History of Ski (snow) in I.R .Iran

History of Grasski in I.R .Iran
 

History of Ski (snow) in I.R .Iran :

In most of the snow mountains and other places in the word people had to invent something to walk on the snow easily, Specially for the hunters of animals ,without any difficulties. In Iran there were some of these to invention made. In some of the historical stories and narratives of Iran there has been references of ski in the more realistic manner of a equipment called  "Drag".
 

Modern skiing though came to Iran around 1930, around 85 years after the first modern ski competitions took place elsewhere in the world.

Two main groups effectively introduced modern skiing to Iranians. The first were the Germans who came to Iran to build the National Railroads, mine the coalfields and construct the Iranian steel smelting plant.

After observing the snow filled Alborz range in Iran, they brought their skis from Europe and spent the winters touring and skiing. Each trick used on the slopes would be to the delight and amazement of the spectators, composed mostly of the rustic community. This group usually preferred the Firooz Kooh, Shemshak and the Haji Abad (25 km North West of Tehran) districts.

'Hassan Fazel' is probably one of the first, if not the first, modern Iranian skier. He recalls how in 1931 he accompanied a few German neighbors and their Swiss friends to the 'Haji Abad' mountains and at the age of 15 started learning how to ski from them.

 

 


Skis carved out of tree trunks by kids in rural areas surrounding Tehran. Notice the ski poles on either side and the leather straps which were used as bindings.

  
 

fHe also recalls how a few years a later an Avalanche took the lives of 3 Germans. The Shah of Iran at that time, 'Reza Shah' apparently banned skiing at Haji Abad when he heard of the incident.
 

The second group to bring skiing to Iran consisted of Iranian students abroad that would practice the sport in Europe and after returning to their homeland would follow up the sport with anyone else interested. Most of them had learnt the sport on the pists of France and Switzerland.

Dr. Abdollah Basir who went to France as a student in 1929,  and learnt to ski. In those early days the main pists near Tehran were the hills of 'Telo' also known as 'Lashkarak'. Dr Basir recalls even skiing on the hills of 'Elahiyeh', now a well-to-do district of North Tehran. He not only learnt how to ski, but perhaps more importantly he also learnt how to make skis. In 1938 on his return home, he went to a carpenters in 'Laleh Zar' street in Tehran and instructed them in the art of ski production. Thus Iranian skis started being manufactured in the late 1930s.

 

    


The Haji Abad mountains which early on in Iran's modern ski history took the lives of 3 German skiers.

  
 

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