Powder Mad cat-skiing in Ukraine in 2022

Our first week commenced on the 15th of Jan … At this time there was a considerate warning by the US and British intelligence services that the build-up of over 100,000 Russian troops close to the border may not be a training exercise. That said there was no official travel warning by the Government to travel to Ukraine apart from the Donbas area, which had been in place for several years. There were of course many other travel restrictions going on at the time in many countries due to COVID. Our clients were more worried about Covid than the very thought of a War in Europe!! Many experts also suggested that if something was to happen it would only be in the East in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions which was over 1000 miles by road to where we planned to ski (Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains)

I had previously been in Ukraine in 2015 and upon arrival in Jan 2022 I sensed a completely different country to my previous visit. The country was clearly wealthier and in Lviv (our flight arrival city) the place was extremely lively with loads of great restaurants and bars, Ice skating rinks and people enjoying themselves. There was a very strong sense of national pride and mirrored many other European cities. More people could speak English than my previous visit and many asked what we were doing in their country in the heart of Winter. When they learnt we were here to ski their mountains they were over the moon with national pride. The general feeling was this was a nation on the up and up.

We did of course pay attention to the news before leaving the UK and all the media’s coverage of the Russian military build-up. This in mind we all shared the view that it was a US v Russia arm wrestle and sabre-rattling competition. Not one of us would’ve believed what was to happen a few weeks later. We asked the locals what they thought, and the consensus was both the US and Russia are blowing hot air at each other and Ukraine is just piggy in the middle… The narrative from the Ukrainian government was that Putin was just playing or acting Big brother by conducting their Military training close to the Ukrainian border, but this was NOT an invasion force.

Since 2014 when Russia first took control and annexed the region of Crimea the feeling had be born to hate Putin`s incessant rhetoric that Ukraine was Russian. In fact, the complete opposite had occurred more people now spoke Ukrainian than Russian and even the Russian speakers believed themselves as Ukrainian not Russian. The country had never been more united with a massive dislike of Putin trying to medal in Ukrainian affairs.
After a massive night out in Lviv where we had sung songs with locals and toasted Ukraine Sláva Ukrayíni! (Glory to Ukraine) we travel by road for 5 hours to Dragobrat the destination for our CAT-skiing adventure.

Our first week commenced on the 15th of Jan … At this time there was a considerate warning by the US and British intelligence services that the build-up of over 100,000 Russian troops close to the border may not be a training exercise. That said there was no official travel warning by the Government to travel to Ukraine apart from the Donbas area, which had been in place for several years. There were of course many other travel restrictions going on at the time in many countries due to COVID. Our clients were more worried about Covid than the very thought of a War in Europe!! Many experts also suggested that if something was to happen it would only be in the East in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions which was over 1000 miles by road to where we planned to ski (Ukrainian Carpathian Mountains)

I had previously been in Ukraine in 2015 and upon arrival in Jan 2022 I sensed a completely different country to my previous visit. The country was clearly wealthier and in Lviv (our flight arrival city) the place was extremely lively with loads of great restaurants and bars, Ice skating rinks and people enjoying themselves. There was a very strong sense of national pride and mirrored many other European cities. More people could speak English than my previous visit and many asked what we were doing in their country in the heart of Winter. When they learnt we were here to ski their mountains they were over the moon with national pride. The general feeling was this was a nation on the up and up.

We did of course pay attention to the news before leaving the UK and all the media’s coverage of the Russian military build-up. This in mind we all shared the view that it was a US v Russia arm wrestle and sabre-rattling competition. Not one of us would’ve believed what was to happen a few weeks later. We asked the locals what they thought, and the consensus was both the US and Russia are blowing hot air at each other and Ukraine is just piggy in the middle… The narrative from the Ukrainian government was that Putin was just playing or acting Big brother by conducting their Military training close to the Ukrainian border, but this was NOT an invasion force.

Since 2014 when Russia first took control and annexed the region of Crimea the feeling had be born to hate Putin`s incessant rhetoric that Ukraine was Russian. In fact, the complete opposite had occurred more people now spoke Ukrainian than Russian and even the Russian speakers believed themselves as Ukrainian not Russian. The country had never been more united with a massive dislike of Putin trying to medal in Ukrainian affairs.

After a massive night out in Lviv where we had sung songs with locals and toasted Ukraine Sláva Ukrayíni! (Glory to Ukraine) we travel by road for 5 hours to Dragobrat the destination for our CAT-skiing adventure.