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History of Skiing in Iran

The mere mention of the word 'Ski' and 'Iran' in the same sentence causes disbelief for many people. In fact skiing has an ancient history in Iran which is a very mountainous country. However, modern skiing for leisure was indeed foreign to Iran and was slowly introduced from Europe during the turn of the century.

In Ancient History

Devices to stop people from sinking in snow were made in Iran in ancient times. An example is a device which has been dated to 2000BC. It was common among the Kafkaz tribes of the period, a ski board covered with animal hide that was tied to the feet.

Linguists associate the main root of 'ski' to the Aryan language. Many historians also believe that skiing spread from the East to the Scandinavian countries.

Mostafa Aalam, the translator of the book 'Modern Skiing', refers to Kurdish villagers using thin long pieces of wood to go hunting and from one village to another. The device is still in use today. General Yahyaei, the ex-head of the Iranian Skiing and Mountaineering Federation, still remembers that while on an exploratory trip in the mountains of Lorestan province, his guide used a racket-shaped ski, known as a 'Derg', which was made from the horns of bulls.

800 years ago the Moghul conqueror 'Amir Teimour Lang' recalls his time in a district of Iran known as Firooz Kooh where he saw a courier who had just arrived from the mountains wearing "Two flat pieces of wood as shoes, which would stop him from sinking into the snow and would at times allow him to glide."

Modern skiing comes to Iran

Modern skiing though came to Iran around 1930, around 85 years after the first modern ski competitions took place elsewhere in the world.

Two main groups effectively introduced modern skiing to Iranians. The first were the Germans who came to Iran to build the National Railroads, mine the coalfields and construct the Iranian steel smelting plant.

After observing the snow filled Alborz range in Iran, they brought their skis from Europe and spent the winters touring and skiing. Each trick used on the slopes would be to the delight and amazement of the spectators, composed mostly of the rustic community. This group usually preferred the Firooz Kooh, Shemshak and the Haji Abad (25 km North West of Tehran) districts.

'Hassan Fazel' is probably one of the first, if not the first, modern Iranian skier. He recalls how in 1931 he accompanied a few German neighbours and their Swiss friends to the 'Haji Abad' mountains, and at the age of 15 started learning how to ski from them. He also recalls how a few years a later an Avalanche took the lives of 3 Germans. The Shah of Iran at that time, 'Reza Shah' apparently banned skiing at Haji Abad when he heard of the incident.

The second group to bring skiing to Iran consisted of Iranian students abroad that would practice the sport in Europe and after returning to their homeland would follow up the sport with anyone else interested. Most of them had learnt the sport on the pists of France and Switzerland.

Dr Abdollah Basir who went to France as a student in 1929, and learnt to ski. In those early days the main pists near Tehran were the hills of 'Telo' also known as 'Lashkarak'. Dr Basir recalls even skiing on the hills of 'Elahiyeh', now a well-to-do district of North Tehran. He not only learnt how to ski, but perhaps more importantly he also learnt how to make skis. In 1938 on his return home, he went to a carpenters in 'Laleh Zar' street in Tehran and instructed them in the art of ski production. Thus Iranian skis started being manufactured in the late 1930s.

Other manufacturers also emerged, but with the imports of foreign skis gaining pace over the years and the technological standards of skis going up, domestically produced skis soon fizzled out. One of the main barriers in the way of the development of Iranian skiing was the lack of equipment. Those who could afford to import the skis were usually not the ones who could get the most out of them. Many good Iranian skiers struggled due to lack of decent ski gear.

In 1947 the Iranian Olympic Federation was born and with it came the Iranian Ski Federation. Although the Federation was not to become a member of the International Ski Federation for another 10 years, it was very active and helped to structure the sport in Iran. In the early 1950s the Iranian Ski Federation finally imported skis to help Iran's best skiers get better.

Establishment of ski pists

Lashkarak (Telo)

After the early encounters with the Haji Abad mountains, the most frequented pists were at the 'Telo' hills, also called 'Lashkarak'. From 1939 the Telo pist was the destination for many tours from sports clubs and other groups, including American soldiers. In 1943 the traffic between Tehran and Telo was so much that a special army unit was needed to ensure the order and safety of the route. As well as skiers, many 'spectators' also went to the pist (nothing's changed there in Iran!), the irony was that the ticket for the skiers was cheaper than the one for the people coming to watch the action.

After the minibuses had collected their passengers, they would gather in 'Baharestan Square' in Tehran and head for Lashkarak and in years to come for the 'Ab Ali' pists.

Ab Ali

The Ab Ali pist came into use around 1940 and was at first used mostly during the Nowrooz season or late winter due to the bad road conditions of the slope.

Later it became the permanent replacement of Lashkarak due to the shortage of snow on the Telo hills.

In the 1950s the snow lift from Lashkarak was transferred to Ab Ali and from that time on its popularity increased. New ski lifts were installed in Ab Ali and soon it became the main ski resort in Iran.

Shemshak

Though the Abali pist was better than Lashkarak in size and its snow lasted longer than the other slopes, for a number of ski fanatics this was not enough. These young skiers migrated out of the city and away from the two traditional slopes to prolong the season and find extra attractions elsewhere. Most people turned to Shemshak and Dizin to practice when the Abali snow had become depleted, especially at the end of the year (Nowrooz holidays). Shemshak, was home to steep slopes and became a favourite for advanced and expert skiers. Today it is still the place where you'll find Iran's best skiers.

Dizin

In the 1960s, Abali was becoming overcrowded and Shemshak was not suitable for the basic and intermediate skiers.. Therefore a search began for a bigger and better area and after much deliberation Dizin was named as the new resort. In 1969 ski lifts were constructed at Dizin. In those days, they would hand people blankets so people would not freeze before reaching the top. Because of this new pist, the skiing season was increased by two months.

A few years the Tochal and Darbandsar pists started operation.

Perhaps unfairly we have focussed on the pists near Tehran, but many other pists also cropped up around the country and Iran currently has 16 pists operational (depending on the snow conditions).

Iran in ski competitions

The first skiing competition in Iran took place in March 1939 on the Telo slope in Tehran sports club. The speed competition was held among 21 skiers on a 500-meter long slope. Taghi Emami a member of Tehran sports Club became first and received a silver cup. Abdolrassol Dabir and Firooz Froohar became second and third respectively. In the mixed toboggan race, in which 60 contestants took part, Mr. and Mrs. Khajehnouri came in first and won the silver cup. From 1942 skiing in Iran gained more and more popularity. Skiing competitions in Iran basically consisted of short speed-based races and one or two marathons until 1945. When the Faiper brothers, Bahador (Boris), Ebrahim (Estetka) entered the skiing scene in this year, there was a revolutionary change to the sport. The introduction of Alpine skiing in its correct form by this group was the kick the sport needed to bring it into the modern era. The first true slalom in Iran took place in the same year on the Telo pist.

1956 was an Olympic year and the first time that an Iranian skiing team was taking part in the Winter Games of Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy. At the same time, the Italian military skiing team entered Tehran and competed against the Iranian Military skiing team. The Iranian Skier, Rahmatollah Savji (21), obtained the best score for Iran in the small Slalom.

Since then Iran has competed in most of the Winter Games, but has never gained any top honors worthy of mention.