Skiing in Africa (& Other Places You Wouldn't Think There's Snow)
Skiing in Africa (& Other Places You Wouldn't Think There's Snow)
Winter sports, like skiing, usually require… winter. or at least a season with snow (it snows in summer in most of the southern hemisphere, ask any Argentinian or New Zealand Kiwi).
It’s natural to think snow only exists in very wintery places. But that’s not true. There are thousands of snow resorts in about 60 countries across the globe, including Morocco, South Africa, Israel, and Iraq. Add in artificial snow centers, like this one in Abu Dhabi or this one in Japan, and the list grows to about 75 countries. That’s almost 40% of the world, for those of you who think snow sports are a 1percent thing (its at least a 2% thing).
There’s snow in the middle east. Mountains in Lebanon, Syria, Israel, and Iraq can get white. Iran’s got massive peaks, with plenty of snow resorts at elevations that rival the Colorado Rockies. Even Saudi Arabia’s northern corner gets snow sometimes (but even if doesn’t, they’ve got sand skiing and a plan for this massive artificial resort anyway)….
Mount Hermon sits between Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. Israel has a ski area on their side of the slope, and Syria had plans for one too. They just can’t meet at the top bc that’s a border buffer zone and home to the highest UN station in the world (called Camp Hermon).
In Africa, Algeria’s mountainous coast hosted Africa’s first ski area in the 1940s. It’s now defunct, but Morocco has 5 snow resorts, and South Africa and Lesotho each have one.
Australia’s not all outback either. There’s about a dozen snow resorts in a higher than average pocket called the Australian Alps.
China has by far the most amount of snow resorts, with over 700, most built in the last 20 years. The government had a goal to get 300 million people on the snow ahead of the 2022 Beijing winter Olympics. Apparently they succeeded, now there’s more Chinese on the slopes than the total population of the US.
Last note: Thank you for exploring with me. My new years resolution for Map Nerd is to do more stories in less time, bc there’s so much more out there, from the narrowest city to fake border fights. follow and I won’t let you down. (unlike my last 5 new years resolutions). Thank you!
