Yes, you can ski in the Middle East.
Last weekend, I traveled with friends and roommates to Faraya, Lebanon (a mountaintop ski village about 40km north of Beirut). Although the drive there through Syria was not without hassle and misfortune--one of our group was turned away on account of a grumpy border officer and some ambiguous evidence of her trip to Israel :( --the weekend itself was a blast.
I hadn't been skiing in over a decade. And it showed. After my gracious roommates Lynn and Bestian gave me a quick ski lesson on our first run, I was off and skiing (and falling, a lot). But several hours later I was respectable enough to take on some green, blue, and even one red slope. The weather was perfect. Although the ski resort had a good 3 feet of snow from the winter for the slopes, it remained mostly sunny and probably in the 40s.
One special feature of skiing in Lebanon is that you can sit atop a mountain and overlook the Mediterranean (you can distinguish the horizon in the first pic). Faraya is a known haunt for Beirut affluent families, but the slopes weren't crowded until the official state weekend started on Saturday and I had to avoid the mother-duck-and-ducklings ski classes that were weaving down most of the runs. Note, most of these 8 year olds were much better than me, so I would usually let them pass and then tag along and follow their well-chosen routes down the descent.
Coming off the previous weekend's Dead to Red adventure, I found myself pretty exhausted after ~8 hours of skiing on each of the two days. Running fitness only transfers so well.
I'll have to go back to Beirut again. Just walking past some of the protest tent cities and down streets famous for their restaurant and night life flare before catching our ride up the mountain was a treat.
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