time to head back to Skopje around noon and then we met a local guide for a tour around the city and a big lunch. It was pretty much the same tour Meto had given us previously, but with a few new sites and facts thrown in for good measure. Then we had our last night's dinner at the Kamnik Winery and another lovely time.

That was a wrap for the trip as most of the guests left on the 27th. I had an appointment that morning at the dentist for some cosmetic work to be done on a discolored tooth. Meto had recommended me his dentist in Skopje and I had heard that North Macedonia is one of the cheapest places in Europe to get work done. Sure enough, I was there for 1.5 hours and the results were great. It only cost me $75 all up and I was really happy. North Macedonia Ski and Dental Trips might have to be the next program! Ha ha.....

I had a nice morning trip to Matka Canyon again with the last remaining guest (his flight to back to San Francisco via Istanbul had been delayed due to snow in Istanbul) and then I had a meeting with a new guide (US military serving at the US Embassy in Skopje) about launching our potential Siberia program in November.

Then on the morning of the 29th, I tested negative again for my pre-departure testing to be able to return to the US. Now I am getting ready to leave at 2am for my flight from Skopje - Vienna - Chicago - Denver. Looking forward to getting home again. I have 10-days until the trip to Uzbekistan and hopefully a bit more skiing this time. I do have to work on my fitness again when I get back to Granby and get back into shape.

I'll post more of the high-resolution photos and video from session 1 in North Macedonia, when I get home. All the best everyone.

- Matt
Glad your feeling better! Travel safe...
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Alrighty, back home in Granby, CO, pretty jet-lagged but not too bad. The travel back went pretty smoothly. I left the hotel in Skopje at 2am on the 30th and then flew to Vienna at 4:30am. It was pretty early when I arrived and not much was open, but I managed to grab breakfast in the Austrian Airways lounge before heading to the flight to Chicago. There were several open seats on that flight, so I had a row of two to myself (the seat configuration was 2-3-2).

I got about an hour of sleep, so was pretty hazy when I got to Chicago. I had to clear immigration, pickup my bags and then take them through customs before dropping them off with United's bag-drop. Then it was a scramble to get to terminal 1 via the railway in time for the flight to Denver. I made it with about 10-minutes to spare. I arrived in Denver just before 6pm and then decided to stay the night near the airport, instead of driving home. I was too tired for that.

I had a nice curry for dinner and hit the hay by 9pm. I slept soundly till about 4:30am and then I was wide awake again. I figured that was a decent amount of sleep and by 5:30am, I was on the road back to Granby. I didn't tell my wife I was driving back early (I had said I would leave by 10am and would be home around noon) and when I drove into the garage around 7:40am, she was at the door with a can of mace in her hand. Whoops! I didn't get sprayed and she was happy to see me.

It was awesome to be home. Now the preparation starts for the Uzbekistan trip and my first test is to pass a PCR test. If I don't get a negative result (I've tested 3 times negative with the Antigen test, after I recovered from COVID), then that could jeopardize that trip. I hope it doesn't come to then. Anyway, in the meantime, I will try and post some of the high-rez photos and video that I wasn't able to post when I was in Macedonia. Let's see if it works, I apologize if you've seen some of them before, but there will be some new ones in there too.... and they don't work, file size is too big, so I'll just have to focus on the video's then. That's a shame.....
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Time for some video then...... starting with day 1 of the skiing on the 9th January. This was a tough start to the trip with poor visibility and some new wind-blown snow on top of some hard snow. When you could see, the skiing was really nice with about 3 inches of fresh on sheltered slopes. Then you could actually let the skis run a bit. We skied till about 2pm and then got dropped off close to the hotel to finish off our onsnow avi safety training. There was a big storm shaping up for that evening so spirits were high for better conditions.....



- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Joined
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North Macedonia cat skiing - 10th Jan. We'd had a big dump of snow overnight and the next day we awoke to boot-top fresh snow. We skied 6 quality laps in the morning and then by 2pm, the winds started to pick up. The exposed ridge tops were getting loaded and slabby, so we stayed off them and down a bit lower where the snow was less affected by the wind. We skied 5 more laps in the afternoon and it snowed another 8 inches. An amazing day was had in North Powdonia!



- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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Jan 11th - The snow kept going overnight (with some winds) and all the tracks were filled in again the next day. We had to stay down low still, but we finally could see a little bit of the surrounding mountains and the views were lovely. We had another fun day of skiing mellow, open-treed lines.



- Matt
 
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Mattadvproject

Mattadvproject

Love that powder!
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North Macedonia - 12th Jan. I've been excited to post about this day for a while as this was probably my favorite day of skiing with the session 1 crew.

The sun was almost out and it was time to push out higher, into the alpine and ski some steeper lines. We got to open several steep lines near the ski area and found great snow (about 5 inches of soft snow) in the sheltered aspects.

There were some reactive, shallow windslabs around and I kicked off one slide to the skier's right of the steep chairlift (03:13). Thankfully I had my speed up and was able to ski out of the slide. It definitely got my attention and I'm thankful I wasn't caught.

Sadly the camera died and I missed getting footage of our last run which was really sweet, near a big rock face that was featured in a ski base jumping segment in TGR's 2011 movie "One for the Road." I'll post video of that in the comments.....

An amazing day, we made some great memories and this really made the trip to North Macedonia!



- Matt
 

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