Killian Fordeprofiles 10 unusual ski destinations
The overwhelming majority of Irish skiers will head to resorts in France, Austria, Andorra and Italy, with a smaller number making their way to the emerging markets of Bulgaria and Norway. What many do not realise is that for adventurous ski enthusiasts there is a alternative world of winter sport experiences beyond the crowded Alpine pistes.
10. SICILY
Gentle slopes and a stunning view of the middle Mediterranean, the effusive volcano of Mt Etna provides the setting for one of Europe's best-kept skiing secrets. The regular eruptions that have melted the lifts off the mountain five times in the past 40 years will ensure that this little known ski station remains just that. www.volcanoetna.com
9. BOSNIA
Two Olympic-class mountains within 30 minutes of the international airport potentially make Sarajevo a soon-to-be-major ski destination. Until then it remains an undiscovered but slowly developing area still suffering from the worst image any holiday destination could want. www.jahorina.org/en
8. LESOTHO
This tiny mountain kingdom, self-styled the "Austria of Africa", is the unlikely short break destination for expat aid workers, bankers, diplomats and engineers working in southern Africa. Skiing at the single-lift resort at Mahlasela pass is a testing five-hour drive from Johannesburg. www.afriski.co.za
7. MOROCCO
High in the Atlas Mountains, a couple of hours' drive above Marrakech, sits Oukaimeden. The biggest ski area on the African continent is limited to six lifts and suffers from a lack of ski and piste support equipment. This collectors' destination is a "bring your own equipment" one. www.skimaroc.tk
6. DUBAI
If you were seduced into buying a box apartment in this shopping centre in the desert and find yourself shopped out, a new option is to go skiing in the world's third-biggest snowdome. A giant frozen tilted warehouse, the indoor snowdome generates 6,000 tons of snow to provide the world-weary wealthy with a 400-metre run. www.skidubai.com
5. BOLIVIA
Thirty kms from La Paz, Chacaltaya has the highest ski lift in the world and is the ski resort nearest to the equator. True, the resort consists of little more than a mountain lodge, selling drinks, snacks and hiring skis with a single pre-second World War ski lift which brings skiers 200 metres up the mountain's rapidly retreating glacier. The lodge is reached by a winding road from La Paz and lies at a, literally, breathtaking 5,400 metres overlooking Lake Titicaca. Interested snowheads should hurry, as global warming has melted some 80 per cent of the glacier over the past 20 years and the Bolivian Geographical Institute believe that within three years it will have disappeared. www.thewalkzone.co.uk
4. LEBANON
Snowsports in the Lebanon is big business, with six established ski resorts and a multi million-euro new resort in development. The biggest and best is Faraya Mzaar Kfardebian, a scenic one-and-a-half hour drive from Beirut. Comparable to a mid-sized Austrian resort, Faraya has 16 lifts and more than 80kms of marked piste. The wide range of accommodation includes the five-star Intercontinental Hotel. At 1,800 metres the resort has a good record of snowcover, with a season from mid December to mid April. The slopes are almost empty during the week and although the weekends fill up the hotels and bars in the resort, it seems that for many middle-class Beriutis the "been seen" not skiing is what makes the jaunt worthwhile. The website of Crystal Holidays, who included Faraya on its list of package destinations in 2006, notes the "ski programme to the Lebanon is currently suspended due to the political situation". www.skileb.com
3. INDIA
Unpredictable snow in the Alps, a new generation who travelled Asia in their early twenties, environmental development concerns, and cheaper air travel has meant future ski resorts will be more remote from their targeted customers in cash-rich Europe. Mountains don't come higher than the Himalayas, and the Indian Kashmiri resort of Gulmarg is the first commercial modern ski resort to be developed in this colossal range. Gulmarg, a purpose-built resort, sits on a 2,730-metre high plateau facing a white wall of mountain more than 4,200 metres high. Six lifts, half a dozen quality mountainside hotels and some of the best deep powder off piste provide experienced skiers with both the creature comforts and challenges to make the long trip worthwhile. The local development plan is to lift-link the villages 800 metres below the resort so Gulmarg will have the invaluable branding as the ski resort with the world's biggest vertical drop. But the resort is sited on serious ethnic and geographical faultlines. More than 80,000 Indian and Pakistanian troops continue their 60-year face off over the disputed Kashmir region and in 2005 the region was hammered by a strong earthquake that killed some 75,000 people. www.skihimalaya.com
2. ENGLAND
With just one drag lift and a vertical drop of only 110 metres, Raise in the Lake District vies as one of the world's smallest ski stations, but it is the nearest one to us. However, tucked in the middle of a remote valley it's a 60-minute hike from the nearest road and three miles from the closest pub and village. Far from snowsure, Raise, run voluntarily by the Lake District Ski Club, operates when the snow is deep enough. Those committed are best off keeping an eye on the slope webcam and weather forecast and then hopping on a Ryanair flight to Newcastle when they spot the white stuff. www.ldscsnowski.co.uk
1. IRAN
The ultimate in one-upmanship in skiing circles, Iran is fast becoming the "ski experience" destination. Peering over the Persian capital are dozens of 4,000+ metre peaks, with Mt Damavand (5,610 metres) being the highest point in the country.
Skiing in Iran is promoted and subsidised by the state, and the country has carved out a reputation for producing some of the best summertime grass skiers in the world. The main ski resort, Dizin, is only 60 kms and an hour-and-a-half trip from Tehran. This high-altitude centre, the base at 2,700 metres, is higher than most Alpine resort summits, has 11 1970s-era lifts and a good range of blue to black graded slopes. Off piste in Iran is still a minority activity and so Dizin offers fantastic opportunities for powderhounds hungry for new virgin fields.
Don't expect too much après ski fun here, the bar in the hotel has been closed since the 1979 Islamic revolution. And yes women do ski, not in chadors, just regular modern, well 1980s-style, ski gear.
www.skifed.ir