Zonkey

Meet the Zonkey.

When "WTF" has more than one real meaning - (What and Who)

You can see this family in the Baku Zoo, Azerbaijan

Skiing at Shahdag, Azerbaijan

My wife and I tried skiing at Shahdag range of mountains at Azerbaijan.

We stayed at Hotel Zirve where there is a ski school with instructors.

A few details about skiing:

It is not as easy as it looks. It involves getting the physics right. Just like other things (trekking, scuba diving, helmet diving, archery, golf, shooting) 

There are a few things we learnt about the details and process of skiing doing it here for the first time overall.

The process involves a few steps:

1. Register your time slot for individual instructions. (Here they allow maximum 3 people per instructor)

2. You need to hire the following: Ski shoes, Skis, Ski sticks, Helmet, Goggles (optional), Jacket (optional if you already have one), Gloves (optional)

3. You need to pay the following: Equipment renting, Ski instructor fees and the Ski pass - for using the ski slopes (Like a green fee on golf courses)

Please be ready to spend at least 1-1.5 hr before the instruction time to get these 3 things done.

Post this, the live instructions of how to connect / Disconnect the skis with the ski-shoes on ice can start.

The instructor we were assigned was good in English and patient and helped us correct with the mistakes we made and took us (my wife and I) step by step.

At the end of the 2 hrs session, we asked him to video record our skiing and he did a marvellous job of it too.

Few new things to know for a first timer: The ski shoes are very different from all other shoes and are very heavy (maybe 3 kgs each leg). The ski shoe is meant to not break or let the leg slip out even when you put the maximum weight on the front and try to fall front (the ideal body position) when skiing.

Please do expect a few falls with the entire attire while trying to negotiate a curve or trying to stop, but be free to fall and prevent any injuries. I saw at least 2 other people fall in the 2 hrs apart from we falling off.

Skiing has significant costs:

Renting of 2 pairs of Skis, Ski sticks, Shoes, Helmet, Goggles and a locker for our shoes costed us about 132 Mannat or USD 78.

Ski instructor fees was 185 mannat or about USD 109

Ski pass for 2 was 66 Mannat or about USD 39

Tip to instructor of 15 Mannat or about USD 9

Total Skiing = 398 Mannat or about INR 19900

Happy Skiing!