American guides new skiers at snow festival in Kurdistan's Choman

CHOMAN, Kurdistan Region — The mountains in Kurdistan offer plenty of choice spots for skiing, although many remain untouched and hard to travel to.

One such mountain range that is accessible is in Choman, northeast of the Kurdistan Regional capital of Erbil.

There, locals learn how to ski under the experience of instructor Ashley Harris who is from the United States.

"We will learn and then we will teach other girls. There is plenty of snow in our country for us to learn this and then ski on it. We will teach other girls too so that they also learn," said Helen, a local youth.

The groups are mixed gender are preparing to enjoy the annual snow festival that begins on January 29.

"We, as the VIK tourism company, just like previous years, we will hold a ski festival. We have some women being trained so they can participate in ski events at this year’s festival," said Karwan Jabbar with VIKurdistan Tourism.

The festival was first held in 1952. It is organized by VIK and Choman's tourism directorate.

Reporting by Bakhtiyar Qadir