About 330 winding, transmission-straining miles north of Baghdad’s Green Zone, in the autonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq, Iraqi Kurds, and a few foreigners, are re-discovering skiing near the border with Iran.
Here on Mount Halgurd—the second-highest mountain in Iraq—the ski runs are good, the powder is fresh, and the tourist crowds remain nonexistent. Take a photograph and, if you Photoshop out the squat, concrete houses and the military checkpoints, you could easily be in Telluride or Whistler, Verbier or Courmayeur.
