I think most people would not associate Turkey and snow skiing. However, Turkey has many ski resorts through the country many of them quite nice by even western standards. On the other hand, snow skiing near the Black Sea is not as well known and there aren’t many options. That was the case until now. The province of Ordu finally opened their ski resort after several years of planning and construction. I’m a big fan of skiing so I thought I would take a winter adventure and ride up to the resort.
Normally riding a motorcycle up into the mountains in winter would be foolish if not a death wish. However, this has been a particularly dry and mild winter so I knew the roads would be clear…so I hoped. As it turned out the road was open and the local government had also do a great job updating the road. I suppose this was necessary if they actually wanted people to go skiing. I absolutely love the road up to Çambaşı. The road is very sinuous which is awesome on a motorbike but torture on a bus or the back seat of a car. The air was clear with maximum visibility. I found myself constantly distracted by the specular vistas and mountains, and I had to stop a dozen times to take a picture or just take in the landscape.
My journey took about one hour but it felt like 20 minutes as I was thoroughly enjoying the ride. Çambaşı Ski Resort was finally open for business, or was it? I pulled into an empty parking lot and wondered if the hype and gossip was true. It wasn’t sure until I looked over at the chair lift. It was working!! That must mean it’s open. I hopped off the bike and started to explore and figure out what’s up.
I learned that the park was open, and because of the unseasonable warm and dry weather only one slope was open. I enquired about the chair lift and learned that I could take a round trip even if I wasn’t skiing. I was astonished to find out the lift price was only 7₺ or $1.75. Wow!! At those prices I could come more often. I happily paid the fee and took a ride to the top.
I was impressed. I’ll definitely be back with my family. All they need is a little more snow. Here are a few pics from my adventure.
