Speed rush in Snowland

A helicopter appears from behind a snow-clad ridge,circling the Gulmarg bowl. A group of three skiers is returning for lunch after an adventurous downhill run from the nearby Sunshine Peak. Waiting below in a small hut are 29-year-old Abdul Majeed Bakshi and his crew. Bakshi runs a heli-skiing agency,which transports skiers by choppers to remote and inaccessible peaks,from where they ski downhill,free-heel or telemark in a headlong rush of adrenaline. All around,the skiers are tiny specks of colour slaloming down vast slopes; boys and girls practising on the gentler bunny slopes; and their guides,drawn from villages nearby,expectant as they smell the fortune in the air.

As Kashmir retreats into frost-bitten days and nights of cold and darkness,Gulmarg has come alive. This is the peak of skiing season at the hill station,which at an average elevation of 2,690 m 8,825 ft and in the shadow of the magnificent Mount Apharwat 13,780 ft is a skiers delight. It is also one of the highest lift-served ski resorts of the world,especially after the setting up of a Gondola Cable Car Lift in 2005. The second section of the lift,from Kongdoori to Apharwat,takes skiers to a height of 3,979m,allowing downhill ski runs of about 5 km.

Apart from competitive alpine skiing,Gulmargs slopes are also unmatched for recreational skiing. Zainab Nedou,a Kashmiri woman skier whose family ran Gulmargs first hotel,calls it a favourite of ski snobs. Fifty-nine-year-old skier and avalanche expert from New Zealand Jef Desbecker,who spends nearly one-third of a year skiing in different parts of the world,has been coming to Gulmarg for three years now. No matter how big the world,the skiing community is very small. Everybody knows where the hot spot is. And this is a hot spot, he says. Its the quality of snow that brings him back. It is the best Ive seen deep,fluffy,light. Gorgeous. Others like 40-year-old doctor from Perth,Glan Croft,ignored an adverse travel advisory from his government to tag along with a friend.

He was also lucky enough to run into Jonty Rhodes,Gulmargs own poster celebrity. The former South African fielding sensation had come to Kashmir last year on the invitation of the Jammu and Kashmir government and played a snow cricket match at Gulmarg. He is back this year for a different kind of action: heli-snow-boarding. It was amazing. I am getting back to have a second roll down, he says as he gets out of a helicopter. I am just learning the skill.

Skiing is both a passion and a source of living here. A professional ski guide earns between Rs 2,000 and Rs 5,000 a day; those attached to ski companies or the many foreign ski tour leaders who come here earn between Rs 30,000 and Rs 50,000 a month. An estimated 10,000 families depend on a good Gulmarg winter,from hoteliers to the men who rent out sledges to tourists.

If the slopes are full of adventurers from across the globe,and the local economy booming thanks to high-spending visitors,it was not always so. The story of skiing in Gulmarg began in 1927 when two British army officers set up the first ski club here. Skiing,however,remained an elite game. Decades later,it was one man,Kashmirs most famous skier,Shabir Wani,who turned it into a popular sport for the dozens of villages around Gulmarg and trained numerous guides. The 52-year-old,who is still an instructor,remembers his first attempts at breaking into the sport. For a long time,there was no training for civilians. In 1974,there was a programme for the children of civilians who worked for the army. We had a neighbour who worked as an army head coolie. His name was Mohammad Akbar Wani just like my father. I tried to register myself as his son. But they knew my father and sent me back, he says. The first training course for skiers was held in 1979 and Wani was part of it.

He went on to become a guest instructor with the state governments youth sports and services department and represent India in the 1986 Winter Asian Games. But the surge of militancy in the Valley drew his career to a halt in 1990. Worse,the government seemed about to give up on skiing and Gulmarg. Work on the Gondola cable car project,started in 1987,was abandoned in 1990. Everything had stopped. There was no one in Gulmarg and the authorities were planning to shift the equipment out of Kashmir, he says. Distraught at the prospect,Shabir and his brother Abbas Wani gathered youngsters from villages around Gulmarg and set up ski training camps. The government officials helped but it was our initiative. We didnt let skiing stop.

Twenty-nine-year-old Javid Ahmad Reshi remembers that time in 1991,when the Wani brothers would come to his village in Chontipather,to recruit young boys like him. That was the time when nobody would come to this place, he says. Shabirsaab moved from house to house motivating our parents to send us to be trained.

The camps that he held would train a generation of guides,who found employment opportunities once skiing resumed in 1997. But it was around 2005-06,with the decline in violence and the completion of the Gondola project,that foreign visitors and the big bucks began to come in.

Abdul Majeed Bakshi,also a student of Shabir Wani,has seen the transition. Bakshi was the first skiing guide registered by the state government. A guide for 16 years now,he owns a winter sports company and a ski shop; he took a plunge into heli-ski operations last year,much against his fathers wishes,though he is slowly beginning to break even.

He charges Rs 60,000 for a daily heli-skiing package while a weeks adventures come for Rs 4 lakh compared to ski resorts across the world,this is a good bargain. Over the years,he has tapped into a network of international ski guides across the world and succeeded in drawing clients who would ski at Queenstown,New Zealand in June-July and land up in Gulmarg in December. Bakshis story the son of a well-known hotelier who spurned business management for life as a ski guide shows the potential for the sport and its deep attraction among the locals. Seeing Shabirsaab become a skier of international acclaim inspired me. Besides,I was born here. I am from Watalpora village. It is very normal for us to slip into ski blades early on, he says.

Today,Gulmargs most sought-after ski expeditions,are backcountry skiing on a terrain that has not been marked or mapped. For skiers to venture on these uncharted routes without endangering themselves,they need guides. This is where young men from Gulmargs neighbouring villages,who know every inch of the terrain,come in. Some like Mushtaq Ahmad Mir,35,from Qazipora village,have represented the state in national winter games. Mir,for example,is also trained in dealing with avalanches.

These are men with intimate knowledge of the snowy inclines of the region,who have many adventures and anecdotes to share. Bakshis cousin Sajad Ahmad Dar,for instance,is known as Tiger in Gulmarg,a name he acquired 15 years ago on a ski run. One day,I was skiing down from Kongdori to Gulmarg, he says. A leopard suddenly came in my way. I had to jump over him to save myself. Thats how I got the name, he says. Like most skiers from the villages,as a child,Tiger was inspired by the sight of foreigners skiing on these slopes. Now,he is skilled enough to be able to tell which slope is prone to an avalanche and from where it is safe to ski down. In 2009,he rescued three French skiers from an avalanche. I was leading a group of skiers and snow-boarders. One of them diverted from his path and that triggered an avalanche. Three skiers came under it. But I immediately brought them out from the snow. It is dangerous. A slight mistake can cost you your life.

There are also stories of love that have blossomed on these slopes. One day in 1996,Reshi was guiding a group of skiers,which included Mumbai girl Pramila. The two skied down these slopes,fell in love and married.

Gulmarg is not the end of Kashmirs ski story. According to Shabir Wani,there are several locations in Kashmir Valley that would mesmerise any skier. I have not seen anything like the slopes of Tosa maidan. And its close by. You go anywhere in Kashmir,you will find great ski slopes, he says.

Chief minister Omar Abdullah cut his teeth on these slopes,says Wani,and hopes he takes more interest. We do expect that he understands how much skiing and other winter sports can help our tourism and economy. The government perhaps needs to change its mindset about winter in Kashmir. It all boils down to how we look at snow, Wani says. It is a rehmat blessing and not zehmat trouble. Inshallah,we will learn to celebrate snow.