Mt Erciyes, Turkey

Gal Shaine from ISRAEL writes:

Ill start with my bottom line: Erciyes is not a ski site you (the average skier) drive 300 Km (or more)to get to, and definitely do not take an international (connection) flight, to ski here! If you are already around, YES, if you love Turkey and Turkish hospitality (like me), YES again, if you have the time and money, and like to do ski site touring and experience different topographies and conditions, its YES again – BUT, if you consider Mt Erciyes as your secondary 'cheap' ski vacation of this year, you got the wrong place. I say all this since I have come across (both in my country and in other European countries) major travel agencies that offer ski packages that include international & domestic flights, Hotel, shuttle and ski pass.



There are frequent snow drops on the mountain, but strong winds, exposed slopes and the nature of the black volcanic soil/rock, cause the snow to 'skip' large pieces of piste surface, leaving them bold and quite dangerous for fast skiers who criss-cross between runs, or for any skier in foggy conditions. The fast winds also cause parts of pists to freeze, while adjusting parts remain covered with deep powder – this frequent change of snow, is rather exhausting, but it might be a problem that existed only when we were there. The best slopes we saw were around the 'lone' teleski, where there were few skiers and no 'non skiers' who wonder around. The problem is that you would have to walk in deep snow between the sites center and that teleski (about 10 minutes). The site center includes a clan of gear rental establishments, who charge a rather high price (around 12-15 EU per day), coffee shops, and lots of locals who come to play in the snow or even to picnic with their grills (!). The general atmosphere is relaxed and it seems the local skiers are not too worried about the frequent cases in which lifts are closed 'just like that'. We paid for a ski pass, only find the cashier closing the lifts gate 5 minutes later. When I asked him about the future of my unused ski pass, he turned the card and pointed at the text (in Turkish). I ended up donating 3 different ski passes to the hotel crew…



While the potential of this volcano in quite high, only part of it is used as for this moment. There are many more Virgin slopes around waiting for a new Teleski, and indeed there are some hotels that seem to be under construction (and if you know Turkish ski sites, you know each hotel would build its own Teleski). However, while saying 'they should build more of this and that' as if money is all over, is foolish, it is really frustrating to see that ever the existing potential of the site is not used. We have skied in the mountain for several days, and even though there were all kinds of weather, winds and temperature, the local operators decided not to operate the upper teleskies and lifts at all, giving us (and the few tourists that asked them occasionally) various excuses such as 'alarm', 'strong wind', 'ice' or 'not enough snow'. Closing those lifts had reduced the number of runs into a ridicules minimum of 2.5 (mostly easy) runs. Since we have spoken to local skiers (from Ankara) who knows things, and also climbed there alone, we were quite sure that only good reason not to operate those upper lifts, was lack of demand! In several cases even the lower lifts went on strike for no good reason but lack of demand. Miraculously they started working again when a group of locals wanted to go up with the chair – the teleski didn’t work at all (at that time) since there were few skiers, all of them were locals, who seem to be used to this poor standard of site operating. In general it might be said, that all the various piste maps of this site, are by far too 'flattering' the site for verity of runs.



In general, we really enjoid this vacation, but mostly since we really love Turkey. I wish I had such a site within a driving distance from my home, however for the price I paid; you may find better destinations for a fun ski vacation in East Europe, or in Turkey. Mt Erciyes is not enough to fill a whole full time vacation. If you combine it with a visit in wonderful Cappadocia, or with the Luxurious Hilton Kaisari, it would be much more fun.

2005-02-02