Azerbaijan

Unless you’re a local or a very intrepid explorer, you may not have even heard of skiing in Azerbaijan, in part because it hasn’t been a “thing” for very long. Tourism made a resurgence after the fall of the Soviet Union, and the government has made a push for ski tourism, especially for the luxury demographic. Before you part with your money however, you might want to keep your expectation in check. Whilst Azerbaijan has some decent mountains and excellent lift infrastructure at a couple of ski resorts, it’s not blessed with an abundance of snow, so you might spend a bit of time at the day spa!

It's an interesting country to visit considering the culture has been derived from a long history of so many influences. 

Where is Azerbaijan?

Azerbaijan is located in Eurasia where Europe meets Asia, which is a nice way to describe it because it’s a transcontinental country where geographers can’t really agree on the location of the demarcation line between the two continents. Azerbaijan shares borders with Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, Russia to the north, and Iran to the south, and the standalone portion of Azerbaijan shares a little bit of border with Turkey. The Caspian Sea sits along the east coast of Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijan Ski Resorts

It’s a country that’s relatively new on the ski scene, and there are three Azerbaijan ski resorts.

Tufandag Mountain Resort is located near the city of Gabala (Quabala) in the northern central part of the country. It’s reasonably small, with only 10 runs that cover 12.3km of slopes, and it has 4 modern lifts that are gondolas, chairlifts or chondolas (a cross between a gondola and chairlift). The elevation runs from 1,920 metres down to 956 metres.

Shahdag Mountain Resort is located near Qusar city (Gusar) in the northeast corner of Azerbaijan. This ski resort has 17 lifts and runs from elevations of 2,552 metres down to 1,435m.

In the land-locked Nakchivan zone that sits adjacent to Turkey is Abulag Mountain Resort, which is 58km from the city of Nakhchivan and situated in the Lesser Caucasus Mountains. It also has modern facilities, but is not a particularly large ski area.

Snow

Azerbaijan does not receive a lot of precipitation, so for example, it’s quite different to the western parts of neighbouring Georgia where the snowfall volumes can be astronomically big at times. The ski resorts rely heavily on snowmaking machines, so don’t head there with the expectation of frequent deep powder days, and the Azerbaijan snow season is not long lasting.