While the world's focus has been on the new ski area opening in North Korea last month, another asian ski area, this one with an officially sanctioned Doppelmayr gondola, has just opened in Kurdistan, Northern Iraq.
Korek Mountain Resort (thekorekmountainresort.com – not functioning when we tried to look) officially opened this week according to a BBC Report, even though snow conditions are currently below average. The local Erbil area has just been selected as the 2014 Arab Tourism destination of the year.
Access to the slopes is provided by a Doppelmayr built gondola which climbs over two miles (3670m) from a base station at 724m asl to its top station at 1690m asl.
There are not believed to be any other lifts at the moment and few trained skiers or boarders around to enjoy the slopes, but the centre boasts an ice rink and a hang glider simulator ride ion which up to four people descend beneath a hang glider like canopy hanging on a wire – a kind of zip line ride.
Although ski resorts have existed for many years in Turkey to the north and Iran to the east, and ski touring has been possible for intrepid skiers in Iraq, this is believed to be the country's first ski resort with lifts.