IRAN : history, culture, traditions and, why not, sport as well… winter sports, of course. Strange though it may seem, Iran has an abundance of mountains over 4.000 m, the highest, at 5.670 m above see level, being Mount Damavand, an inactive, characteristically coned-shaped vulcano that dominates the Elbruz chain.

There are ski resorts not far from Teheran that were built in the '70s and which, in terms of elevation, compare favourably with some of the famous resorts in the Alps. The two best known areas for skiing are Shemshak and Dizin. We visited Dizin and had great fun skiing down slopes clad in 40 cm of the finest, virgin powder snow. A trip to Iran with your telemark skis in tow is an experience not to be missed, particularly given how cheap the whole expedition can be.

Let's start from the beginning. In the summer of 1998, I read an article on the forthcoming 20^th anniversary of the revolution in Iran and I found myself returning to my childhood memories, to confused images of a far-off, misterious country projected through the cathode tubes of a television set. The headlines, a few things picked up at school, a sprinkling of curiosity……
Indeed, it was curiosity that started me browsing through the Internet in search of more up-to-date information about Iran, or should I say PERSIA? There's not much you can't find on the Internet, and it wasn't long before I had discovered that there are mountains in Iran and that, in winter, it snows! Wonderful! I got straight in touch with another "mountain-loving" friend of mine to tell him tha news and in no time we were sounding out the Foreign Office, the Embassy, likely and unlikely sponsors.
Two months before we were due to leave, my partner let me down and dropped out of the expedition. Luckily, I got in touch with Giorgio Daidola and after only two phone calls (it might only have needed one!), he said he'd be interested in joining in…….The days passed and, little by little, Giorgio, the perfect assistant, managed to draft in three friends who would later prove themselves to be tha ideal companions in our adventure, despite the fact that we didn't know each other at all beforehand.
With 29 days to D-day and after a string of refusals from potential sponsors, we managed to win over Swissair, Scarpa and Vittor Tua Ski (the only company from Biella to answer). There was less a month to go, and we were getting more and more excited at the prospect of telemarking on Iranian snow. Finally the big day arrived, and I left for Torino's Caselle airport to meet Giorgio and his friends Leonardo Bizzaro and Michele Fedrizzi (the only "heathen" not yet converted to Telemark). We were to meet up with Filippo Iacoacci in Zurich, because he was leaving from Rome. Giorgio had a cold and was most anxious that he wouldn't be up to skiing ……events were to prove him quite wrong!……It's a 5 hour flight from Zurich to Teheran and, with the 2 1/2 hour time difference, it was 4:30 a.m. before we arrived. The customs formalities were over in no time and we were met by two representatives from the Caravan Shara tourist agency in Teheran who wisked us off to a waiting minibus and on for a couple of hours sleep at the Mashad Hotel. At 7:30 we were ready for our first taste of the Iranian mountains, and we found Farzhad (a mountaineering expert and excellent local guide) already waiting for us with a young Iranian boy (a snowboarder) in order to set off for a day's skiing, or rather, telemarking, in Dizin.The road from Teheran, a sprawling city of 10 million people, winds through a fairytale landscape of colours that turn from ochre to grey, from green to white……it's true! In IRAN there is snow, snow and more snow. Dizin is equipped with 12 lifts, from 4-seater egg-shaped cable-cars to seatlifts extremely well prepared and of fantastic quality. There are simply hordes of snowboarders, just like the ones back home but, fortunately for us, a little more shy at the prospect of fresh snow……which means a gateway to heaven for us! There is more powder than you'd know what to do with, virgin slopes that beckon. To a westerner, if you allow for the fact that its visitors are not kitted out in the very latest fashion, Dizin looks like a resort in the Alps: there are carparks, shops, ski-hire centres, ticket-offices, skilifts, cable cars and snowmobiles. Apart from the infrastructure and the 1980's style kits, the only difference is that all the women are obliged by law to wear a veil.We left again for Teheran in the afternoon. With it being Friday evening, day of rest in Iran, there was a chaotic jam into the city, but we were ready again the following morning at 7:00 a.m. for the 2 hour car journey along mountain roads and through tunnels to M. Damavand. Topping a foothill at about 2500 m/asl we see it before us in all its majesty ……a fine specimen of a mountain bedecked for the occasion (though apparently not uncommonly) with a plume of snow that the roaring wind has plucked up and moulded into a cloud of purest white. When we got to the last village our guide Farzhad organized a group of porters to help us to carrye first shelter at an altitude of about 2900 m. It has recently been converted to use as a Mosque, but skiers are very welcome. The trek there took only 45 minutes using seal skins and we were soon settling down for the night amidst the usual paraphernalia of sleeping bags, down-to-earth food, chats and disquisitions as to the finer points of mountaineering and possible political connotations of telemarking, before sinking into a deep sleep.Morning, sunrise, and an 8 o'clock for the bivouac at 4200m. The path led across scree, with the occasional dry-looking poppy and a wind that seemed to get stronger and stronger. Still we climbed, across rocks and snow with the wind blowing ever harder.Our skis had been tied to our rucksacks to form a frame, and the wind had grown so strong as to make the climb very arduous, particularly at the end when you have to pick your way along a snowclad ridge. But we made it. The shelter is just a bivouac, cold and damp. We threw our sleeping bags down on the makeshift beds, ate a frugal meal and lay down to sleep…… no easy task, when you have to keep taking sleeping tablets and painkillers to ease the headaches that appear to have beset the whole group. After spending a noisy night (there is always wind on M. Damavand) we started the ascent again. After 2 hours, the skiable snow started to peter out: what the wind hadn't blown away had collected in gullies and compacted into rock-like formations that require the use of crampons. The rest of the 4 hour climb was over crumbly ground, and the altitude was beginning to tell……The descent…,once we were able to put our skis on, was fantastic! While on the one hand the wind had scattered the snow from the final section, it had also helped it to accumulate in the intervening dips and in practice we were able to telemark down a total elevation difference of 2300 m right down to where we were to meet with the minibus (from 4000 m to 2300 m/asl). The ravines, rocky volcanic outcrops, the snow and, of course, the wind are now just memories captured on slide, but the experience was wonderful. The mountains are in Iran are really big and, who knows, maybe next year……!

To conclude: I would recommend a trip to Iran. Take what you learn from the TV or the newspapers with a healthy dose of scepticism: there are many commonplaces uttered about Iran which it is time we debunked. We had a great time there and we met some fine, warm people with a deep sense of friendship and hospitality. The cuisine is delicious and varied. The only piece of advice I would give is this: our ten dayys there shot by, it wouuld be a good idea to allow at least 2 weeks so as to be able to take in at least a little bit of the cultural and historical wealth on offer in the South of the country as well.

As ever, you should respect the culture, customs and traditions of the country visited so as to avoid unpleasant situations. But unless I'm very much mistaken, that is simply part of respect and good manners.