It is so hard to explain what happen today so I will just stick to the facts. We drove for three hours up a valley that culminated with 12 switchbacks carved into the side of a 70-degree mountain face. At the top of the gnarliest road I have ever driven on sits a small village that is surrounded by fields of upon fields of perfect powder.
Like most of the towns in Turkey, it is older than my country, but that is not why it is special. It is the first place people started standing sideways on boards and gliding down hills over 150 years ago.

Old man Snowboading, Celime, 62 years of riding and going strong.

90% of the town rides, no one has ever skied there and the equipment and the style has stayed true to its origins. We met up with the oldest rider in the village, Celime.

He is seventy years old, and started riding in 1946. He has been riding almost daily for 62 years and it shows. Gimpl and I dropped in next to him he took of effortlessly, standing tall and proud as we did all we could to hold on.

It took a little while but Gimpl and I started to get the hang of it.

The sport was started out of necessity to get around the village in deep snow. The boards are so perfect for the terrain and snow conditions that the equipment had hardly changed in 150 years.

We sessioned the local hill for awhile and then headed up to the mosque for some après’ tea around the fire. I couldn’t get the questions out fast enough.

Are there any contest? Yes. Do you hit jumps? Yes? When was the first time you saw a modern snowboard? Three years ago. Do you have any desire to use new equipment? No.

Has anyone in the town ever skied? No.

What really overwhelmed me was how content they were. There seemed to be little desire to progress the equipment or their riding. They hit jumps but do not have specific tricks.

You never know what you will find when you travel. Once again, the bond of sharing a few powder turns breaks down language barriers and cultural differences. Big thanks to the locals for letting us into there lives for the day.

All photos Bernard Ritzer.