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.