IN MID-JANUARY the week before I arrived at Mount Hermon, Israel’s only ski resort, two storms blanketed the slopes with 6½ feet of fresh, inviting snow. Less inviting: The fact that a missile fired by Iranian soldiers in Syria was shot down over the resort. Located in the Golan Heights, Mount Hermon is part of a lush and rocky landscape that the international community views as occupied Syrian territory. Israel first took control of the land during the 1967 war with its Arab neighbors. By 1971, Israelis had built the first ski lift on Mount Hermon, and today many Israelis regard the territory as an inseparable part of the country—despite Syria’s on and off efforts to negotiate its return.
For those willing to put politics aside to ski, Mount Hermon isn’t cheap. It’s about $48 to rent skis, boots and a helmet. The cost of the lift pass and entrance fee together is $79, on par with European skiing prices. Yet the resort offers a microcosm of the tiny nation’s fractious population squished onto one mountain—with residents sometimes smashing into one another as they learn to ski.
Israel’s compact dimensions and diverse geography contribute to its appeal. One can start at the lowest place on Earth, soaking in the salty waters of the Dead Sea, and be on the slopes by the afternoon. The resort’s peak, 6,692 foot high, overlooks Lebanon and Syria. One of the many challenges of scheduling a visit to Mount Hermon, however, is Israel’s short ski season. In a good year, as 2019 is turning out to be, it lasts only four to eight weeks, beginning in mid January. So while the army shut the ski resort the day after the missile attack, two days later, 7,000 seemingly untroubled visitors were back on the slopes. The next day, Mount Hermon hit max capacity at 10,000 people.
Early one Saturday morning, a friend and I drove 90 minutes from the city of Tiberias to Majdal Shams, a Druze village and Mount Hermon’s only real ski town. Most of the resort’s 300 employees—from medics to ski instructors—hail from the village. The Druze are an Arabic-speaking monotheistic community founded in the region about a millennium ago. In another twist, many in Majdal Shams consider themselves Syrians. While foreign visitors may miss this nuance, there’s no escaping that Mount Hermon doubles as a military base. Israeli soldiers from the elite alpine unit—dressed in pure white snow suits and armed with white-camouflaged M16s—rub shoulders with skiers. In foggy conditions, the site shuts down, lest a wayward skier inadvertently schuss into enemy territory.
After lunch in Majdal Shams, we settled into our Alpine-style cabin in the equally nearby Jewish village of Neve Ativ. The next morning we rushed to beat traffic to the top of the mountain. The resort encompasses 11 slopes and 27 miles of skiable terrain, but most of the Israeli families come solely to give their children their first-ever experience of snow and aren’t interested in skiing. The majority of them gather around the beginners’ slopes, leaving short or nonexistent lines at most lifts. This season, the resort added a new run with professional-level ramps and rails for jumps and tricks. The run was basically empty when I saw it.
After a full day of spring-style skiing conditions—corny snow, 55 degrees and sunny all day—we headed to one of the buses that ferry visitors to the parking area below the mountain. Lining up to get on the bus was like an extreme sport, with shoving, cutting and yelling. Large families of secular Jews, ultra-Orthodox Jews dressed in all white and black and Arab-speaking Muslims, Christians and Druze—including grandmothers wearing hijabs and long gowns—all crammed into one vehicle. “People come from all the different communities, all the colors, and it’s total chaos,” said Guy Baron, 30, a software engineer who drove from Tel Aviv for his first ski trip. “But at the end of the day, it’s fun,” he said.
THE LOWDOWN / Skiing the Middle East’s Mount Hermon
Getting There: The best way to get to the resort is by car. Mount Hermon is a three-hour drive from both Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, if you don’t hit traffic at the top of the mountain. You could also take one of the busses that leave from Tel Aviv at 5 a.m. daily for $25 one-way or $38 round trip. doronhasaot@gmail.com; 058-449-9807.
Staying There: The Rimonim Hotel in Neve Ativ is a cluster of 36 small Alpine-style wooden cabins. The regular cottages each have a big bed and a small sleeping nook, reachable by ladder, that fits two children. From $160 a night, rimonimhotels.com
Eating There: Majdal Shams, the Druze village, which one must pass through to get to the mountain, has morphed into the resort’s only ski town. It boasts three pubs on the main road to the slopes all serving their own mix of Druze and British pub food—think smoked eggplant and an entrecôte steak—with fresh beer on tap, including Guinness. Al-Yasmeen, a small family-run restaurant in the village, offers expansive lunches, where for $30 a head, you get 12 authentic Druze dishes, including crispy kubbeh, mansaf, red bean soup and fresh salad. 050-217-4291
Skiing There: Mount Hermon is collectively owned by around 30 families who helped establish the site and the nearby Jewish town of Neve Ativ. There are seven red lines for beginners, two blue for intermediate and two black for experts plus one bunny slope for those brand new to the sport. All the best runs, with the most beautiful vistas, are at the back of the mountain. More adventurous skiers could bounce through soft powdery snow down empty off-peak paths. In 2020, the resort is upgrading to closed chairs that will increase the lifts’ speed and capacity. skihermon.co.il
Exploring There: Israel’s oldest medieval fortress, named Nimrod Castle, is a short drive away from Majdal Shams.
Corrections & Amplifications
An earlier version of this article said that it costs about $125 to rent skis, boots and a helmet and $68 a day to buy lift tickets at the Mount Hermon ski resort. It costs about $48 for the equipment and $79 a day for the entrance fee and lift ticket. (February 6, 2019)