Archive For February 23, 2025
The Al-Adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, can be heard five times a day all over Turkey. In the bustling Anatolian city of Erzurum it blasts out of loudspeakers, amplifiers turned up to eleven, in a coordinated call to the faithful.
Here in the tiny mountain village of Yaylalar there is a mosque for the winter population of ten. It would be snowed under were it not for the efforts of the young, government appointed, muezzin whose Al-Adhan is a much softer call to prayer, in harmony with the peaceful nature of this remote valley.
It’s twelve years since I was last in Turkey. 2013. Back then there were 2.5 lira to the Euro, mosques were being built and Efes beer signs were everywhere. Today a Euro is worth 37 lira, mosques are everywhere, and the beer signs gone.
We telemarkers are often the butt of jokes from our alpine ski touring friends – jokes about faffing, breakages, heavy spares and general inefficiency. On this trip there were three telemarkers, followers of the one true faith, and two splitboarders. Now splitboarding really is the dark side. If you enjoy a challenge and love maximum faff then you should give it a go. It makes telemarking look like the sensible choice!
My room hotel room in Trabzon has a pillow menu – just call reception. This is a service I don’t think I’ve encountered on Wayoffpiste ski trips before. I sit down and, as we all do these days, go to connect to the hotel Wi-Fi. To do so one must enter passport number and room number to connect. Unlike reception knowing what kind of pillow I like I do find this sinister. Later that morning, for some bizarre reason, the gift shop at the tourist cash generating Sumela Monastery was selling copies of Orwell’s 1984, in English! How fitting.
Cold winds blow over the Karadeniz, the Black Sea, picking up moisture on the way. The air cools further as it is forced to rise over the Kaçkar mountains resulting in the most abundant and reliable snow in Turkey. This snow was what we came for and we were not disappointed. Our first four days were spent powder skiing with blue skies and sunshine. No wind meant the snow was a dream and the cold temperatures bearable. Care is needed in these mountains though as they are often steep and there are many terrain traps. There were many layers and significant instability in the snowpack.
We ended the trip in the historic city of Erzurum, enjoying visits to the Çifte Minareli Medrese and other impressive Seljuk buildings. It was bitterly cold though, so it was wonderful to round off the day in a hammam that had been continuously operating since 1572. One can only imagine how nice it must have been to sweat off the dirt and wash oneself after long journeys in the sixteenth century.
The bright night time lights of Hirosaki City sparkled at my feet. I was outside in the dark sitting naked on a green plastic garden chair as one does. Our hotel would have been totally forgettable were it not for the wonderful 10th floor outdoor onsen I had just been soaking in. Onsen’s, natural thermal hot springs, are the perfect way to relax after skiing Japan’s famous powder and in this case a nice pre-dinner warm up.
Dinner was at a traditional izakaya with delicious fresh sashimi and sushi – much to The Badger’s dislike. Barely able to keep our eyes open due to the jet lag and early morning start we then moved on to a second, similar place where more food and drinks were served. Comfortably installed we were lucky to enjoy short performances of the shamisen, or more precisely the Tsuguru jamisen – a traditional three stringed, guitar like instrument originating in this northwestern part of Honshu. The two players were obviously masters, turning out to be the current Japanese champion and junior champion! Part string instrument, part percussion the shamisen makes an unusual sound to unaccustomed western ears.