Ski Lebanon
by John Hardwick
## Note: although this article appeared in the AAC(UK) Newsletter, it is not about an AAC(UK) Meet ##
For a great part of the way I toiled rather painfully through the dazzling snow, but the labour of ascending added to the excitement with which I looked for the summit of the pass. The time came. My place upon this dividing barrier was as a man's puzzling station in eternity, between the birthless past and the future that has no end.
Thoughts at the watershed of the Lebanon mountains in Eothen by A W Kinglake.
Lebanon is probably the oldest name for a country. 'Lebanon' and 'Cedars' of Lebanon appear in the Old Testament many times. The Semitic root is l_b_n meaning "white" which describes the snow on the top of its mountains. The mountains are up to 3000m high so in the winter, despite the Mediterranean climate, a lot of snow can fall.
Geologically the Lebanon comprises two anticlines oriented N-S forming the Lebanon and anti-Lebanon mountains. The fertile Bekaa valley is in the syncline between the two; it is here that all the Lebanese wine is made. The mountains comprise Cretaceous sediments, mainly limestones and were formed at about the same time as the Alps, due to the collision of the African and Eurasian plates.
The tour was led by guides Jim Blyth and John Falkiner in association with Jagged Globe; John had visited the area before, so the itinerary was finely tuned to reveal the best of the Lebanese mountains. The Lebanon, of course, was out of bounds in the 70's and 80's when a civil war raged. The west of the country is largely Christian and the east Muslim. With the Druze, refugee Palestinians, Israelis and Syrians all involved, the war became very complicated, but it had been peaceful since the 1990s. The week before our trip the former president, Hariri, had been assassinated in Beirut so we were a little concerned. However the Foreign Office saw no reason for us to cancel. We had intended to start from the Faraya ski resort, east of Beirut, but the weather was warm and wet so we drove on to the Aarab el Laqlouq (1800m), a resort some 10 miles further north. On the way we passed we Afqa cave, the source of the Nahr Ibrahim, which flows red in spring. Legend has it that this is the blood of Adonis who, after an affair with Aphrodite, was killed by her jealous husband who turned him-self into a bear. Actually it's the spring melt water carrying minerals from the soil. Here we purchased some huge paper thin discs of khubis al-jebel or mountain bread some locals were making over an open fire. In the afternoon we did some piste skiing in the resort but got thoroughly soaked. However this rain probably percolated deep in the snow pack. Consequently when the weather cleared and the nights were colder, the snow transformed readily to excellent spring snow that we had for the rest of the tour.
The next day we set out to make a two day traverse to the famous Cedars of Lebanon. The Lebanon was once heavily forested but the forests were cut down for timber. Today there are only a few places where the cedar trees remain. We climbed over Jabal Tannourine (2168m) and skied down into an undulating expanse of wadis which took the rest of the day to traverse. Finally we crossed back west fairly high over a ridge with views to the Mediterranean, the cedar reserve at Tannourine, and the mountain village of Beharré.
We needed to bivouac, and fortunately there was a ruined church that we could stay in, though it was full of drifted snow. It was a cold and uncomfortable night. Gaston Rébuffat stated that those who always stayed in huts might know the splendour of the mountains but would know nothing of their mystery; a secret I'm prepared to do without. We climbed up to a nearby highest summit at 2625m and skied down to the copse of trees at the Cedars resort (1850m).
The following two days we crossed the Lebanese mountains west to east and skied down into the Bekaa valley. The eastern face of the mountains getsthe sun, so the snow line is much higher on this side, however fingers of snow are shielded from the sun by the south sides of the east trending valleys and so we were able to ski almost all the way to the village of Yammoune (1380m), where we stayed the night in one of the villagers' homes. The Bekaa is populated by Shiite Muslims who are sympathetic to Syrian influence; there were many Hezbollah flags in evidence. Our hosts prepared a great meal from grilled fish and chicken with humous, olives, salad and lots of khubis. The Muslims are generally tee-total, so none of the excellent Lebanese wine on this occasion. However, in the Bekaa, sometimes we were offered Arak, a drink similar to Pastis.
Back at Cedars once more, our final 2 day excursion was to climb the Qornet es Saouda, at 3083m, the highest summit in Lebanon, and cross once more into the Bekaa. A dubious ski lift took us up fairly high. There remained a few 100m of ascent but a few miles of skinning. We enjoyed another bivouac, this time in a cave (2100m) before climbing for the last time to the summit ridge (2500m), before a tremendous ski down through slopes populated with juniper trees to Marjhine (1728m), some 15 miles north from Cedars. Here we took off the skis and climbed over hills to the bus pick up point to take us to Baalbek and its famous Roman remains. It was here that Brian Keenan and John McCarthy were held captive as hostages during the civil war.
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Last updated: 04 December 2007