Musings from Miklagard: Kayak in new territory

We brought our skis to Turkey, because we thought when living in Europe we would ski in Europe. What we didn't know was that there is skiing in Turkey - but then you are better off going to Asia.
Confusing? You have to remember that a little part of Turkey lies in Europe and the majority of the country lies in Asia. The most popular places for tourists who visit Turkey, are the Mediterranean and Aegean coast, and it never snows there. The eastern part of Turkey is a different story, and we thought that sounded far more exiting than skiing in the Alps.

After researching skiing in Turkey online, we decided to go to Palandöken ski resort, which is close to the city of Erzurum.

Erzurum is situated is situated 1,757 meters (5,766 feet) above sea level, and Palandöken Mountain is at 3,271 meters (10,732 feet). According to their own web site, http://www.palandokenskicenter.com/palandokenskicenter.html,

their season lasts for 150 days, and the best skiing is between December and May. They don't get tons of snow, but what they get is powdery and beautiful.

We did not really know what to expect before we went to Palandöken, because most information we found online was at least a couple of years old, but we knew Erzurum had just hosted the 25th World Winter Universiade Games (University Games), so we thought it couldn't be too bad.

We were very impressed!

There were no more surface lifts, almost all the chair lifts were brand new, there was even a gondola, and they were all running! Even the weather was great, no wind or fog that caused the lifts to be closed. The majority of the runs had good snow coverage, and because the area doesn't get a good deal of precipitation, they also had brand new snow making equipment installed.

As far as we could see, there are very few trees growing around Erzurum - and none on the mountain. If this is due to the high altitude or poor soil, we don't know, but it made for some beautiful skiing off of the groomed trails. The off-piste skiing was fun, especially because the quality of the snow was so high. Our skiing experience the last 10 years has been on the East coast of the US, and if you learn to ski on those icy trails, you can ski anywhere!

There was one obstacle though, and we hit that mostly when when we went off the groomed trails. Because there is so little vegetation, there are that many more rocks, and the rocks are sharp and treacherous. I don't know if we would have been better off renting skis, but I have to say I could feel it deep in my bones and wallet when I hit a rock, and of course it caused for some very comical (and pretentiously dangerous) falls.

Last I have to mention that the hotel we stayed at was great, slopeside and three meals included!

Oh, and one more thing: I found it fascinating, but I have not investigated it further; the word for ski in Turkish is called kayak.