Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
Subscription Form

Get notified of the best News

Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
22K Followers
25K Likes
5K Followers
1K Followers
Mountain Life
Mountain Life
  • Daily Content
    • Trips & Expeditions
    • Climbing
    • Mountain Biking
    • Mountain Lifer
    • Multiplicity
    • On The Trail
    • Paddling
    • Photography
    • Skiing
    • Snowboarding
    • Stay & Play
    • Surfing
    • The Great Outdoors
    • The ML Interview
    • Travel
  • GEAR
  • VIDEOS
  • STORE
  • Magazines
    • ML Coast Mountains
    • ML Rocky Mountains
    • Vie En Montagne
    • ML Blue Mountains
    • ML Annual
    • ML Subscriptions
  • ABOUT
    • What is ML?
    • Our Team
    • Newsletter
    • Adventure Grant
    • Distribution
  • Podcast
  • Contests
  • CONTACT
    • ML Agency
    • Advertising
    • Contribute
  • On The Trail

Powder Pilgrims: Fresh Tracks in the Holy Land

  • November 10, 2015
  • Ben Osborne
Total
0
Shares
0
0
0
0
0
0
Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0

israel_kari_medig-229

The instant we land in Tel Aviv, we grab a rental car and head to the Golan Heights. If we hurry, we’ll get some turns in by day’s end. Yep, I said turns. As in ski turns. In Israel.

by Colin Field   photos by Kari Medig

Just over a month ago we learned you could ski in Israel. And now, after 13 hours of flying, fresh tracks are a few short hours away.

Heading north from Tel Aviv, following Highway 6, the urban sprawl of Israel’s biggest city slowly gives way to beautiful countryside. Road signs direct us to legendary towns like Nazareth and Tiberias. We are in a land of biblical history, but we aren’t following the busloads of religious pilgrims; we’re heading for snow.

And there’s snow in the Golan Heights.

As we pass the Sea of Galilee and head up the twisting road to Mount Hermon, the storm clouds look promising. It’s raining in the Upper Galilee, but on top of the 2224-metre Mount Hermon, it’s sure to be snowing. Have the stars aligned perfectly for a powder-filled tour of Israel’s only ski resort?

Nope. They haven’t. A military roadblock is barring the entrance to Mount Hermon – unlike at home, where snowstorms are a good thing, in Israel, snowstorms shut the road down. No one has snow tires in Israel, so no one can actually get up there. And we’ll miss all the fresh snow because it will take a week before the road is once again passable.

“They descend upon the lift lines, magic carpet and toboggan runs in jeans and track pants, ecstatic at something we as Canadians take for granted.”

A week later, after tours of all the usuals (Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, Masada and the West Bank) we head back to Mount Hermon. Eight thousand other people choose to do the exact same thing. A hundred loaded buses chug up the winding road that switches back and forth from the lush green of the Golan Heights to the snowy peak of Hermon.

We pass Druze villages and barbwire fences with signs that warn: “DANGER! MINES.” And when we finally arrive, the parking lot is chaotic. Orthodox Jews, modern Muslims and everyone in between fall out of the buses, yelling, laughing and marveling at the snow. Most of them have never seen snow before. They descend upon the lift lines, magic carpet and toboggan runs in jeans and track pants, ecstatic at something we as Canadians take for granted.

israel_kari_medig-135

As we get our rental skis (165cm, 2008 Salomon Scramblers) the rental guy asks, “Do you know how to play ski?” before deciding how tight to make my bindings. We head up the two-person Dopplemeyer chairlift and from the top we can see Lebanon, the Sea of Galilee and Syria. It’s a beautiful day: five degrees, bluebird sky and conditions reminiscent of Canadian spring skiing. We do a couple of high traverses to get away from the dangerously out-of-control locals, and discover the brownish snow, tinted with sand, is slightly lighter than the corn snow of home, and a joy to ski. We schuss our way past cliffs and under chairlifts, getting fresh tracks over and over again. The chairlift riders overhead hoot and holler at our skills and for an instant I feel like a professional skier carving dangerous lines that no one thought possible. I’m not. I’m just one of the best skiers on the hill. Which isn’t saying much.

“We pass Druze villages and barbwire fences with signs that warn: ‘DANGER! MINES.’ And when we finally arrive, the parking lot is chaotic. Orthodox Jews, modern Muslims and everyone in between fall out of the buses, yelling, laughing and marveling at the snow.”

