Life through Markus Ascher’s lenses

gloryfy-Rider Markus Ascher is on the road with his friend Fabian Lentsch to ski in areas that you would normally not think about visiting for a ski trip. Read more about their latest adventures in Turkey here, told by Markus himself:

Enjoying the turkish champagne | Photographer: Elias Holzknecht- Woodslave Production

„Thinking about it now, with a bit of a distance, Turkey should be the REAL start of our Adventure! We had everything from an leaking watertank which became a threat to the construction of the cabin, to mountain roads that really made us question if we and the truck would arrive in one piece, plus entering Asia, experiencing a quite different culture and ways of being than our European way of life. All of this and much more on the road to finally find what we were searching for; Turkish champagne powder and peaceful mountains.“

Stoked Turkish random guys on the street | Photographer: Elias Holzknecht- woodslave productions

„People at home had concerns about if it would be safe to travel this region with the war-like conflict in the south-eastern part of Turkey and the border to Syria in the south. Unfortunately there is truth in the concerns from people at home. The conflict there is real and there are definitely areas where you would not wan to be just now. We had the opportunity to change our plans and go up north, towards the Black Sea. I hope from my heart that the people from the conflict zone can have that opportunity as well and they can leave if they want to have nothing to do with the conflict. That is of course incomparably harder – leaving your house, home and everything you love – than it was for us to change the route, though! I really hope for the people of this beautiful country that more peaceful times will arrive soon.

We met absolutely lovely people on the way, like Murat, who we got to know by accident stopping at a gas station to ask where we could buy tools for fixing our leaking water tank. Murat ended up helping us for two days, fixing the water tank, inviting us for food, not even understanding us but still making us feel really welcome. On the other hand we also had some strange situations with random people and guns. Turkey is for sure a country with a lot of faces and I hope these diverse ethnic groups will be able to live in peace together again soon!“

The crew Fabian Lentsch – Neil Wiliman – myself – Dane Tudor | Photographer: Elias Holzknecht- woodslave productions

Old local woman in Yayalar | Photographer: Elias Holzknecht- woodslave productions

„We found our peace (excluding the two bit strange situations with guys with guns) in two places, first „Yayalar“, a remote mountain village. The drive there was crazy, though. The road was often just wide enough to fit the truck. Sliding off the edge of the street besides the road is something you don´t want to even think about. It was not just a very narrow road, it had half a meter of snow on it too! But that half a meter of snow made us really want to go further, since it meant we should be able to have some good skiing there and we learned for the first time that this truck and 4 chains can do amazing things! Dane Tudor joined us and we went for touring missions 8 days in a row, the super sketchy avalanche situation forced us to hide in the forests though, which was not too bad, because that place was just beautiful!

But we wanted to go further and I think we were as lucky as we could get. Back to civilization from Yayalar we heard from a one chair / one tow lift resort called „Atabari-Artvin Ski Center“. There was almost a meter of fresh snow just at that time, nobody would be able to even get to the resort, because the road needed to be plowed first, but guess who made it before the Plow? The downside was that nobody was there to open the chairlift …“

Atabari Ski Center | Photographer: Elias Holznecht- woodslave productions

„A lot of chay (tea), talking to the super nice guys from the resort, who made it there one day after the plow came, and some waiting time later , at our last day there which was accidentally Neil’s birthday as well, the guys from the resort managed to get us a sled to do some laps. The resort itself was still closed, because they needed to dig out the chairlift first. I don´t need to say more, do I!? The best possible birthday present ever for Neil, I guess!“

Fabian Lentsch in deep powder | Photographer: Elias Holzknecht- Woodslave Production

„Check out the Snowmads webisode Nr. 2 from Turkey at snowmads.world. We saved the deep powder shots from Atabari Ski Center for the feature length movie, though. That will come soon after the whole trip is history, so stay tuned for that as well.“

„I´m writing this from a small restaurant in Iran, the truck parked outside, waiting for the crew to come pack from a tent mission which I needed to skip couse I got sick. But I am already feeling better and looking forward to the adventures thats are waiting for us in the beautiful, mysterious country of Iran. It is not as you would think. Believe me!“

You can check Markus Ascher´s gloryfy GP4 snow goggles here!