My mind reeled at the enormity of the snowy vista in front of me – 6000 vertical feet of untracked powder slopes below my ski tips with a group of 28,000ft peaks clearly visible in the distance above the hazy valley of Kashmir. I was in heaven on Earth!
“How would you like to come skiing with us for two weeks in the Kashmir Himalaya?” asked Verbier guide John Falkiner. What could I say? There are some invitations you cannot decline. There was only one thing to say: “Where and when?”
“Gulmarg Ski Resort, Kashmir, India – the highest gondola in the world. January and February are the powder months, and it really dumps, dropping 6-9ft with each snowfall. There are fine, windless days and blue skies for weeks after each storm, and at that altitude the snow just gets drier every night.
“There aren’t many foreigners – about 100 in the entire resort. A mix of Russian snowboarders, Italians, French, Germans, Swiss, Austrians and Israelis, plus lots of Aussies and Kiwis getting their off-season powder fix!”
I was in. But I wondered what the Kashmiri people were like and the political situation. Falkiner had all the answers.
“Look, mate, we’re going powder hunting – who gives a stuff about the political situation. But it’s cool. The Kashmiris are warm and friendly mountain people, farming in the summer and buried under snow in the winter. In the spring they can tend their cherry and apple trees or move up to their high altitude summer pastures right were we’ll be skiing.”
“Of course there will be lots of Indian tourists riding the gondola for family photos in the snow, and maybe they will take a ski lesson with a local instructor, but the big mountain free-riding, and off pisté touring is all left to foreigners like us.”
I was curious to know if there was any ski patrol…
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Article courtesy of Snow Centre NZ.