While there’ve been many reports of an increase in tourism in Iran recently, not many discuss what these intrepid tourists are doing out there aside from looking and shopping. Skiing in Iran is a staple part of the year’s sports calender with mountains all around the capital there’s easy access to ski lift towns. The Ride In Iran crew travelled for a freeski Session In Tehran and the results are hosted by Youtube channel X-Treme Videos. Perhaps for one the X-Treme part is merely navigating the beauracracy rather than the sport itself, but in any case there’s some impressive shots of their activities including POV as they descend, an avalanche of snow and people flying on skis.
Apparently it took a whole winter in Iran to develop the project with workshops, coaching sessions and even large competitions in the Dizin snowpark. The Swiss skiers and their Iranian hosts managed to get the support of The Iranian Ski Federation and Timsport amongst other to make the project happen, and are using the Instagram tag #WeRideInIran to spread word of the trip, especially the film of their back-country skiing and snowboard sessions around the Damavand mountains at the Tochal resort which overhangs the capital city and its 15 million inhabitants. Some of the competitions involved numbers in their 60s (in this case the video below features 50 men and 11 women). You can find more information (in French) on the We Ride in Iran project, organised by We Are the Cause.
The main film is directed by skier Nikola Sanz, Arnaud Cottet & Benoit Goncerut
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Six Pillars 