Click photo to enlarge
Lifts rise towards the top of the Dizin skifield. Photo by
James Smith.
The snow is great and the locals friendly. James Smith
insists it is Iran he is talking about.
"Good afternoon Sir. Off skiing are we?"
"Yes," I replied.
"To Canada or the US?" guessed the check-in worker at
Christchurch Airport as I dumped my ski bag in front of her.
"No, Iran," I said.
With a laugh and a smile she took my passport and air ticket
and proceeded to check me in.
Less than five seconds later her facial expression changed.
She glanced up at me with an almost confused look on her face
and said: "You're not joking are you?".
Then came the questions.
"Isn't Iran a desert? Is it safe? Where are the ski
fields?"The questions were not new to me.
For months I had tried to find friends interested in doing a
ski trip to Iran but a lack of knowledge of the ski scene and
the image of Iran in the West was enough for most to say, "No
thanks".
However, a Dunedin friend living in London jumped at the
chance.
Mark Taylor, an experienced traveller, has a passion for
searching the far corners of the world with a pair of skis.
His email went along the lines of "are you serious?".
The reply was "yes", and so we started to plan our trip.
The hard work was in the planning.
Iran not being a major tourist destination, information was
at times hard to come by.
First we needed to get a visa, which meant finding a sponsor
in Iran.
We found a travel agent in New Zealand who could organise
this, but the agency required that you book your whole trip
through it from start to finish.
This was not an option for us, as on any ski trip the seasons
can be good or bad and we wanted the freedom to be able to
move around.
Having Mark living in London was a major advantage.
London, a major travel hub, has a range of companies that can
help arrange the visa and will not tie you into organising
the entire trip.
Mark went into investigation mode and soon found a company
that provided good information, was helpful and cheaper than
dealing with the companies we had quotes from in New Zealand.
Getting there was simple and not too pricey.
After a direct flight to Dubai with UAE, Teheran's new
international airport was just a connecting flight away.
I felt I had more trouble getting out of New Zealand than
getting into Iran.
Teheran's airport was clean, quiet and efficient.
I was greeted by what appeared to be a huge, stony-faced
Persian warrior.
Without a word being said, he took my passport, examined it,
then turned and gave me a huge smile and nodded me on my way.
We had left Dubai in 24degC temperatures to arrive to a cool
-5degC in Teheran.
Settled on a high plateau (1300m), Teheran is one of the most
polluted cities in the world, with little to offer from a
tourist point of view.
We had two nights there but in hindsight really only needed
one.
We took in a few of the sights, of which the National Jewels
Museum was the highlight.
The day we were to leave Teheran for the slopes of Dizin we
woke to find large snowflakes falling in the city.
Smiles formed on our faces as we anticipated what was to
come.
Dizin is a 60km drive from Teheran in the Alborz mountain
range.
Driving there can take two to three hours, depending on the
traffic.
Why so long? Traffic in Teheran is something special.
I read a description of it as "organised chaos".
Traffic rules seem non-existent, but somehow everything seems
to move.
We arrived late at night and to our dismay it had not snowed
as much on the mountain as in the city, only a couple of
centimetres, but it was cold, -15degC.
As morning broke on our first full day in Dizin we looked
outside to find an overcast day with snow flurries.
It was, as expected, bone-chillingly cold.
The wind picked up and after our first few runs I had a laugh
when I saw what I thought was snot frozen to the side of
Mark's nose.
As it turned out, his nose had just turned a strange shade of
yellow in the cold.
Dizin is one of the highest skifields in the world.
The highest lift reaches about 3600m.
To put this into perspective, Mt Cook is 3754m.
Iran's highest mountain, Mt Damavand, stretches to 5671m.
The skifield has about 850m of vertical drop, with a mixture
of well-groomed slopes and big areas of off-piste skiing.
It is like a large Cardrona, a very large Cardrona.
There are three gondolas, a couple of chairlifts and a number
of Pomas.
