Skiing at Sky Resort (UB)

Went skiing two weeks ago at the Sky Ski Resort about 40 minutes from the center of Ulaanbaatar. This was my first time skiing in over eight years and I didn't know what to expect. I was very surprised to find that I hadn't forgotten how. After just a few minutes I felt very comfortable.

Sky resort is pretty nice. I paid only 25,000 tugrugs, about 20 dollars, for three hours of skiing. This included boots, skis, poles and lift tickets (good deal). My friend and I were able to stay out for 4 hours, because no one checked our lift tickets. There are three main skiing slopes at Sky, a baby hill, an intermediate and an advanced.  Not much variety but still a lot of fun. I spent most of my time on the intermediate hill and had one go at the advanced. The best part was I didn't fall! Probably because I was being very cautious.

My only complaint was the temperature. It was absolutely freezing on the mountain, around negative 40 degree Celsius (about -40 F). To illustrate, on my first run down the mountain I didn't wear my face mask and when I got down I had a layer of ice covering may face and an ice sickle running down from my nose. At first I was just wearing jeans and two layers of long johns on my legs, but after just an hour I had to go inside and rent snow pants for 6,000 tugrugs, about 4 dollars. By the end of the four hours my feet and hands were numb, even with two layers of socks, hand warmers and mittens. When I first took off my skii boots my feet were so cold I couldn't move my toes. The process of defrosting was pretty painful and my fingertips were very sensitive for about twelve hours after finally warming up.

After skiing we had lunch in the cafeteria. The cafeteria food was very expensive compared to food in UB, but thankfully my co-worker's wife brought along stuff to make sandwiches. For instance, the hot chocolate was 4,000 tugrugs (3 dollars), which would pay for a whole meal in UB.


In conclusion, even though it was friggin freezing, the trip was still worth it. I had forgotten how fun skiing was and I am really excited to go again when I'm back in the US, somewhere where the temperature is warmer.