Iran Snowmads

The whole story began with a crazy trip of Scott team rider Fabian Lentsch, driving a regular camper van from Austria to Kyrgyzstan and back in summer 2013. While traveling through those remarkable landscapes, Fabian couldn't stop thinking of skiing these places in winter. But he was aware that he definitely had to get his hands on a more suitable vehicle to do that. So he kept this idea of building a proper expedition truck in his mind for a couple of years and just waited for the right timing to get started. During some winter trips with his good friend Markus Moggä Ascher who just finished an amazing 4x4 van construction, Fabian couldn't wait any longer.

At the beginning of 2015, he and Moggä decided to go for it not knowing what was lying in front of them. Cutting it short, the construction process took eight months with countless ups and downs as well as money and time pressure, which is probably the worst combination. During this process, the idea was born to invite several world-class freeskiers to different stages of the journey, calling themselves "The Snowmads." On 5th January 2016, the last shelf was mounted, and the Snowmads hit the road straightaway and headed towards eastern suns. Beneath Turkey, Armenia, and Georgia, one highlight of their journey was Iran, where Jochen Mesle and Leo Slemett joined the Snowmads crew.

IRAN – what a beautiful, diverse country with an impressive culture and the good-hearted, most open and interested people I met so far – a trip which makes the world seem bigger because all those experiences and the culture broadens your horizons tremendously. 10 pm, Tehran, tired, finally outside of the airport, confusing directions... Accompanied by a beautiful sunrise, we started driving to a small ski resort called Tarik Darreh, 330 kilometers west of Tehran, where we were welcomed by techno music coming out of the speakers at each lift station. The vibe was perfect, and we enjoyed some short laps in spring conditions with a beautiful view – desert on the one side, the Zagros mountain chain on the other side.

During a snack stop, we noticed a family examining us. Politely, they invited us to have dinner at their place in Hamadan. Just hours later we were feasting on Iran's national dish – Chelow kabab (skewered meat served over a bed of rice) – in the family's home, which was filled with homemade art and family photos. It is amazing how fast you can build up a close relationship in Iran – six hours before, we didn't even know them, and now we were saying goodbye as if they were close relatives. What a start to what would be three thrilling weeks. The optimistic vibes soon started to fizzle out, however – besides facing some of the strongest winds I've ever experienced, we got stopped by some "Environmental Guardians."

Because it was winter, and we didn't have written permission, we had no chance to go to a beautiful spot directly next to a lake with rad spine lines in the backyard, where we'd planned to spend several days for the main mission of our trip. We were also stopped by police almost daily, but we soon realized that the officers were only interested in having a little chat and checking out our truck. 4 am, wake-up call. After a week of setbacks, we finally got the chance to go on a first mission in the Chelgerd region, about 200 kilometers west of Isfahan in central Iran. With 25 kilograms on our backs, we started hiking in the first light, and after five exhausting hours we set up our camp surrounded by impressive mountains.

It hadn't snowed in a while, but the area offered us some nice lines at high altitude, and the spring snow allowed us to easily build some fun features – my favorite combination. After vainly trying to find an area with less wind to ski some proper big mountain lines, our plan was to go as far south as possible, and we ended up on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf. We wanted to take a look at Qeshm Island – an island of sun-scorched canyons, hills and valleys – and what was supposed to be a three-hour visit turned out to be my favorite few days of the trip. Temperatures were over 30 degrees Celsius, and we enjoyed sitting on the rooftop of the Snowmads truck while driving along deserted off-road tracks – we felt like cowboys riding bulls.

From our perfect lookout, the landscape passing by was quite impressive – kind of how I would imagine life on Mars. We spotted some faces, which – despite consisting of hard sand instead of soft powder – looked like Alaskan spines. We decided to try to ski them. But, as always, "Team Useless" was late getting organized and only half an hour of light was left in the Valley of Stars, the valley of sand dunes we wanted to ski. Our initial plan was to go slow and check out the lower sections of a sand spine, but there was no chance to put the skis on. So with the sun about to go down, we teamed up and somehow made it to the dusty peak in time. The only way back to the truck now was to ski that super sketchy spine back down.

Rock-paper-scissors forced Fabi to hit it first. I haven't seen him so nervous for a long time, but as always, he somehow found a way down unscathed. First thing he shouts up is: "Boooooys, you have to watch out, it's sooo sketchy!" Exactly the motivational speech we needed! After our experiment had succeeded, we settled down to a tasty barbecue under the stars and let the evening fade away. Soon I would be on my way back to Tehran, reflecting on my time spent with the Snowmads. Definitely an adventure I will never forget.