Mount Hermon began operating in 1971. With 440 metres of vertical drop there are five two-person chairlifts, a couple of t-bars and a magic carpet. There are 1250 acres of terrain, 45 kilometres of piste, a mountain coaster and tobogganing hills. Hermon isn’t blessed with bottomless powder, but the skiing is really fun.

Riding up the chair with local university student Annette Schwarz, she tells me she hasn’t skied in four years, but she loves it.

israel_kari_medig-236

“When I finish university I will go to Bulgaria,” she tells me. “My parents go, it’s very nice. Here it is very small. And the same run over and over. It’s very boring.”

I let lie the myth that all of Canada looks like British Columbia and don’t tell her my local Ontario hill is smaller with less terrain.

But you don’t need to ski at Mount Hermon to be entertained. The people-watching is limitless, and flabbergasting. Men with shopping bags tied around their shoes slide around the parking lot, young Hasidic Jews with curly sideburns fumble awkwardly on skis, Muslim teenagers throw snowballs at one another, sun-wrinkled Tel Avivians enjoy the rays and yarmulke-clad teenagers strap on snowboards.

It’s impossible to take it all in. I sit on the chalet’s patio with a tall can of Carlsburg amid constant outbursts of laughter and shouting . Within half-an-hour, I witness two ambulances arrive and take people away. I watch a boy clock his sister in the head with a basketball-sized snowball and another woman on skis careen out of control through the sea of humanity before crashing into the patio railing. She’s okay, and laughing. Then her friend walks up to her, carrying her own skis awkwardly before accidently dropping them on top of her crumpled friend.

israel_kari_medig-4490

The bottom of the mountain feels like the most dangerous place in Israel as I constantly look over my shoulder for runaway snowboards, erratically carried ski poles or out-of-control skiers. As the lifts shut down at four o’clock, everyone loads back into the buses for the slow ride home. We join them and head back to Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv.

“The people-watching is limitless, and flabbergasting. Men with shopping bags tied around their shoes slide around the parking lot, young Hasidic Jews with curly sideburns fumble awkwardly on skis, Muslim teenagers throw snowballs at one another, sun-wrinkled Tel Avivians enjoy the rays and yarmulke-clad teenagers strap on snowboards.”

There are attractions in Israel beyond the streets of Nazareth, the biblical relics of Jerusalem, or the holy sites of Galilee. Its compact geography allows us to go from mountain biking in the desert, to paddleboarding in the Mediterranean, to skiing in just two days. The seven-hour drive from one end of the country to the other takes you from snow-capped mountains to deserts, with everything else in between.

And while Israel continues to make the headlines, conflict for this country is nothing new. The reports have never stopped busload after busload of international religious groups from making the pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Israelis are not huddled in bunkers, dressed in bulletproof vests or preparing for Armageddon. They are getting on with their lives.

The potential for outdoor adventure in Israel is endless. The trail systems in Israel are experiencing more use than ever before. And that’s because the hiking and biking is world class. The skiing? Not so much. But Mount Hermon is worth a look anyway.

 

 

 

 

Total
0
Shares
Share 0
Tweet 0
Pin it 0
Share 0
Share 0
Share 0
Related Topics
  • colin field
  • Golan Heights
  • Israel
  • Kari Medig
  • Skiing
  • travel
Ben Osborne

Previous Article
  • Videos

Online Premiere: Watch Eclipse Full-Length Movie

  • November 10, 2015
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
Next Article
  • Mountain Lifer
  • Photography

Behind the Lens: Photographer Reuben Krabbe on Getting the Once in a Lifetime Shot

  • November 11, 2015
  • Ben Osborne
View Post
You May Also Like
The-High-Route-Kaytlyn-Gerbin-Jenny-Abegg-North-Cascades-High-Route-glacier-hiking
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Trips & Expeditions
  • Videos

Friday Flick: Alpine Ultra-Run Sufferfest

  • Ned Morgan
  • March 10, 2023
View Post
  • Mountain Lifer
  • On The Trail
  • Photography
  • Stay & Play

Let It Roar

  • Sarah Bulford
  • February 9, 2023
Life-Time-Grand-Prix-gravel-bike
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail

New Docuseries Profiles the World’s Elite Off-Road Cyclists

  • Editor
  • January 30, 2023
Mountain-Life-Blue-Mountains-stack-winter-2023
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Ontario
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Trips & Expeditions

ML Blue Mountains Winter-Spring ’23 Issue Out Now

  • Ned Morgan
  • January 6, 2023
Golden-BC-mountain-biking
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail

Shifting Gears

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 18, 2022
Nicholas-Spooner-moose-skier-touring-Quebec
View Post
  • On The Trail
  • Photography
  • Skiing
  • Snowboarding
  • Trips & Expeditions

