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Skiing Armenia Hovering weightless above the clouds: Tatev, the 9th century defence monastery he snowfields rising far ahead sunshine after days of incessant snowfall. feed a restless building boom. and medieval university of us gleamed in early sunshine, The Armenian capital, Yerevan, in the Local oligarchs and foreign the rugged summit of Mt Aragats plain beneath us, was still in darkness, businessmen squeeze improbable T(4092m) still hidden behind slopes rolling but Ararat (5165m) and its little brother profits from this impoverished former endlessly upwards. We’d started our Küçük Agri (3925m) were already lit by the Soviet republic, NGOs and religious sects ascent at Byurakan (1405m), the post-war morning sun, and dominating the skyline dispense their wisdom, and the Armenian observatory nestling abandoned under to the south. Our shadows were swiftly diaspora donate funds for new roads, deep cushions of freshly fallen snow. All gliding uphill, displaying our breath housing and health services until graft roads leading further up the mountain in ceaseless puffs, like those of a chain and theft embitters them. Nobody seems had disappeared. Fresh tracks of hares smoker, and thoughts drifted with the to remember Radio Yerevan any more - and foxes, going to and fro in random rhythm of our steps. the defiant series of anecdotes critical of circles, were the only signs of life. “Why,” I’d asked my friend Levon, the Soviet regime which made harsh life A succession of recently built electricity tongue in cheek, “does your national coat bearable and even funny. pylons along the ridges to the right gave of arms depict Mount Ararat, when in fact us a sense of direction and - in this vast it’s in Turkey?” Cold frontier and frozen landscape devoid of human “Why not?” He looked up from his activity - of safety. To the left, the black chessboard with a canny smile. “After basalt walls of Amberd, a mighty fortress all, it’s just 25 miles south of Yerevan. looming over the precipice of a steep Our Turkish friends depict the moon on gorge, and built to brave the Arabs, the their flag, and this is by all standards Andreas Hofer survives some tough skiing Seljuk, the Mongols and whoever else considerably further away from their tried to conquer the Armenian highlands, national border!” This was almost 30 years - and a car crash - re-visiting remote student-day were frozen in wintry silence. Peter, my ago, in a cramped room in the students’ haunts in Armenia mountain guide, and I were on our way hall of Moscow University, and back then to Stalin’s cosmic ray station (3200m), a everything Armenian was full of romantic sub-atomic particle lab built in the first cliché for me: the incessant chess playing, years of WWII to learn how to build The the erudition, the knack for sciences, Enjoying powder turns on Mt Arailer Bomb. We wanted to stay there overnight, their arcane medieval script, the heroic as guests of Gagik Alabayan, the suffering from the pogroms in 1915, wise Armenia is volcanic land, created by station warden, before smiles, bright eyes, noses like mountain violent tectonic activity. Ancient churches, hiking to the ridges and beards of learning. post-war housing and communist follies mountain’s Mount Ararat has disappeared from all are all built from either black basalt, grey southern official emblems since; the flag of Armenia andesite, or pink and yellow tuff (rock peak. It was is gold-blue-red now. Lenin Square was composed of compacted volcanic ash). a jubilantly renamed Republic Square, the dodgy Thus all buildings harmonise, and even bright ‘Intourist’ accommodation where I’d stayed architectural sins which are so grating morning in the early 1980s is a smart Marriott hotel in other parts of the former Soviet - the first these days, and 19th and 20th century Union somehow blend into an agreeable day of facades are relentlessly knocked down to pattern. ‘Back then everything Armenian was full of romantic cliché: the incessant chess playing, the erudition, the knack for sciences, their arcane medieval script, the heroic suffering from the pogroms, wise smiles, bright eyes, noses like mountain ridges and beards of learning’ 66 | skiclub.co.uk Ski+board | 67 Skiing Armenia instruments, cavernous underground St. Gregory, Armenia’s patron saint. He Dvin, the remains of the ancient installations and never-ending dark was incarcerated here to later become the Armenian capital. The mountains we corridors - where icicles dangle like first patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic intended to ski, Ishkhanasar (3548m) and stalagmites from ceilings - is a journey church (302 AD). Our attempts to drive Tzghuk (3584m), were shrouded in dense back in time. The dormitory, with its up the Selim pass (2410m) to ski the cloud, and as far as we could see, coated in grand chandeliers, broad flights of steps Vardenis range were soon doomed: after only a meagre snow