the Choman Ski Club celebrates backcountry skiing by joining together international skiers with local Iraqi Kurds to regularly ski the Zagros mountains around Choman — the club’s home base. The aim of the ski club is to spread a new sport throughout the area, help attract outside investment for new lifts and routes and offer a new perspective on the region, other than one associated with long-term war. The club’s founding members are Kurds who have been trained by outside professionals in skiing and other mountain sports in the past few years. The club also holds a lending library of ski equipment and offers weekly training sessions.

Near the end of every ski season, the Choman Ski Club puts on the Iraqi Ski Rally to introduce ski touring, as well as attract interest in building ski and snowboard infrastructure in the region. At the end of the annual February ski festival, the Choman Ski Club also puts on its own backcountry race inviting racers of different abilities to climb and ski down Mount Hassarost and participate in a local roast. Lastly, the club sponsors teenagers from the Darashakran Run Club and other refugee camps, busing them in from the Erbil governate to learn snow sports and participate in the event.