Skiing

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, , in the Local oligarchs and foreign the rugged summit of Mt Aragats plain beneath us, was still in darkness, businessmen squeeze improbable (4092m)T 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 , 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 , 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 , 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-- 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 . 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. Yet the fading grandeur of beautiful views towards Mt Ararat and defence monasteries, and see, university, monastery and as we devoured their delicious food. It turn back. this maze of buildings, abandoned Mt Aragats to the north, is dedicated to became increasingly difficult to raise our While Jermouk, with its decaying glasses to their health and happiness… sanatoria and predominantly Soviet Jermouk, the smaller of the two ski- architecture has little to offer the resorts-proper in Armenia, had so much discerning skier, Tshakhkadzor is the fresh snow, that even we were forced to place to be for the wealthy skiing-elite. ski on piste. Our plans to ski Many four and five-star hotels, countless Mt Chaghatsar cafes, bars and restaurants cater for a predominantly young clientele.

‘We enjoyed 1000 vertical metres in perfect powder, ending up by mistake in the pig sty of a Molkan farmer, a once persecuted Russian sect

An Armenian Airforce MI-8 helicopter lands who settled here at the time of Peter the Great’. Hofer and his guide on Mt Aragats (13,425ft)

68 | skiclub.co.uk Ski+board | 69 The medieval graveyard at Noratus, on the shores of .

We drove at high speed through the night, dense snowflakes sucking into the headlights of our car. For miles now we had seen no other vehicle on the road. The black tarmac looked dry and safe. When our car started to fishtail and we skittered with undiminished speed towards the slopes beyond, I could already anticipate the noise of breaking glass and crushing iron; and while we were still racing through the air, long before the car started its somersaults over the hillside, I was waiting for the pain to arrive.

The pistes, covering almost 1000 vertical metres (the summit station is at 2819m), were designed in the 1990s by Bernhard Russi, the Swiss downhill gold medallist at Sapporo in 1972. They are immaculately groomed, the four chairlifts well maintained, and snow cannon guarantee perfect conditions all through the season. The ski hut at 2400m welcomed us with a large open fire, sleek designer furniture, Kilim rugs and stuffed wildlife lurching unexpectedly behind corners and under the tables. The first-floor apartments, themed in Urartian (Assyrian) monumental style, are reserved for the president and his entourage. Artjom, my driver, was panting with fear as he struggled on We skied two days in the top of me to squeeze himself through a ridiculously tight cleft in resort, and made a day-trip to the crumpled wreckage of the car. I felt surprisingly calm. Even the village of Lermontovo, near in this awkward position, hanging upside down in a corner I the former industrial town of couldn’t quite locate, I understood with clarity that I was alive Kirovakan (Vanadzor). Mile after and felt no pain. mile of assembly hangars, foundries, I sifted through piles of dirt and broken glass, retrieving chemical plants and thermal power- my pen, my hotel room key, and one of my shoes. It was in the stations stand idle here. People had middle of the night, yet there was so much comforting light. to revert to pre-industrial subsistence The headlights must still be on. Yes, even the engine was still farming, tending their cattle in the running. I had both my shoes now, but I was still searching for An Iranian shadow of erstwhile busy industries. We skinned up Mt something else. Ah yes, there it was, my little black notebook, my street hawker Tezhler (3101m) to enjoy 1000 vertical metres in perfect precious diary of two weeks skiing in Armenia. in Yerevan’s powder, to end up by mistake in the pig sty of a farmer I can still see the snowfall and the throng of huddled people Republic Square belonging to the once-persecuted Molokan sect - reclusive who appeared from nowhere within an instant, prising open and technophobic like the Amish – who settled here at the the scrunched up wreck and reaching through broken glass time of Peter the Great. to help us out. Remembering the genuine concern in their Having persuaded the Armenian Air Force to provide a faces, their patting on my back, their offering of cigarettes and day of heli-skiing on Mt Arailer (2575m) and on the eastern heartfelt reassurance, makes me happy. slopes of Aragats, we could for once enjoy our powder turns Andreas Hofer, his driver and his guide emerge unscathed without the travail of climbing a mountain. Unhampered from the wreckage and he lives to ski another day. In our views over the snowy plains of Yerevan: the sprawling city next issue, he skis Mt. Hermon in the no-man’s-land between was blanketed in thin mist, roads and villages scattered Lebanon, Israel and Syria. about as if a child had forgotten to clean up its toys. The cone of Ararat rose forcefully in the sky – it was almost Armenia’s best... impossible to pay attention to any other feature. Guide through 5000 years of Armenia’s history: Armine Zohrabyan, The next day it started to snow again. We decided [email protected] to visit Lake Sevan, the ‘Riviera’ of Armenia. I wanted to Travel agency: Armenia Travel+M [email protected] Mountain guide: Peter Unterluggauer, [email protected] see Sevanavank monastery (ninth century), where Osip Helicopter pilots: Stephan Ohanyan and Rafik Mehrabyan Mandelstam, Russia’s most famous poet, spend his last Book: Osip Mandelstam, Journey to Armenia holidays before dying in one of Stalin’s camps. It was a Restaurant in Yerevan: Dolmama, www.dolmama.am journey I won’t forget in a hurry. Small hotel outside Yerevan: Mirhav Hotel, [email protected]

70 | skiclub.co.uk