crust. and spacious dining hall, is decaying. The digging out our driver’s car from deep Goris is a town for truckers and central heating no longer functions. And snow with our avalanche shovels for the tourists. Its elaborate, extensive cave- rickety makeshift installations of dangling third time, we gave up, and headed south dwellings were still inhabited in the light bulbs, dripping pipes and rattling instead, towards the dreaded Vorotan 1950s, and resemble the socialist version electrical heaters keep a small crew of pass (2344m) and the Iranian border. Here of the underground cities of Cappadocia Heliskiing on Mt Aragats: maintenance - numerous, replete with the remains of Last few turns before Yerevan workers, not to ‘We headed south, towards the rickety electrical installations, bald. The mention Violetta Mirhav proved a good choice of location to The war with Azerbaijan over the the cook, and a dreaded Vorotan pass (2344m) and put up our tent: this small boutique hotel, mountainous region of Nagorny Karabakh stray cat alive in the Iranian border. Here prudent crammed with antiques, rugs and pretty in the early 1990s created more than a winter. bibelots, offered clean rooms, delicious million refugees and cut off Armenia The next day, a Iranian truck drivers hire local food and solid advice. Shahin, its German from its economic ties and all traditional howling blizzard tractors and caterpillars to pull them and English speaking owner, was an Hofer’s guide, Peter Unterluggauer, at the communication and transport routes. was rattling the Armenian from Tehran who had studied top station of the Tsakhkadzor ski area Factories stand idle, and the young station. We were safely over the snow-swept pass. and worked in Germany. He helped every have to look for work abroad. Armenia, suspended in day with directions and undertook round impregnable fortress. It was burned down (3333m) and Mt Sartasali (3433m) had to an ancient Silk-Road country, and for a grey world without shadows, snow prudent Iranian truck drivers hire local calls to all the administrative heads of the in the 14th century by the pillaging hordes be postponed. It had snowed more than millennia the trading hub between coming from all sides, piling up against tractors and caterpillars to pull them villages in the area, enquiring about snow, of Tamerlane, but carefully repaired a metre of powder overnight – on top of Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe, the windows and blocking the door. safely over the snow-swept pass. Those road and local weather conditions. later. We made our turns on the hills a 30cm layer of frost-damaged old snow, is now dependent on Georgia and Iran for Instead of making for the summit, we had who give it a try on their own do so at The plains of Goris and the deep gorge overlooking the village, spellbound by with loose crystals the size of peppercorns. its supplies of food, fuel and consumer to find our way back now, at temperatures their peril: the ditches were strewn with of the Vorotan River were a cauldron filled Tatev’s beauty. We tried to hike up from the bottom of goods. Otherwise, the outside world of – 14˚C and wind speeds of 70 miles overturned trucks. Reaching the high with bubbly fog and clouds. We drove The mayor of this shepherds’ village, the valley, sinking deep into these older can only be reached by air. One of the per hour. A gruesome walk of six hours, point of the pass, we got out of the car, through blazing sunshine, the Bargu Shat mobilised by Shahin, our host, plied us layers, and causing the slopes even in the few growth industries is tourism: good covering almost 20km, had been wasted. took the skins off our skis, and descended Range (3392m) rising white and clean on with lamb stew, sweet pepper hotpot, flat to implode and break into deep cracks. food, good hotels and an enthusiastic in neat powder turns to the bottom of the the far side of the rim. Then we plunged home-made lavash bread, ham, pilaf Slopes with a gradient of 30 degrees or hospitality attract foreigners as well as Within sight of Iran valley. ‘Car skiing’! Dogs are barking and into the washhouse ourselves to emerge, rice, fresh herbs and bottles of home- more would have immediately come loose the Armenian diaspora. Khor Virap monastery, erected on a hill truck drivers hoot in amusement… on the other side, in the Middle Ages. made plum vodka. His extended family and buried us under tons of snow. On a Stalin’s particle lab is still providing overlooking the Arax River, the natural We passed Persian bridges and Hovering weightless above the clouds, on - grandmother, sons, their wives and sunny day, with prodigal quantities of a flood of data for the Yerevan Physics border with Turkey and Iran, with caravanserais, medieval castles, countless a rocky promontory, stood Tatev: bishop’s grandchildren - all looked on with delight seemingly weightless powder, we had to Institute.

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