I wanted to go snowboarding in Iran, but finding out how to get there was more difficult than expected. Iranians don’t really know about the ski resort if they are not skiing themselves, and there is no tourist information to consult and no regular bus service, and I wasn’t confident enough to go bargaining with the local taxi drivers.
At least I got a hostel in Dizin and the owner directed me to a website for official Iranian tourist taxis. But after checking with them and sweating a bit over the price I decided to give it one last shot: I went to the fanciest looking business hotel I could find in Tehran and asked the service desk if they knew how to get to Dizin. They called a taxi and got me a 10 Euro discount. That is one night more in a hostel for me and also the cheapest way I could get to Dizin so I agreed. After that, he asked me about my room number and I wondered if he really thought the person with the hiking boots, worn out jeans, and functional rain jacket standing in front of him actually stayed at that same hotel. But that wasn’t a problem anyways and I just needed to come back on Tuesday morning to get to Dizin.
It would have turned out to be the perfect plan if it wasn’t for the taxi driver who took the wrong road and led me to the upper parking of the ski resort, not the hostel I needed to stay in, and of course the road to the hostel was closed from that side. Lucky enough I could use the gondola to go down to the main ski resort as the alternative would have been to go all the way back to Tehran and use the road on the other side of the mountain.
And so instead of having an additional night in a hostel I enjoyed a gondola down a mountain and from there tried to figure out how to get to the hostel. The owner suggested that I should go snowboarding for the day, but it was cloudy and snowy, I didn’t sleep well the night before, and overall wasn’t really in the mood for snowboarding. The hostel was five kilometres away from the resort. Since unexpected things happen when travelling there is no reason to get upset. So I accepted, swallowed, took a deep breath, and started walking. Five meters later a car stopped and offered me a ride for the rest of the way. I didn’t plan to hitch hike in Iran, but it was in the middle of nowhere and I doubted someone who would be up for no good would go all the way with skis on his back seat to look a bit more natural so I trusted him and got into the car. Five minutes later I was in the cosiest hostel I’ve ever been and enjoyed a nice cup of tea.
Powder Day
It snowed almost the entire night and when I woke up the next day to a blue sky and some powder waiting for me I couldn’t have been happier.
I was prepared for a day just wondering around the slopes on my own but in Iran, it is impossible to stay just by yourself when you travel solo. On my second lift I met Armin, a local who decided to stay with me the day even though I told him I’m the slowest snowboarder ever and he can easily take off if he gets bored. Instead, he showed me around the resort and gave me some private snowboard lessons. I’ve gone a long way since I was scared of getting on and off a lift, but he was lightyears better than me and also knew the resort like the back of his pocket, so I was more than grateful to snowboard the day with him.
Dizin is a wide open mountain with no trees and just that day it had the perfect powder and off slope possibilities so we took as many rides as possible. His favourite sentence being “feel your board, and let go”. I felt my board and let go. It was beautiful. After 5 hours my legs were burning and it was starting to snow again so we decided to take a rest in one of the restaurants where he insisted on paying for everything, because I was his guest. I thought I need to pay back to a lot of tourists when I’m back on a decent job.
Overall I had two days of blue sky, great company and a nice hostel to relax after a day of snowboarding and I thought I couldn’t have started the Iranian experience better than that.
