Kartalkaya 6 Day Snow Forecast

Tom S from Turkey writes:

Stayed at Golden Keys Hotel for a couple of nights this week. The staff at the hotel are some of the best I've met in far and wide travels through Turkey - I usually don't tip much in hotels but several people deserved it in this case. I guess the hotel is a bit more pricey than the standard hotels at the resort but I'd be happy to pay again for the exclusivity (will do a review on trip advisor soon...)
Having dumped the ute into the free undercover valet parking there was a a shuttle minibus to the slopes, though they are only about 200m away - we never had to wait more than a couple of minutes for the bus when we called it. Reception gives you a choice of lift passes to either the Kartalkaya slopes or the Dorukaya ones. Having only one day to board in the end I hit the Kartalkaya side.
Good snow cover and a foot or more powder on some of the sheltered off-piste areas with only a limited number of other people going off-piste. Terrain is fairly easy going with few steep slopes of any extent. Lift-lines on a Monday were almost non-existent and I managed around 11 runs for about 2400m of descent over around 3hrs.
In the afternoon I was on babysitting while the other-half and our 5yr-old went for a private lesson (their first time on skis). The baby slopes are very limited, maybe about 40m long with some rope-tows and one magic-carpet that is off-bounds unless you are with official instructors from Kartalkaya or Dorykaya. Beware of instructors giving you a per-hour price and then saying their lessons are only 50 minutes - rather disappointed by this after a 220TL charge for a combined lesson for 1 adult and 1 kid.
Ski rental (adult and kids) was easy but beware off fitting the equipment the afternoon before - I think we were charged for 2 days use when we only had the kit out of the rental shop for a single day.

2012-02-22