As ski season hits full throttle on slopes across the northern hemisphere, so the usual après ski debates will play out in the bars of Aspen and St. Moritz, or Morzine and Whistler. Is skiing or snowboarding the greater art form? What’s the perfect drink after coming in from a day of blistering runs? Which brand rules supreme for the fashion-conscious winter adventurer? And for the purposes of this conversation: what is the world’s foremost destination for the greatest slopes of them all? There’ll be plenty of familiar suggestions, and a few that are a touch exotic – but it’s almost guaranteed that in the celebration of the finest ski resorts of them all, there won’t be much mention of Lesotho.
The kingdom of Lesotho is a tiny, beautiful, mountainous nation at the bottom of Africa, entirely surrounded by South Africa. It makes the occasional front page when Prince Harry visits the children’s charity he co-founded in the country in 2006, or when the local diamond industry claims a significant find. But generally Lesotho is a quiet, peaceful country, that is home to two million people – and the continent’s only ski resort south of the equator.
So what does an African ski resort look like? If you’re used to spending your winters in the Alps or the Rockies, then Afriski may be a little underwhelming: if there hasn’t been much snow, the resort’s machines generate a bright white ribbon that suggests a large truck has overturned, and spilt a cargo of vanilla ice cream down the brown scrub of the Maluti mountains. But given its altitude of just over 3 000 metres above sea level, Afriski does get regular snow, which is what prompted the founding of the Maluti Ski Club in the 1960’s.
60 years later or thereabouts, it’s still a modest affair: the lone run isn’t much more than a kilometre of fairly gentle descent, so the accomplished skier will be down in a flash. But Afriski isn’t targeting a pre-season Eileen Gu, and hosting the Winter Olympics is pretty unlikely. In a part of the world more commonly associated with safari vacations under the African sun, few people have first-hand experience of snow sports, and thus even a relatively short and straightforward run makes for a unique holiday destination. For the first-time skier, then, it’s handily placed for an introduction to life on the slopes – and for locals in Lesotho, or neighboring South Africans, it’s the perfect warm-up for a maiden visit to a European resort.
Which is not to discount a pilgrimage to Afriski for visitors from further afield. Yes, it may lack the sprawl of Powder Mountain or Porte du Soleil, but the local hospitality is terrific (the Basotho people are famously warm and friendly), there’s well-stocked ski store on site, and the accommodation is comfortable and well-priced, from backpacker simplicity to serviced apartments. And while it’s the better part of a six-hour drive (and a border crossing) from Johannesburg, the trip offers the chance to combine an unusual ski holiday with more conventional African pursuits, and replacing Helly Hanson with khakis for a few days on safari.
As cool as any reason for setting your sights on Afriski, though, is the original debate. As you pull into Ajax Tavern after a full day on the slopes and the stories of great skiing adventures gather momentum, you’ll be able to wait for just the right lull in conversation and pull out the trump card. For wherever the rest of your après ski companions may have ventured, chances are pretty good that you’ll be the only one to have traveled to Africa for a skiing holiday in Lesotho.
