Last year we went to Eastern Turkey, Palandöken, for February vacation. Skiing in Turkey is great, so this year we wanted try a different mountain. We decided to go even further east, almost to the Armenian border, to Sarıkamış. To get there we flew to Kars, which might sound familiar because of Orhan Pamuk's novel Snow, which is set in Kars. The book describes Kars as a very cold place, and the word 'kar' in Turkish means 'snow', so we assumed we were going to the right place! Our research also told us that the snow in this area is famous for being of the best quality due to high altitude and stable temperature. Different from the bare and exposed peak of Palandöken, the mountainsides in Sarıkamış are covered with pine forest. Great for glades skiing! What we love most about skiing in Turkey is the lack of crowds - hardly any lift lines, but the people there with you are friendly, happy and fun. We had New friends yelling to us from the chairlifts, offering seats to share tea, and giving us Turkish lessons after the first half day.
Grooming while the trail is open and skiers are on it!
I swear there were other people on the mountain...
Red circle is where we skied, the "Ağrı Dağ"to the right of the circle is the Turkish name for Mount Ararat (Click on the image to enlarge).
Our luxury accommodations! ; )
Untouched powder... not for long!
Sarıkamış village below
Prime poaching location...
...the poacher...
...poach, poacher, POACH!
And...
...pooped
Could be a future Halloween costume!
No effort to sink this in, and there were deeper spots!
Yippee...
...wooHOOO!
Stuck the landing...
...almost.
NEXT TIME!
Our hotel on the right.
Monument to soldiers. Sarıkamış was the site of a significant battle inWWI between Ottoman and Russian forces. The Russian Army won the battle, partly due to ill-timed attacks and terrible winter conditions. The Ottoman Army suffered 50,000-60,000 casualties.
Scenes like these, to and from the airport, brought back memories of Finnmark in Northern Norway.
