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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Cyprus: Mt Olympos

Mark outside the Cyprus Ski Club hut on Mt Olympos
Outside the Cyprus Ski Club hut on a distinctly wintry Mt Olympos

It has to rate as one of the strangest places to find a ski run, but Mt Olympos1, the highest point on Cyprus, boasts not one but four pistes, along with three T-bar ski lifts, a ski school, a shop hiring out skis and boots, a restaurant, and even its very own club, the Cyprus Ski Federation. Nobody comes to Cyprus specifically to ski, but if you're here at the right time of year and fancy a quick slalom in between the island's more traditional sights, it's certainly a unique place in which to strap on the skis.

Snow and trees
It's amazing to think that Cyprus gets snow like this

1 Known before the name change as Mt Olympus, or by its nickname Chionistra, which means 'snow pack' or, more appropriately, 'chilblain'.