Where to do climbing and off-piste skiing in Middle East

[Atour Adventure]

It’s funny that some tourists never imagine it is possible to ski in Iran because Iran got hot deserts. The fact is that there are 16 ski resorts in Iran. Actually you could ski in Iran since 1969.

Dizin ski complex is the largest ski piste not only in Iran but in the Middle East. It accumulates huge amounts of snow due to the fact that it’s faced north and is near the Mount Damavand. Dizin is a heaven for snow lovers due to its altitude and vicinity to the highest volcano of Asia i.e. Mount Damavand. Dizin was the first ski resort that was recognized by the International Ski Federation due to its unique traits such as long routes and ski runs and its length in ski season. You can ski at Dizin from November to May. The surprise is that you just need to get a single ticket at Dizin to be able to use all the 12 pistes and 16 telesieges for the whole day. Moreover, the price of the ticket is cheap.

If you are visiting Dizin don’t miss the slope known as Peak. It’s a very long ski run and got deep steeps. While skiing on the Peak slope you will see people who are wearing ski clothes same as Hermann Maier but they don’t know how to ski and are rolling from the Peak to the foot of the mountain. Of course nothing happens to them because of thick layer of snow and medical staff are ever present at the slope.

If you are very professional, just try Shemshak piste that is quite near Dizin. There are lots of bumps on the Shemshak ski resort and at the left wing of the piste it becomes very tricky to ski. The weather of Iran resorts is dry compared to their European cousins and this is the reason that alborz off-piste skiing is very popular for tourists. For pictures and reports about previous years Alborz off-piste skiing olease visit our website at:   www.AtourAdventure.com

If you wanna to rent snowboard or ski equipment it’s also possible but the price is a bit expensive. The quality of the equipment are so so. There are also ski instructors that you can hire one of them. i was looking for a ski instructor at Dizin for my cousin. The instructor was a 2 meters old man over 70 maybe and tied some string around my cousin. He instructed my cousin in such a way that he walked same as pregnant ladies and never ever appeared on ski resorts anymore. But don’t worry, the world of athletes did not miss anything. Of course there are younger and better instructors available. Night skiing is not available at Dizin but you can try Tochal ski resort. That’s another place we will introduce you later.

At summer time, Dizin is covered with grass and you can try grass skiing. In 1996, the first international grass ski competition was held at Dizin complex.  Once in a while, ski courses and classes are also held at Dizin. On weekends, Dizin is really crowded and if after skiing you decide to go Tehran there is a super heavy traffic jam on the road. Sometimes the traffic jam is so heavy that the car runs out of gas on the road! So I recommend you to go to Dizin during the week and on weekend it’s better to visit Parvaneh Bazzar at Tehran.

At Dizin and Shemshak there are hotels you can stay. The best hotel at the region is located at Shemshak and is called Marin Hotel. There is a Gajereh Hotel five minutes from Dizin and from the hotel there is a bus to Dizin. You can have breakfast, snacks and fried chickens at restaurants located at Dizin.

On summer you can enjoy playing tennis, paint ball, mountain biking and mountain climbing at Dizin area. If you are going to experience skiing in Dizin please avoid Shemshak-Dizin road because at this read there is a danger of avalanche. It’s better to take Karaj highway. It takes about 2.5 hours to reach Dizin.

[JasonG]

I moved this to the international forum @Atour Adventure, hope you don't mind.  Thanks for the info!