When visiting somewhere exotic, it’s not always the bizarre that has the
most impact. It’s finding the ordinary among the outlandish. In some ways a
place can seem vastly unfamiliar, and each person’s experiences will paint
their own unique picture. But some things are universal, be it in the
Midwest or the Middle East. Snow is one of those things.

In Iran, that frigid white medium has united the country’s first Ford
Mustang owner, a one-legged, sheepherding Olympian, and Instagramming
teenagers on purple-painted chairlifts. It has connected the country’s
massive, unexplored mountains to techno parties in downtown Tehran. It has
linked ski punks and ski patrollers and wandering tourists, bringing them
together to carve down midnight slopes, carrying torches to celebrate the
anniversary of the country’s revolution…

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