Ski Turkey!!

What? Ski Turkey? Seriously?
Stone-cold-serious!

Here, in the country of surprises (ahem, Turkey), turns out we can ski too. I mean, we realized the country is becoming known for it's climbing. And we knew there was skiing. But we had no clue about anything more. There is literally close to no information on the Internets about how the Turks do snow. We heard a rumor (seriously, this is how it happens) in December that the resorts were opening right about the time we had vacation. So, we decided to investigate.

We chose to go to Kartalkaya because it is the most popular resort near Ankara. It takes us about 2 and half hours to get there. Tim found information online for a hotel there---the Grand Kartal. Finding close to no information on the website, Tim called. Can we come? Yes. Are the lifts open? Yes. Is there snow? Yes.
Alright.
And this is what we found. This was a blue-bird day with close to no one on the mountain. It had just snowed and we quickly learned that Turkish skiing is middle-eastern skiing: stay on the piste, no matter what. So we literally skied fresh tracks in the powder ALL DAY.

Is it huge? Certainly not. Is it bigger than where I grew up skiing in NC? For sure. Less crowded too. Are the people in the hotel awesome? Absolutely. We got a fabulous pre-season deal at the hotel. It was $90 a person and included the hotel stay, 2 days of skiing, all meals (huge buffets at each meal), all the booze you can drink, and an afternoon happy hour--all included. I'd say that's a sweet deal.

We went back just this past weekend and took two friends to teach them how to ski, and our friend Carrie met up with us there too. Now we're in high season--it was $175 per person for the same deal. But whatever. That still seems totally reasonable to me. Yes, of course it was more crowded, but there was still no one in the trees or off-piste anywhere. So we still had a great time. And of course it's awesome to teach friends how to ski and watch them have a total blast doing it!

Carrie drops into the trees:

The fabulous hotel dinner after a long day in the snow :-)

Simon: James Bond (according to Khadijah) on skis.

Yours truly:

Tim seasoning the hat he picked up for Johnny Love in Austria:

Had we just come from Colorado, I might be slightly disappointed. But I'm not. I'm coming from Quito, Ecuador: no skiing. For two years, no skiing. I will never do that to myself again. So the skiing nearby is like an answered prayer. I don't care that it's not epic. I don't care that it's not hip. It's skiing. Color me happy.

Next weekend we'll try a new, nearby area, and at some point this winter, we'll fly East to Erzurum, to a resort called Palandoken, where the Swiss have recently begun heli-ski operations and where, we hear, it is all off-the-hizzook. But again, we'll just have to explore.