Skiing in the Himalayas! That’s right, the Himalayas! In January of this year I was asked to join a crew of people to go and ski in the Himalayas for 2 weeks. Now I’ve been skiing for most of my life , in various places around the world in both the northern and southern hemispheres but until recently knew very little about this remote part of the skiing world. In the end it was a no-brainer really, after thinking over it for about 1 1/5 seconds I started planning my trip to India. I met the crew in Delhi and we took a short but ridiculously stunning flight up to the northern Indian city of Srinagar with the Himalayas rising up in the distance to great us. When we got there we were met by our “man on the ground” Bashir. or as we called him “The Bash” He was a friendly chap with all the right answers you could possibly need in place like this. Our trip up into the mountains was a cozy one, we were packed into a couple of 4WD’s and took to the crowded roads of Kashmir. Driving in the mountains anywhere is never boring but doing this while sharing the road with Donkeys, Cattle, Mopeds, Horse and Carts, Buses, Cars, stray dogs and basically any and everything else you could imagine, is quite an experience. One thing is for sure my fatigue from jetlag was quickly gone. 1 ¼ hrs later we had wound our way into the mountains and onto the pretty plateau and the town of Gulmarg.
Gulmarg is not like any ski town you have ever seen in your life, on the plateau there are 3 tow ropes that cater to hundreds of local skiers and local tourists, it also holds an army base, open air market place and throngs of people that will tow you around anywhere you want on a toboggan. I kid you not it was one the most contrasting scenes I have ever have witnessed and above all of this mayhem rose the giant Mt Apharwat.
Our hotel was near the base of the Mountain and close to the Gondola which rose to an impressive 13055ft. Our hotel was surprisingly comfortable, hot water, central heating, WiFi, cable TV and staff that were at your beck and call. By all accounts we were in one of the better hotels in town, heck we even had a pool table, 1 of 3 in the province of Kashmir according to our attentive hotel manager.
Morning came and it was finally time to ski, to say we were pent up is a slight understatement so after our hearty eggs and porridge we were off. The gondola takes you up a total of 4,500ft of vertical and drops you on the shoulder of Mt Apharwat from where you have unbelievable amount of terrain at your disposal.
Our first run after a short hike of 10 minutes had us drop 5000 vertical feet of thigh deep un-tracked powder, for those of you that have skied a bit before, enough said!! Game on, we were like kids in a candy shop. The enormity of the area you cover and length of runs means that if you manage 4 runs in a day, you’ve had a big day. Shark Fin Peak, Drang Bowls (1 through 6), Sheenmai Bowl, Hagat Khued Bowl, and Trajan Bowl plus much more all ran off the shoulders of Mt Apharwat making you wonder how on earth this place is not in the forethought of every skier in the world.
If the skiing wasn’t enough Gulmarg is also about the randomly cool things that come with visiting a place like this- where in the world can you ski up to a Army Base on a ridge in the Himalayas, talk cricket with the soldiers, take your skis off and get photos holding your ski’s like guns to make a Charlie’s Angels posse with the soldiers then ski off the back of the base and have your way with 5000 vertical feet of fresh powder? I mean that’s flat out cool.
Another day had us ski a full 6 miles off the top ridge-line, down through the valleys and into the town of Drang where we were met by the local kids who hopped onto the back of our skis cruise through town streets.
Simply put this is not your normal ski destination; it is a culturally, intrepid trip that also happens to have some of the best powder skiing in the world. If you have an interest in travelling to fascinating parts of the world, are an avid skier, want to meet people from all walks of life and have an adventurous soul then this is something you must experience. I could go on for hours but for full details about this trip and others like it, get in touch with Tim and the team at [email protected]
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