The Dilli: Kashmir Part 2

I woke up with the sun on morning one in Gulmarg. Outside there was fresh snow on the ground and I was rearing to go. After breakfast, the motley crew of us from Delhi headed out to meet a man named Yaseem at his shop, the "Kashmir Alpine Ski Center."

Yaseem is a wily, tall chap with a couple teeth missing from his big, suspicious smile. His claim to fame is that he has been renting ski equipment in Gulmarg from the same shop for more than 30 years. No doubt business was rough for the last twenty and now that the fighting in the region has stopped and tourists are returning, his enterprise should finally have a chance to come back to its former glory. The Kashmir Alpine Ski Center is, no doubt, nothing more than a one-room shack attached to a sort of mini-mart cum Hookah bar. There is a slew of rental equipment ranging from this year's top-of-line (mostly left by visiting pro teams is my guess) to 1970s throwbacks, (in addition to boots and boards/skis there are also 80s ultra-neon one-piece powder suits on rent. they are awesome).

I got my hands on the board I wanted and was pretty happy. After a big hearty breakfast of beans and buttery fried eggs back at our lodge, we met our guides for the day and headed to the Gondola.

The Gondola to the top of the mountain is in two phases, the lower phase takes you to a place called Kongdon, at around 11,000 feet above see level. At Kongdon you have to get off the gondola, take a few steps forward and get right onto the next phase of the gondola that takes you up to a landing just below 14,000 ft, a few hundred feet from the summit of Apharwat Mountain.

For the next three days we had several spectacular runs. The first day I spent most of the day with come Brits who were in Gulmarg for the season. We ended up riding most of the day below the range of the lift. Hiring jeeps in town to drop us at the top of long runs and then picking us up where the road crossed the mountain again several thousand feet below. This was true backcountry skiing, never seeing another track the whole day. The terrain was outstanding with sustained steep pitches all the way down the mountain and some runs lasting almost an hour. Also lots of big rock outcroppings to hurl yourself off and great snow conditions. Then of course at the bottom of the run it was always fun to pile into one of the Tata Jeeps, pump up the volume on the Bollywood hits and go careening around the mountain roads to the next drop point.

Another real highlight about this setup was riding down into small hill towns, military encampments, and deserted summer-time shepherd camps. Not exactly the type of terrain I am used to having snowboarded at US resort mountains my whole life. One highlight was the ride to the Babarishi Sufi temple. A beautiful Muslim mystical religious temple in the mountains. Sightseeing on snowboard is pretty much as good as it gets...

The nights in Gulmarg were a blast too. Most of the people up there are pretty hardcore skier/riders. Lounging/partying with pro skiers, a film crew, guys living in Gulmarg for the season, a bunch of vodka guzzling Russian tourists and lots of fun-loving and friendly Kashmiris was great times.

Entering Gulmarg Town. +funny indian tourists on sleds