Gulmarg: snow leaopards, Monkeys and Chaos in Kashmir!k

Hiking to ride an un-touched peak in Gulmarg, Kashmir.

Gulmarg is located in Kashmir a couple of hours flight North of the Chaotic city of Delhi. Surrounded by Pakistan and Afganistan, it is at the moment not high on the British embassy’s list of stable places to visit and on leaving the airport at Srinagar it takes all of 5 minutes before we hit our first checkpoint and have high velocity machine guns pointed at us by non to friendly looking youths hidden under face masks. Our nervous looking driver assures us these guys are working with the local police but it doesn’t seem like the best time to ask for a quick photo, “with me holding your gun yeah?”

Gulmarg is a small ski station consisting of one gondola style lift, ‘A masterpiece of French engineering’ bought from Courchevel in the early 1800’s and badly reconstructed, maintained and operated here in the foothills of the Himalaya. The lift takes you up in 2 stages, the first from the base at around 2600m to around 3100m, the 2^nd stage from 3100m to 3900m from where you can either ride straight down or hike out along the ridge up or down to access some really amazing terrain with an assortment of small peaks, couloirs and huge open faces taking you back to the lift or into the valley behind.

Kashmir makes Delhi seem very organized and normal and seems to run on a state of eternal chaos for which on the most part there seems to be no apparent reason. Life here is a mix of old and new, poor and less poor with snatches of modern technology such as mobile phones and cars thrown into the mix. Its not unusual to see a horse and cart coming the wrong way down the wrong side of the ‘dual carriage way’ in the fast lane sometimes being over taken, again in the wrong direction, by a motorbike with three up. The dual carriage way is then reduced to one lane as it winds around a temporary looking wooden shack and now everyone is on the same side weaving in and out of each other whilst the other lane that has started again after the shack but is inaccessible remains empty and a good site for a spot of cricket! Imagine roads with no rules, a kind of free for all and of course everyone driving is on their mobile phone and trying to pass everyone else and honking their horn. The busses are over full with people on the roof and hanging of the sides, think chaos and you’re almost there. Now cover or fill it all up with a thick dirty smog, line thousands of soldiers up either side of the road and you’re right on track!!

Gulmarg is reputed to be the ‘Powder capital of the World’ but unfortunately for us we hit its worst season for 15 years. A meter of snow in November and things were looking good, unfortunately since this first snow the region has been suffering from a state of drought and hasn’t received another snowflake. The mountain village of Tanmarg, which you can normally ride too through steep forests, is dry and very spring like and the forests themselves are host to a deep smooth blanket of pine needles instead of snow. As we head up the winding mountain road we slowly come across the snow line and get our first look at the peaks above, that from the village in Gulmarg look stunning and perfectly covered in deep fresh snow.

Our accommodation has a very colonial feel, the Highland Park Hotel. A grand old wooden building with a bar/tea room that recommend that non residents should not carry guns when inside. Wooden cabins heated by wood burners and each serviced by its own fire stoker and tea boy provide our amply comfortable lodgings.

Life in Gulmarg passes at a relaxed rate, the lower lift grinds into action at around 10am. You squeeze into the small ‘egg’ shaped cabin that is not really designed for modern skis or boards and immediately on leaving the building pass over the remains of 3 squashed cabins that didn’t quite make the transition on to the cable for the first stage of the journey.

The 2^nd stage of the lift either could be open soon or could be open later. Who’s to know but relax and wait and enjoy the view, you are now in Jammu and Kashmir ‘The paradise on earth’ as it proudly proclaims everywhere.

The 2^nd lift stage takes you up to the ridge line of the mountain at around 3900m. from here you can ride straight back down, traverse down the ridge and drop into one of the numerous gullies and Couloirs or hike up the ridge to the summit for more of the same. With good snow you can immediately see why this place would have such a big reputation, the terrain looks amazing and easily accessible.

For our first run I decide to traverse down the ridge a little and then drop in to a huge wide gully with numerous faces leading in to it. It looks great, perfect angle, aspect and length with not too many tracks in it. We drop in and everything goes horribly wrong!

Having not snowed for so long and with cold temperatures the snow pack has completely crystallised into a perfect grainy sugar snow. In places this offers perfect powder style riding which is great but its just a little thin and so hidden rocks are immediately a big concern. The old tracks of which there are many on the easier to get too slopes have set and are as solid as iron bars and the wind has formed a thick crust on much of the snow pack. A soft turn, an iron bar then some wind crust, another soft turn, bang across another track, hit the crust etc. The gully itself after riding the face offers little relief with icy avalanche debris and changeable snow. Nice!

Powder capital of the World, my arse!

