Iran, almost assuredly, was not one of your first thoughts for a place to ski. No surprises there, as it does not have a storied history of skiing. But that is exactly where Sébastien Baritussio and his friend, David Alzieu, will be heading this month in their pursuit of fresh snow and new adventures.
Baritussio is a French adventurer and photographer, while Alzieu is a French professional freeride skier. Here on The Lab, Baritussio is writing about their trip, what they are looking forward to and what they hope to gain from this experience.
Iran (or Persia) has one of the oldest civilisations of the world. It has many trading crossroads, such as the ancient trade network Silk Road. It is also one of the most mountainous countries in the world. From desert to mountain, from city to beach, Iran offers extreme contrasts of landscapes and there is so much there for us to discover on this trip.
That’s ones of the reasons why we – two Frenchmen, a skier (Alzieu) and a photographer (me) – have scheduled our next trip to this special destination in January 2016. As professionals, we used to travel around the world for many years, in order to compete in World Class Freeriding events or to take beautiful pictures and record footage mixing nature and sportsmen for magazines and others.
Our main project is to explore the mountain chain of the Alborz, located in the north of the country, between the Caspian Sea and the Iranian capital Tehran. The cultural side of this adventure is really important to us, being in total immersion with the local people and sharing their daily life. Our accommodation for this trip will be to “couchsurf”, living with locals which gives us the chance to truly absorb their rich culture and history.
The highlight of this trip will be to climb the volcano Mount Damavand (5,610m), the highest summit in Iran but also perhaps the most emblematic and sacred mountain of the Middle East. In Zoroastrian mythology, Mount Damavand is where Azi Dahaka, the three-headed dragon, was imprisoned and sentenced to stay until the end of the world.
Along our journey, we’ll be visiting several ski resorts, such as Dizin, Tochal and Shemshak. But we will discover new terrain as well, like the faces around Mount Damavand. We’ll be travelling around, camping in wild zones and skiing in completely unknown places, letting us capture the exclusive atmosphere of the landscape.
We are seeking to find a cultural difference for the passion for the mountains and winter sport through the local people of Iran. Testing our limits in high altitude and entering wild terrain is a goal as well. We are convinced that this trip will make us want to discover more of this area, so that we’ll be able to find special points of views and capture exclusive moments.
On this trip, we have taken Linde Werdein’s SpidoSpeed Anthracite DLC and their Rock instrument, which we look forward to using on the slopes, and I will be back here on The Lab to talk more about this trip as it unfolds. Until then, you can find me on my website here and David Alzieu here.
I look forward to sharing more with you from Iran in the coming weeks.
Update: The second part of Sébastien’s adventure is now live. You can read it here.