War-weary Afghan youth turn to snowboarding for thrills

KABUL, Afghanistan — Aspen! Zermatt! Kabul?

While Afghanistan’s capital may seem an unlikely destination for snowboarders, a group of young Afghans is looking to put the city on the winter sports map and change perceptions about their war-weary nation.

Kabul is better known for its hulking concrete blast walls and tense security checkpoints. But it also sits in a valley in the Hindu Kush mountains at an elevation of around 5,900 feet. The rugged terrain has inspired young Afghans to take to the surrounding mountains in search of fun.

Ahmad Romal Hayat, 22, who founded the Afghanistan Snowboarding Federation, said that even a country plagued by war and sectarian conflict can have room for sports.

“We started doing it (snowboarding) to show this new face to theworld,” saidHayat.

As a teenager, he started out on a skateboard. Later, he bought a snowboard in neighboring Iran and taught himself how to ride it. Hayat said he’s the first person to bring a snowboard into Afghanistan, and the first to try it there.

These days, he and a handful of federationmembers hit the slopes outside Kabul each weekend, usually with around a dozen male and female students and plenty of spectators. They come for the free training on a snowy hillside west of the capital, often shrouded in pale gray mist.

The mountain, knownas Kohe Koregh, was used by the Afghan mujaheddin, or holy warriors, to rain artillery and rockets down on Kabul during the Afghan civilwar in the 1990s.

Now, it’s a place for laughing kids who sled on plastic bags, while Hayat’s team members work on improving their snowboarding skills on about 2 feet of snow.

They still have to share snowboards, and the hill has no lift facility. That means they’ve got to hike back up to the top after each run— a tiring process.

While climbing back up the hill, Karim Faizi described his path to becoming a snowboarding instructor. He fled Afghanistan in 2016 to escape the almost two-decade-old war between the U.S. and Taliban militants.

He ended up seeking asylum in Germany where he fell in love with snowboarding. In 2018, he returned to Afghanistan, sayinghedid so without awaiting a final decision on his asylum case.

Nowhe isworried about the future.

“If the Taliban come back, it’ll be impossible to keep snowboarding, because the Taliban are not sports- friendly people. They want neither peace nor sports,” he said. A few sports, like soccer and wrestling, were allowed during the Taliban’s harsh religious rule from 1996 to 2001.

The country’s post-war future and the role of the Taliban remains unclear. The Taliban currently control or hold sway over around half the country.

Right now, the only places with enough security to offer winter sports activities are in Kabul and the central province of Bamiyan. Hayat said skiers and snowboarders haven’t been able to explore mountains with great potential in Ghazni and Wardak provinces southwest of the capital because the Taliban hold those areas.

Bamiyan also hosts a skiing competition each year.