We make it back to the mid station a little disappointed to say the least, in no rush to regain the upper ridge again and still with 6 days of riding to go! We stop off at a small tea shack where the host, a local man named Sophie offers us both tea and hashish, both of which sound favourable as we sit and contemplate our next move.

Instead of getting blown out of our minds on Sophies offer of a cheap brick of the local hash we head back up again in search of a better line and hike up to the top peak at just under 4200m. From the summit we surveyed the local area in search of possibilities and cast our eyes on the amazing terrain down the other side of the mountain and the neighbouring peaks. These peaks remain relatively unexplored due to the fact that normally there’s enough possibility right off the lift on the other side of the ridge, but with the current conditions we could immediately see that this was where our riding was going to have to take place and formulated a plan and itinerary for the following day. We headed back to the hotel via another very interesting descent, only slightly less terrible than the first.

With snowshoes and BC kit the next morning we headed back up the lower lift at around 10am and waited for the upper lift to run which got us to the start of our hike for about midday. We headed up to the first summit, traversed out along a ridge to another summit named the Shark fin and branched off again to a third summit high above a massive untracked field of crystal powder snow of about 800m in length.

Pete getting some fresh turns at the expense of a couple of hikes through the Himalayas.

A step into the unknown and off we went, great turns for all and the week is suddenly looking up as we scan for further possibilities for the coming days. A second hike out back up to the ridge and another terrible run home finish off the day but we now know that the riding is out there if you are prepared to put in the effort and have a new plan for the following day.

Another hike and another powder face fully tracked out in the background.

We spend most of the week hiking out at around 4200m to access various fields of smooth crystallised powder from untouched peaks behind the main ski area. Big days, long hikes and over to soon descents but good turns and amazing views save the days.

Nanga Parbat fills the skyline!

The Himalaya crown the skyline with the 8126m peak of Nanga Parbatt, the ninth highest peak in the world, the jewel in the crown.

We finish the trip with a stay on one of the world famous house boats on the beautiful Dal lake in Srinagar which is great fun and highly recommended.

So an eventful trip with many memorable experiences and sights. Monkeys hang out around the hotel, we see flocks of a thousand eagles scavenging the markets in Srinagar, hungry packs of dogs roaming through the towns, cows and donkeys walking down the city streets, black and white kingfishers on Dal lake and top of the tree, a rare sighting of a beautiful Snow leopard which just happens to walk across the road in front of our taxi as we wind our way up the road back to Gulmarg one evening after a day trip away. This only moments after asking the driver what animals we might see and him mentioning Mountain lions and Snow leopards both of which you would have thought you’d have zero chance of coming across!

Not the powder extravaganza that I’d been hoping for but a great trip all the same which no doubt offers massive potential for future trips. Will I go back? I think so, I think the potential is amazing and the experience is definitely unique and worth the while. Kashmir isn’t the most stable place on earth right now so we’ll have to see how things develop but the chaos is kind of charming and if this year is a one off and the snows now come I’ll definitely be running another trip back out there at some point in the not to distant future!

Winners! great snow in Courmayeur!

I think this shot sums up our day nicely, Mark nears the top of the short hike up to access the variant on our Dolonne descent.

We won the golden ticket today, the prize an amazing days Off piste riding in Courmayeur under endless blue skies!

A couple of big runs off the Arp, the 1st down into the Val Veni, the 2nd down the Dolonne. The Snow was super cold, light and mainly untracked. The top Val Veni bowl had maybe a dozen tracks in it. the Bowl is about 800m wide so a dozen tracks means plenty of fresh left for all, especially as they were ski tracks and so had obviously all taken the same line and stayed real close together. Big Grins and that was only the very start of the run which was pretty good fun all the way down.

After the compulsory Pizza lunch we headed back up for a quick one down the Dolonne, again off the Arp. Again we had freshies most of the way taking a slight variant at the top with a small hike up to access a steeper and more direct entry to the first bowl. Good snow all the way to the valley, a good long run from the top of the mountain right down to Courmayeur, unbeatable!

Tomorrow we're off up the Grands Montets for some top ticket action and a big descent of the Chamonix classic, Pas du Chervre. The snow off the top is very nice but the glaciers are really open still with massive crevasses everywhere so I wouldn't rush to get out to far just yet. the extra dry summer melted off the perma snow this year and so it'll be some time before there's enough new snow to cover them over and create solid snow bridges. Give it some time!

I'm off to Kashmir in a couple of days, Ruth will be manning the office and holding the fort. I've just updated the courses availability page, most courses are full and the ones with spaces on have mostly only one place left available. We have a new availability on the first Adv BC course (1 to 3 ratio) after a cancellation. This should be a good week of riding, with the smaller ratio we can do some good riding and I'd like to get in some of the classics such as the Cosmique couloir, the South face of the Entreves and if its in condition the Breche Puisseaux in the Periades. Give us a call if you fancy some of that.

