Salaam dear young friends. We meet again for our weekly chat. Hope you are fine by the Grace of God and enjoying the last days of winter.
This year, Tehran city and other parts of Iran, especially the northern and western mountainous areas, are blanketed by snow. This means, skiers are having a great time on the slopes of the Alborz, the Alvand, and Zagros ranges.
As a matter of fact, Iran has some excellent internationally renowned ski resorts, such as Dizin, Shemshak and Tochal – all three north of Tehran.
Every winter, thousands of Iranian youngsters, as well as tourists from other countries, flock to these ski resorts, which unlike those in Europe and elsewhere, offer a clean and healthy sporting atmosphere that is free of the vices of the decadent West.
In other words, it is sheer delight to make the best of nature’s bounties and at the same contemplating on the gifts of God to humanity, for the betterment of humanity. There are special cabins for offering the daily prayers in order to avail of the spiritual benefits of the high attitudes.
Dizin’s ski season runs from late November until late May. The base sits 9,000 feet above sea level, making it one of the 40 highest ski spots in the world. It dwarfs many of the resorts in the much acclaimed Alps of Europe.
Dizin has 20 lifts and 15 pistes, and with its lifts running as high at 12,000 feet, it is recognized by the International Ski Federation and hosts its fair share of global competitions.
Well dear readers of our weekly column abroad, these are not the only ski resorts in the Islamic Republic of Iran. As Iranian youngsters know, almost all other provinces have their fair share of skiing spots and the ideal places for winter sports.
For instance, in Ardabil is the Alvares Ski Resort, which is the second standard ski resort in Iran. It sits at an altitude of 11,000 feet above sea level.
Then there is the Sahand Ski Resort in northern slopes of Mount Sahand, in vicinity of the northwestern city of Tabriz.
In the western parts of the country in the Zagros range, the ski resorts include Chelgard in Kuhrang of Chaharmahal- Bakhtiari Province, the Saqqez Ski Resort in Kurdistan Province, the Tareek-Darreh in Hamedan, and the Shazand in Markazi Province.
Further south in the Zagros range are the Fereydunshahr Ski Resort in Isfahan Province, and the Pooladkaf in Fars Province – some 85 km from Shiraz.
In eastern Iran is the Shirbad Ski Resort near the holy city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi Province, where the winter sports area is situated between the elevations of 10,000 to 11,000 feet.
There are many other ski resorts in various parts of Iran where the local people, especially the youngsters, gather to enjoy the bounties of nature in a spiritual atmosphere.
So dear foreign friends, try the hospitality of Iran’s vice-free ski resorts.
Goodbye and God bless you.