Tim Auger and I had set aside time to "do something cool" from mid January until mid February of 2009. Less than sober planning sessions over the hot summer months had us drooling over the prospect of getting really high in the Kullu Valley, located in the northern Indian province of Himachal Pradesh, but as fall turned to winter uncertainties grew about the timing with regards to both snowpack and finances. The plan was shelved and we turned our attention towards more local objectives in British Columbia.
As 2009 rolled in, it became clear that all was not well on the home-front, with poor stability and alternating patterns of mild weathered precipitation and snowless high pressure ridges across the province. While the Kullu Valley seemed a little ambitious at short notice, Gulmarg, located almost due west of the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar, was logistically reasonable and becoming more and more appealing. One week, several vaccinations and consular lineups later, we were on-route to Delhi!
Arrival in Delhi was expectedly chaotic with the usual fare of taxi drivers taking us to where we didn't want or need to go, touts telling us the hotel we planned to stay at didn't exist any longer, and travel agents insisting that every mode of transport other than that suggested by them was "the bloody shits". In spite of this, we managed to arrange our onward travel quite quickly and were on-route to Srinagar about 12hrs later.
On January 26th, Republic Day, we drove to the town of Gulmarg passing through many military checkpoints, the army's presence bolstered on account of several terrorist threats supposedly issued out of neighboring Pakistan. Gulmarg itself, however, was blanketed with fresh snow which not only excited the inner-skier, but also provided a (perhaps false) feeling of security from the ongoing geo-political chess match taking place in the valleys below. The continued snowfall promised good turns in the morning.
Our first full day was spent getting acquainted with the systems, snow, and terrain in the area. The gondola was only open to the mid-station (Kongdoor) on account of the new snow and low lying clouds so rather than make relatively costly laps of that 350m section of gondola, we skinned out a ways and dug a pit to ground to familiarize ourselves with the snow. What we found was two meters of well consolidated snow with no real weaknesses to be seen anywhere! Just as we were finishing our snow study, the skies broke momentarily giving us views of the summit of Apparwat as well as the many nicely treed buttresses that descended from its long ridgeline. We finished the day with a skin up "paper trees", a nicely pitched 350m buttress vegetated by beautiful birch trees, and then descended the creamy fresh snow back to the village. As we walked back to town the skies cleared properly, setting-up for what would be a week of high pressure and sunshine.
While we didn't see any fresh snow for the next few days, the clear weather couldn't have suited our needs better for it allowed us to branch further and further away from the gondola area and learn how to approach and exit a variety of ridgelines, bowls and drainages. Without the aid of any topographic maps or a guide, it was up to us to learn the terrain and memorize it in order to safely explore the region.
Everyday we would go further and everyday the new terrain that opened up before us would contain some line that was soon to be our next objective. The terrifically stable snowpack allowed us to ski relatively steep and exposed terrain and the cloudless skies permitted us to get the most out of these shorter mid-winter days.
Tricky ridge walking on an approach
"Hourglass spine" - very windswept but still fun!
The novelty of skiing high alpine lines mid-winter kept us going for some time, but after about a week of great weather it was hard to avoid thinking that a bit of snowfall might do everything some good. Right when these thoughts were becoming opinion, a storm rolled in and it snowed for the next five days straight. Well over a meter fell during that time and our thirst for fresh was quickly quenched.
We spent these days skiing off of "Monkey Hill", a small hill feature near town which provided many short but satisfying runs off both the front and backside. When the clouds were a little higher, we also managed to get turns above Kongdoor in the "paper trees" area.
Pow
Gnar
Gnar pow
Pow gnar
As if on cue, just when the thrill of choking on snow was starting to wear off, the snows eased and the skies cleared and we were granted a couple big days in the alpine. A highlight of the trip came when we were able to score the first post-storm lines off the summit of "Shark's Fin", a 4200m peak that sits slightly recessed off of Apparwat's ridge. Somehow, stability had remained great throughout the previous week's storm, allowing us to ski this steep and fairly exposed line with relative confidence.
Tim with Pakistan somewhere in the background
Dropping
Shark's Fin and the line (off the summit skiing towards lookers left).
The rest of our time in Gulmarg seemed like an added bonus. The clouds came back and it snowed some more. Our ski days became shorter as we devoted more time to sipping chai at Khalsa Dabba and chatting with the owner, Baghat Singh, about everything from politics to why working in a ski or bike shop isn't such a bad gig in Canada. Our last runs were off the backside of Monkey Hill, where half the fun was grabbing on to the backs of "Sumo" trucks to get towed back up to the village. We left Gulmarg as it was when we arrived: socked in and snowing, only now we'd amassed a collection of good times, turns and friendships that we hadn't known three weeks before.
After spending a night in Srinagar and a couple days in Delhi we flew back to Vancouver, our memories a mish-mash of holy cows, powder snow and spicy food. Sorting through this jumble left me wondering if we'd traveled to India to ski or gone skiing simply to travel. I guess like the oftentimes opposing nature of the country itself, this trip to India had proved a fantastic harmony of the two.
The Khalsa Dabba crew - Gardari and Baghat Singh
More pics and vids to come soon...
