Turkey Heli Skiing


A quick 3 hour flight got us to big Istanbul. Heliskiing relatively close to home, is the idea here.

After years of organization, Thierry Gasser has managed to put together a base in Ayder, just a few kilometers from the eastern shores of the Black Sea. Flying back to the hotel today, I mapped valley after valley oriented over all points of the compass towards Ayder. We have skied superb powder in more than 20 of these beautiful valleys, each with their own high, alpine, summer villages.

The skiing is so varied, offering steep chutes to wide open bowls, to shoulder shots, perched high above gullies leading down to pretty birch forests. Most runs are around 1000 meters of elevation.

A few photos taken over the past couple of days, shows some of the terrain one can expect to ride on, near Ayder. It drizzled at the hotel last night for half an hour, surprising us with 25 cm of fresh up high.

Posted: Sat - March 12, 2005 at 06:29 PM        

©