Winter Sports in the Namibian Desert

It is a contradiction in terms, and yet it will become a reality in just a few weeks: skiing in the Namib Desert, Africa’s oldest desert. Opposites attract, thought the two adventurers Henrik May from Germany and Herbert Kössner from Austria, and from August they plan to offer multi-day ski tours through the desert that gave its name to Namibia, the former German colony on the Atlantic coast.

For May, who is from the Black Forest, Namibia and winter sports are not an entirely new combination: the businessman opened the world’s first ski lift in a desert back in 2004. While until now it has only been possible to ski downhill or snowboard in the Namibian desert, the new offering is also aimed at cross-country skiers. The challenge is to cover a route of around 90 kilometers in five daily stages. However, the ski tour through the Namibian desert is not for the faint-hearted, as showers and other amenities that might seem like a matter of course are available only once you reach the end of the adventure.

The desert sand behaves not much differently from snow in the Alps when skiing; only slight reductions in speed should be expected, Kössner and May assure us. A ski vacation in Namibia, away from mass tourism, is certainly something different and has many other facets to offer. May and Kössner are also happy to arrange desert safaris on request, where tourists can see elephants and other animals that they would certainly search for in vain in the Alps.