I've a few interesting projects in mind for next season, one which you might want to start thinking about is a trip to Krasnaya Polyiana, Russia (where we used to go frequently as a heli trip). KP is going to be hosting the Olympics in 2012 and so has had some major development going on and as such the resort is a lot more extensive now and worth a visit in its own right, there's some amazing freeriding there right off the lifts. Throw in the option of a couple of days heli if the conditions are good and I think this might be worth while a re-visit. Sound interesting? Let us know what you think.

Think also Gulmarg again (already a list of suspects building for this one!) and Greenland, expeditions style! 2011 is already sounding good and 2010 has only just kicked off. great, loads of riding to get on with and exciting trips to plan!

Big day planned for tomorrow so I'm off!

All is good,

Neil.

Off piste paradise!

Ben and Dave hiking an unnamed peak in Greenland. I'll be running another BC explorer trip to Greenland next winter! Check out the frozen sea in the background.

No rest for the wicked and its pretty wicked out there at the moment, cold conditions have kept the snow fresh and light and after a 6 day tech clinic I'm now straight into a 3 day Off piste clinic.

The guys on the course last week came on great, I showed them some video from the first day and then we looked at the riding video from the last day and the changes where pretty amazing. All can now go and work on the techniques we covered and their progression will simply continue for as long as they continue to ride! 3 of the group will be back before long for other courses with Rob and Sara joining me for a BC Intro in a few weeks time and Steve joining me on a 6 day Off Piste clinic. Steve has already done both the Tech clinic and the Off piste clinic before but I think this time through he is getting a lot more from it as he's now working at a really high level and it'll be good to see his progression on the Off piste clinic later this season. By the end of the week I was pretty impressed with everyone's progression, Leo and Andy were completely different riders by the end of the week, its great to see and makes running these Tech clinics really rewarding.

Today we headed up to Le Tour for the first of the 3 day Off piste clinic. We started with a few runs for warm up and worked through the science behind good snowboard technique looking at the control of line and speed which is essential for Off piste riding. We then looked at the mechanics of board design and how to turn the board by design rather than force, finishing with looking at the bio mechanics of the stance in order for us to be able to apply pressure to the right points on the board at the right moment and the right amount in order to make it turn for us rather than us having to rotate and turn it. A lot to fit in only a mornings session but its only a 3 day course and the Off piste was beckoning!

We then went on to Transceiver and Avalanche search and rescue training before lunch with single and multiple burial scenarios.

We followed this up with a great descent of the Possettes Couloir in the afternoon, great snow and some nice turns for all!

Tomorrow I'm thinking we'll go through to Courmayeur for some big Off piste runs off the Youla, should be good, I've not been off the top there yet this season and it looks pretty nice.

I'm only a few days away from my Kashmir trip to Gulmarg so I hope the airports are open so that we can all get there!

All is good!

Neil.

Fun in the sun!

Fresh lines for Al and Ewan down the periades, Valley Blanche (BC Freeride)

Its finally cleared over here and we've had a good few days of riding great snow under blue skies.

The Tech clinic team are coming on strong, lots of progress, a completely different level from when we started only 4 days ago. Today we headed over to Courmayeur where the pistes were in perfect condition for working on opposing pressure as a preparation for steering and all the team started to click.

In the afternoon we rode accessed one of the steep off piste descents off the Arp lift and rode some pretty nice snow back down to the resort. The run right down to the car park at the Val Veni lift is in great condition and is great fun at the end of the day and we also watched a Barbu fly over (a bearded Vulture with 3meter wingspan!) on our final descent.

Grands Montets tomorrow where they're planning on opening the top tickets lift for the first time this season. Could be good but were also due a bit of snow 20cm to 1000m so either way were on a winner, great, things are setting up nicely for next weeks 3 day Off Piste clinic!

I have a friend (Guide) who is running a trip to Kamchatka heli boarding 26th March to 4th April and he has 2 places available. I'm personally not running this trip until next season so if anyone needs a big heli fix this year and can't wait until 2011 let us know and we'll pass on your details.

My Kashmir BC adventure is looming and I'm really looking forward to it, only a week to go! We have already started a list of riders for this trip next year so if you'd like to join a 2011 Gulmarg trip get in touch with Ruth in the office.

Enough news for now, I'll finish with another testimonial from last week.

Our mission is to inspire and we're inspired!

Neil.

Hi Neil & Ruth

Thanks for organizing another excellent course last week.

It was great to sort out some bad habits and I feel enthusiastic again
about progressing with my riding.

Regards
Simon

Powder days, powder haze!

Lee hiking out of the Dream forest on Saturday, epic!

Lots of snow to start the New Year with about 50cm here in the valley yesterday (Monday) and lots up top.

