Sarıkamış: Crystal Snow and Pine Forest

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1. What is Sarıkamış?
2. How do you get to Sarıkamış?
3. When is the best time to visit Sarıkamış?
4. What is the history of Sarıkamış?
5. What is Sarıkamış famous for?
6. What can you do at Sarıkamış?
7. Frequently asked questions about Sarıkamış
8. What do the official records say about Sarıkamış?

What is Sarıkamış?

Sarıkamış is a district town in Kars province, set at around 2,100 m among forests of Scots pine (sarıçam), rare on the bare eastern plateau. It is known for two things: the ski slopes of Cıbıltepe, whose dry powder snow is described locally as crystal snow, and the Battle of Sarıkamış of 1914–1915, one of the most tragic episodes of the First World War on the Caucasus front.

The town also keeps traces of the Russian period, when it was a garrison and a railhead, including the timber hunting lodge known as the Katerina Köşkü.

How do you get to Sarıkamış?

Sarıkamış is about 55–60 km southwest of Kars on the main road to Erzurum, roughly an hour by car. Minibuses run from Kars, and the Eastern Express from Ankara calls at Sarıkamış station before reaching Kars.

The nearest airport is Kars Harakani; the 2002 inventory gives the ski centre as about 50 km from Kars airport (40 minutes) and 90 minutes from Erzurum airport. The Cıbıltepe slopes are about 2 km from the town centre.

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When is the best time to visit Sarıkamış?

For skiing, go between late December and March; the inventory gives 20 December to 20 March as the best period, and in good years the season runs on into spring. January weekends and the school mid-term break are the busiest times.

In summer the forest is green and cool, good for walking and for visiting the national park. The battle is commemorated every January with a march in the Allahuekber Mountains.

What is the history of Sarıkamış?

Sarıkamış came under Russian rule with Kars in 1878 and became an important garrison town and the end of the railway from Kars and Alexandropol (Gyumri). The Katerina hunting lodge was built in 1896 as a winter hunting lodge for the family of Tsar Nicholas II.

From 22 December 1914 to 17 January 1915 the Ottoman Third Army under Enver Pasha attacked the Russian forces around the town, crossing the Allahuekber Mountains in deep snow. The offensive ended in a decisive Russian victory. Estimates of Ottoman losses vary widely, but tens of thousands of soldiers died, most of them from cold, frostbite and disease rather than in combat. The Sarıkamış–Allahuekber Mountains National Park was declared on 19 October 2004 to protect the battlefield landscape.

What is Sarıkamış famous for?

• Skiing in a pine forest on dry, light snow.
• The Sarıkamış campaign and its commemorations. Enver Pasha’s plan sent whole corps across the Allahuekber Mountains in midwinter without adequate winter clothing or supplies, and the loss of so many soldiers to the cold made Sarıkamış a byword in Türkiye for sacrifice and for the cost of poor planning.
• The Katerina hunting lodge, built of interlocking timber without nails.
• Horse-drawn sleighs, which carry visitors through the snow at Cıbıltepe in winter.

What can you do at Sarıkamış?

Ski or snowboard at Cıbıltepe. The inventory places the ski area between 2,100 and 2,634 m on Çamurlu Dağı, in Scots pine forest, and notes that snow in a normal winter is around 1.5 m deep. A 2018 report listed nine runs between 1.7 and 3.2 km long, winding through the trees and served by chairlifts, with no avalanche risk on the slopes. Ski hire and instruction are available at the hotels at the foot of the slopes, and floodlit night skiing has been offered in recent seasons.

Take a sleigh ride. Drivers with horse-drawn sleighs wait near the slopes in winter.

See the Katerina Köşkü. The lodge, built in 1896, has a stone foundation and cut-stone entrance, and walls of pine beams fitted together without a single nail. It is a registered historic building; check locally whether the interior is open.

Visit the national park and memorials. The Allahuekber Mountains National Park covers 22,519 ha at an average height of 2,300 m. Memorials to the soldiers of 1914–1915 stand in and around the town, and the annual commemorative walk in January draws thousands.

Walk in the forest. The inventory notes areas suitable for mountain and nature walking, and Soğuksu Nature Park, about 3 km southeast of the town, has been protected since 2011. Susuz Lake is listed for sport fishing.

Frequently asked questions about Sarıkamış

What do the official records say about Sarıkamış?

Cıbıltepe, at 2,500 m altitude with runs in five stages totalling 12 kilometres among the pines, has magnificent natural beauty. That Cıbıltepe is covered with crystal snow makes it all the more attractive to skiers. Set among the pines, Sarıkamış Ski Centre has gained importance for the quality of its snow.

The ski area lies between 2,100 and 2,634 metres, within Scots pine forests. Snow, around 1.5 metres in normal winter conditions, is very suitable for skiing and shows the crystal-snow character found only in the Alps. The best time for skiing in Sarıkamış is between 20 December and 20 March. Sarıkamış and its surroundings have very suitable conditions for Alpine and Nordic disciplines and for ski touring. (Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Kars Provincial Tourism Inventory, 2002)