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!