Ski trip

Yesterday was a day trip to the slopes - which in Armenia means Tsaghkadzor. Tsaghkadzor (45 min from Yerevan) is home to Armenia's only ski lifts, but I understand 2 more are being built in other parts of Armenia.

The ski rentals cost 5,000 dram ($14) and the day pass for the lifts was 7,000 ($20). Ski rentals are available in a few places... you might want to get there early and look around. Snowboards seem to cost double what skis cost. Lift tickets can also be purchased on a "as you ski basis", at 1,000 dram per lift.

The place was much improved, with 4 new lifts installed in the last few years and a few very nice new runs developed. Unfortunately, the lifts move rather slowly, and can take seemingly forever to get to the top. There was also a Tifosi pizza joint at the bottom of the first lift which has a plastic walled outdoor eating area. With all the air leaks, the air was actually quite tolerable at 3pm when we ate. This is great compared to the unbearably smoky "chalet" sort of building at the top of the first lift, with terrible food choices and more smoke than you could believe possible last I visited. I don't know if it's gotten any better, but I was not willing to find out.