From Gulmarg to Padum, here’s your guide to skiing in India. We tell you how to start

With an increasing number of hobby and serious skiers hitting the slopes along the Himalayas, the skiing scene in India is hotting up

In the cold winter mornings, when most of Gulmarg is fast asleep under layers of thick, cosy blankets, Amit Kapoor slips into his skiing gear and zips down the powdery slopes of the Apharwat Peak. The temperature, -2 degrees Celsius — hardly deters him. A pilot by profession, Amit spends 45 days a year skiing. A love for mountains and snow led him to this sport. “I started learning skiing in 2015. I first trained with Mehmood Ahmad Lone at Gulmarg Adventure Academy, then did some lessons in St Moritz, Switzerland,” says Amit.

Adding that it is therapeutic, he says that the surroundings are so surreal, that he does not feel tired even after hours of skiing. It has also introduced him to a lot of interesting people and together they set off on snowy adventures across the globe right from New Zealand to Antarctica. “And I have introduced around 200 other pilots to this sport,” he says. All of them are students of Mehmood who has been training novice and advanced skiiers since 2015. 

Mehmood started the Gulmarg Adventure Academy with the intention of making skiing everyone’s cup of tea. “A lot of Indians wanted to train in Germany and Austria but couldn’t afford it. One day of skiing costs around ₹35,000-40,000 abroad. Here, it is ₹3,000 to ₹12,000 per day depending on the certification (local, national, international) of the trainer,” says Mehmood who trained in Salzburg, Austria and was the national coach for winter sports in India in 2017.

He has taught 7,000 students so far, some as young as four. However, most are in the 10-40 age category. Every ski season — usually from January to March — Mehmood’s academy trains 1,600 people. “Anyone can ski. You need to have strong leg muscles because the ski shoes weigh around five kilograms. That locks your ankles. So to take a step you have to move the entire leg. But in two days this feels normal,” he laughs.  

The academy offers basic, intermediate, and advanced courses. For beginners it takes anywhere around four to 15 days to learn the skills.

Gulmarg has 11 ski slopes and all packed with skiers — an indication of how popular this activity has become over the years. “We also have one of the world’s highest gondola rides that goes up to 14,000 feet above sea level, up to Apharwat Peak,” says Mehmood who has just launched another ski school in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

Previously a hobby limited to foreigners primarily, skiing over the last few years has piqued the interest of the Indian traveller. Ajay Bhatt who runs the Auli Ski And Snowboard School in Auli, Uttarakhand, says he used to earlier get a majority of foreign nationals and only a handful of Indians. But of late, 80% of his skiers are from India. “It’s a dream for many to ski in the Himalayas.”