I finally made my dream come true, to ski in Mongolia! I had dreamed about this for fifteen years... then I landed on the Chinggis Khaan International Airport, and there I was... Mongolia's only ski resort, Sky Resort was waiting for me just outside the capital, Ulaanbaatar. Just a tiny issue, that it was very cold, up to -36 during nights, though now only a balmier -24 during the day. But I headed to the ski resort, and it was wonderful!
Here's a video of my visit:
The ski resort: Clear views, excellent, smoothly groomed slopes, empty slopes, and a nice warm lodge that came in handy after every few runs. There were essentially two main slopes from the top, and one from the lower side lift.
While it can be very cold in Mongolia, at least for now there wasn't huge amount of natural snow on the mountains, just enough to ski carefully, but not loads of it. I skied a bit on the sides of the main slopes with beautiful snow-covered trees and I managed to find some spots of skiable powder. On the slopes man-made snow made them perfect, but no fresh snow of course.
The lodge had a nicer design that most western ski resorts, I guess due to the cold weather -- everything was under one roof in a large warehouse-style setting: the ticket sales, rentals, cafeteria, shop, bathrooms, etc. And an open area in the middle. No waiting outside for the ticket line or walking between buildings. We should use this design more elsewhere, too, even when it is not extremely cold this can be quite nice, creates a community feeling.
The lodge had a surprisingly nice food setup, funnily enough they offered very international food: there was a booth for European, Mongolian, Korean, and Japanese food.
Lift tickets were only on sale for 3 hours at a time, so I actually got two to cover my day. The ticket price was 45 000 local for the 3 hour ticket, which is about 13€. Very affordable.
Mongolian Airlines flies from at least Frankfurt couple of times a week, sometimes at amazingly low prices of around 500€ for a roundtrip. I didn't manage to arrange those flights to fit my schedule, so had to fly Turkish Airlines via Istanbul for about 1000€ (including the expensive ski bag fares), but that experience was quite pleasant and efficient. They have proper warm meals even on intra-European legs.
In Mongolia it is good to have a driver, could have had one from the hotel I guess but managed to find a private guide, Dalai who also transported me to and from the airport, took me to the ski resort, made sure I was able to buy my tickets, took me caving, etc. Much recommended. Ask me for contact if you're interested.
Amazingly, only 300.000 tourists find Mongolia per year. That's very few, considering the vast country and the natural beauty. Even for skiing there'd be more than this resort, if you go to the most mountainous areas of the country you can find your own skiing on expeditions. But much larger crowds of tourists would probably enjoy the Gobi desert tours, The Chinggis Khaan statue visits, or most importantly, the horse riding tours on vast empty grass areas of the country. Or the visits to the traditional tents that even 60% of the capital population still lives in.
Much recommended for everyone to visit here, not just in the Sky Resort ski area, but the country!
The home page of the resort is here. Wikipedia also has a bit of information here.
Other articles from my trip to Mongolia include the one about caving, Mongolian caves, mine exploration, and swimming.
More photos below. First the arrival:
Then the views in the country and the city:
Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.
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