I'm running a 6 day Tech clinic this week with some strong contenders including 2 seasoned seasonaires (Rob and Sara with lots of experience), Steve who has already done the full line up of courses including Kamchatka and is now back at the start (but working on perfecting high end technique) plus Andy and Leo out on holiday to get their fill and another Sarah, who unfortunately has had to drop out after day 1 due to a sore leg that she got whilst warming up the day before we started!

We've been running through the Science behind good snowboard technique, looking at how the board works, pressure movements and the bio mechanics of the stance and then of course control of line and speed.

Things started to pull together today, its been interesting to see how those with the most experience sometimes have the most to work on, you have to get rid of bad habits and ingrained bad technique whilst also changing the way they look at and ride the mountain before things can change and progress. There also has to be a reason or an incentive for change. If you've worked your way up to a good effective standard with home made technique so to speak, its sometimes hard to take the time to step back and re build everything from scratch. As the terrain and the tasks get harder though its not hard to see the benefits of working with your board and the mountain rather than fighting against it and things begin to progress.

A good analogy I guess would be to look at a Golf Professional. When a Golf pro makes a change to their swing they have to drop out and rebuild everything from scratch over many months and in a way this is what you have to do if you want to ride with perfect technique or build up the progression towards great and effective technique after riding from the upper body and not with the feet for years and years.

Sara and Rob are kind of in this category but have made great changes today and after a period where they felt to be back tracking they are now fully on the progression in search of the perfect ride. Their experience will also now begin to work for them but they'll need to be strict so as not to slip back. Mostly they need to change how they look at and ride the mountain and the rest will follow out of necessity.

Leo and Andy have less experience and less bad habits and so its almost easier for them to make the changes. Steve has done the Tech clinic and Off piste clinic before so of course rides real nice and is working on being more dynamic. All of them have had to completely re-learn how to look at and ride the mountain, its amazing how many people don't actually turn their board enough to control their speed without reducing to rotation and skidding.

It's great to see the new changes taking place and performances improving and its always interesting to see how far on we'll get by the end of the week.

Ruth is busy in the office, all seems to be good so far. The late season courses are now rapidly filling up. We've had a couple of cancellations so keep in touch and get your name down on the list if you're after a space on one of the courses.

The New Tees are on the goodies page on the McNab Snowboarding site, if you're coming out on a course you'll get one when you get out here but if you want to buy one just fill in the online order form.

A bit of feedback from last weeks 3 day Tech clinic follows, feel free to write in with any queries and we'll do our beat to answer them.

Neil.

Testimonials:

"Hi Ruth
Really enjoyed it thank you.
Will be back and would recommend the course to anyone.
I was practicing on the Thurs and Friday and really got it and it was amazing watching the hundreds of riders on the slopes doing it wrong!! There were only a few that must have been "McNabbed" and were doing it right!
Thanks again.
Cheers
Ken.


"Many happy returns Ruth!
I had a great time last week-hope to be back soon!
Cheers,
Rory"

Happy New Year! The start of a new era!!

Amazing scenery from our mcnabsnowboarding Greenland expedition 2008. I'll be running another Greenland trip next winter 2011.

Happy New Year to you all, a new decade, a new beginning and the start of a new era!

Hope you all had some great festivities to celebrate the start of the new decade. The past few years have been trying enough for everyone and for us 2009 was a real challenge in more ways than one. The start of 2010 dawned brightly, the skies cleared for the first time in at least a week and the mountains came out of the mist bright and white, beautiful!

(It has since clouded in and started to dump with snow again, which is good as the more snow we get the better the riding. The forecast is for more snow over the next few days, with possible clearings tomorrow, which is good as I'm up doing some private guiding!)

So its the time to make some New Years resolutions, the time for change, the time to better ourselves and time to move on from the past and create a brighter future even if the past actually wasn't that bad at all.

I vow to be fitter and stronger, to be calm and content, to be inspired and to try my best to inspire others with what ever I do.

Quite a lot to get cracking at then but might as well set the goal posts high!

The New McNab snowboarding L/S Tees are here!

I have just received our New 2010 "The Fine Art of Riding Mountains" 'mcnabsnowboarding' - long sleeve T's which are available through the goodies page on the McNabsnowboarding.com web site so check them out. They're actually really nice even if I do say so myself, so if you want one you'd better get one quick before I just work my way through wearing them all (or all the XL ones anyway!)

This is the Grey Tee (obviously duh!)

They come in Grey and Black and are available in sizes from Small to XXL at £25 (inc P&P)

The first 6 day Tech clinic starts next week which I'm really looking forward to. A 3 day Off piste clinic follows that which should be great and then I'm off to Kashmir for my Gulmarg trip, very excited!

Hope you're looking forward to 2010 and the coming winter and I wish you all the best from Chamonix!

Neil.