Vie en montagne Winter-Spring ’22-’23 Out Now

  • Mountain Life Media
  • December 12, 2022
View Post
  • Food & Drink
  • On The Trail
  • Travel

Under the Influence: Oregon (part 2)

  • Editor
  • December 7, 2022
AleTrailsPenticton_TinWhistleBrewing_BenHaggarPhoto
View Post
  • Mountain Biking
  • On The Trail

Ale Trails: Penticton

  • Mountain Life Media
  • October 25, 2022
Featured Posts
  • Mustang-Survival-WOMENS-HELIX-CCS 1
    Gear Shed: Our End-of-Winter Picks
    • March 23, 2023
  • natural-selection-Redbull 2
    Friday Flick: Natural Selection Tour Highlights
    • March 17, 2023
  • Powder-Highway-BC-ski 3
    Powder Highway Revisited
    • March 21, 2023
  • AleTrailsSouthernInterior_Vernon_MikeGamble_LookoutTrail_BenHaggarPhoto 4
    Ale Trails: Southern Interior Part 1, Vernon + Shuswap
    • March 20, 2023
  • Bora-Boreal-Quebec-winter-cabin-stars 5
    Bora Boréal: Frozen in Time and Ice
    • March 14, 2023
RECENT POSTS
  • Elements-Outfitters-Filson-cabin
    Elements Outfitters Partners with SALTS to Protect Alberta’s Incredible Landscapes
    • March 16, 2023
  • Uncertainty-mountains-Rockies
    Facing Uncertainty: The Role of Chance in Mountain Adventures
    • March 13, 2023
  • The-High-Route-Kaytlyn-Gerbin-Jenny-Abegg-North-Cascades-High-Route-glacier-hiking
    Friday Flick: Alpine Ultra-Run Sufferfest
    • March 10, 2023
Social Links
Instagram 22K Followers
Facebook 25K Likes
Twitter 5K Followers
Pinterest 1K Followers
Vimeo 34 Followers
LinkedIn 0
INSTAGRAM
mountainlifemedia
22K Followers
From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
The Southern Interior region of BC holds an ecological cross-section of the province with alpine meadows, arid Douglas fir grasslands, damp cedar and hemlock forests of the Columbia Mountains and the warm expanse of Shuswap Lake.
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Conceived by superhuman snowboarder @travisrice, the @naturalselection Tour highlights earth’s premier riders, from big-mountain mavens to Olympians, all competing on the most stoketastic—and unpredictable—terrain known to humankind.
Built upon a shared desire to enjoy, respect, and advocate for Alberta’s incredible landscapes, it was a natural fit for @elementsoutfitters to work with a local conservation organization @saltslandtrust to highlight the province’s rugged beauty and outdoor apparel to match.
THE UNINVITED INVITATIONAL April 13-16 @woodwardtahoe 😱 $40,000 cash prize purse and a whole lotta spotlight on a group of riders whose time has finally come!! Presented by @jess.kimura and @thenorthface and supported by @yeti @capitasupercorp @slushthemagazine @unionbindingco @smithoptics @sunbum @coalheadwear @fattire 🫡 watch the finals in person Saturday April 15 and join the crew + @btbounds for a public ride day Sunday April 16 @borealmtn. Time to make some history!!! #linkinbio to learn more!
Close your eyes and, for a moment, imagine yourself deep in the polar regions aboard an expedition ship stuck in the ice. The white pack-ice is dazzling, and the immobile vessel seems frozen in time and space. That experience piques your curiosity, doesn't it? Without having to go all the way to Antarctica, you can experience these icy sensations 30 minutes from Quebec City in one of Bora Boréal 's two floating cottages.
Follow

Subscribe

Subscribe now to our newsletter

From The Gear Shed: Last Monday was the official start of spring, but we know there’s still some winter to be shredded. So ML staff and partners have picked the latest jackets, lanterns, bindings, mugs and drysuits for winter-spring.
Exploring the sights around beautiful Sutton, Quebec with ML creator @adv_bird ❄️🫶
Back on the road with three generations, dancing lifties, best-on-planet pizza and elusive-but-exquisite pow days.
Live It Up EP 24 is out now!
The Southern Interior region of BC holds an ecological cross-section of the province with alpine meadows, arid Douglas fir grasslands, damp cedar and hemlock forests of the Columbia Mountains and the warm expanse of Shuswap Lake.
Do Not Disturb mode activated ✅ #mountainlifer
Mountain Life
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising

Input your search keywords and press Enter.