Skiing in Iran

Tina

New member
Thank you who posted replies on my question about skiing in North East USA!

Note: Original post removed at the poster's request. - Admin
 
I second Marc's WOW!!! :shock: :shock: :shock:

=D> =D> =D> =D>

The East has some good stuff, if you're willing to take more than day trips, you should check out the Chic Chocs (in Quebec's Gaspe peninsula) and Gros Morne (in Newfoundland).

3 from the Chic Chocs

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... php?t=2971

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... php?t=2117

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... hp?p=18167

This old one is from Newfoundland

http://www.firsttracksonline.com/boards ... php?t=5710
 
Several of the ski mags have sent people to Iran over the past few years. Their reports, in terms of both skiing and hospitality, are quite consistent with this one.

Latitude of Tehran is 35, similar to Taos or Las Lenas. It gets a meager 10 inches rain per year, but it's centered in winter and March/April are nearly as much as Jan/Feb. The Caspian Sea is the source of the snow in the mountains north of Tehran. There's not enough info here to be certain about anything, but those lifts go quite high and I would expect March at least to be pretty good. One of the mag articles said limited lift service skiing was still available in May.
 
Wow, that's incredible! Thank you for posting such a wonderful review and pictures. It's definitely a ski location I wouldn't have thought of.
 
Exposure is also key to March snow surfaces. That last picture is quite informative as you can tell from the top of the picture that the sun is just above it, though we don't know what time of day. The steep ridge in the background is shaded, and we can't tell if the lifts go up to it. If it faces north, the shiny slope in the foreground faces east.

Iran would certainly fall into the category of skiing being just a part of a general tourism vacation, if I were to go there. Odds of decent snow might not be all that much worse than South America, probably better than NZ I'd guess.
 
Knowing the regional weather pattern is very helpful as a compliment to your normal analysis
Of course I'm speculating. What I like to have, as many of you know, is monthly snowfall history.

In my recent efforts to compare Chile and California, I have uncovered a few non-obvious differences in climate. I expected Santiago and Los Angeles to be very close, which they are in annual rainfall. Average temperature differences are consistent with Santiago being farther from the coast than L.A. But who would have known the following, without looking it up:
1) Santiago has more cloud cover than L.A. (despite being farther from the coast) in every month except late spring, which is well known as being disproportionately overcast here.
2) L.A. average temperature patterns fit Santiago, and quite a few other so-called Mediterranean climate cities. But L.A.'s record maximum temperatures are much higher for nearly every month. These are due to our infamous (as from the recent fires) Santa Ana winds, which must be a more unique weather phenomenon than I thought.
3) L.A.'s highest rain months are January/February. March is only a bit lower. Santiago's highest rain months are June/July. August is a noticeable drop from July, and September is barely half August. The Las Lenas monthly snow stats had a similar pattern, so spring conditions in the Andes in September are going to be much more likely than in the Sierra in March.
4) Coastal California has "offset seasons," where late spring tends to be much cooler than other climates, and late fall much warmer. I had always assumed than this was due to our cold ocean currents. But Santiago and Cape Town have even colder ocean currents and no offset seasons.

So Tina is correct that without some good snow stats it is very difficult to analyze snow conditions from afar. It is possible that western North America in general has far better snow conditions around the spring equinox than other ski regions (related in part to items 3&4 above), though high resorts in the Alps have a good reputation for March/April.

Since we don't know how much snow the Iranian mountains get, we also don't know how deep the spring snowpack is. I think a deep snowpack is needed for consistent spring snow surfaces, otherwise melting will be irregular and some places will burn off completely. I have to think this was a factor in Portillo having smooth and consistent spring snow while the Valle Nevado group with 30% less snowfall did not. Wind exposure was also a factor at Valle Nevado, as it may be in Iran.
 
Tina":1zxwb47k said:
its not immediately obvious that Iceland gets not as much snow and ice.

Hi Tina,

Was Iceland ever part of your ski adventures? Iceland had been on my list (regardless of skiing) as on my short list of places to go.

I know a bit on Iceland and if I remember Kevin from FTO many years ago talked about the time he skied there. Besides him and SuperNat's friend teletrip last May, I don't know anyone else with first hand ski knowledge on the place.
 
One of the last segments of STEEP is a clip of Andrew MacLean and two friends in Iceland. They had a close call with an avalanche that appeared to be slow-moving very heavy snow.

Here are the Reykjavik stats from the same BBC source I used for L.A., Santiago and the other Mediterranean climate cities: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/world/city ... t=TT003890 . The narrow band of average temperatures, moderate winters for its latitude and high winds are caused by an ocean dominated climate. New Zealand has the same characteristics, adjusted for latitude of course.
 
Thank you Tina for the useful information (especially Iceland Air). I think I read something like that a few years ago, but forgot. :p
 
Tina":24u9a5z4 said:
I'm not sure I made my point clear enough, in Iran, the swings of temperature in the second half of the season are far more dramatic than any other places I have skied, or know of anyone who has skied.

As might not be possible to tell from the picture that ridge is not a long walk from where the lift ends. We skied both sides of it and the side that you see in the picture is the side that got the least sun, meaning that the other side of the ridge is even worse (the backside was steep and because of the sun exposure it slid earlier). So, althoug it makes a lot of sense to determine the direction that the mountain side is facing, in Iran the time in the season (and swings of temperature) makes more sense to pay attention to.

I have skied NZ in the second half of their season (and talked to a lot of people who ski there regularly). I think that if you are comparing the two countires in skiing in the second half of the season you are far better off choosing NZ. As I’m sure you know if you have skied in many different regions, although there of course are many similarities in what determines snow conditions, there are also dissimilarities in weather patterns. Knowing the regional weather pattern is very helpful as a compliment to your normal analysis (time of year, face direction etc). Without that complimentary information your analysis might even be wrong. I think chances of good snow in Iran in March are very small, but you are of course free to think what you want.

Take care,
Tina

Ps. I must say that you are pretty brave to with such confidence make judgements about weather conditions in placey you have never been to. I hope that attitude has not - and more importantly will not - cause you dangers. Be safe out there.

Reer!!! He was just sayin!
 
What can I say, I took it differently. I explained the snow/weather conditions according to my experience in Iran, and he started telling me differently. I took it like he didn't believe what I said. So I just went on to explain what I feel about judging conditions and safety. I was just saying. Didn't mean to offend anyone. But hey, I hope I was wrong and you right!
 
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