First few days in Gulmarg

1/24/10
Gulmarg

After my plane touched down in Srinagar a feeling of happiness swept over me even though outside was an ugly landscape of military bunkers and barracks, dotted with soldiers holding semi-automatic weapons. This place is really affected by the war over the disputed area of Kashmir. At first glance, it’s hard to see why anyone would want this area. I met four Frenchmen also carrying ski bags and we shared a rented jeep all the way to Gulmarg, two-hours away. It cost less than thirty dollars total for all five of us and our gear. Driving through the streets of Srinagar, it was apparent these were a completely different type of person than the Indians I saw in Delhi. People in Kashmir have unbelievable pride in their heritage, and do not consider themselves an Indian. They are Kashmiri. And most are Muslim. The men have thick grey bears and large bushy eyebrows, and all wear a large, colorful outer garment that is basically a giant poncho with sleeves for their arms. These sleeves are rarely used as their arms are tucked inside, constantly crossed against their chest.

Huge, white-capped mountains soon appeared out of the hazy fog and we started to climb up switchback roads in the steep forest. On the way up, we passed by a large military caravan, which our driver honked at as he sped past them on blind corners and hairpin turns.

I arrived at Gulmarg around 5:00pm. A dark grey cloud obscured the huge mountain that was looming somewhere on the horizon. I walked up to the hotel where Matt, Wes, and their two friends are staying. No one was apparently inside. The dark corridors had no movement or sounds.

I walked up to the second level and yelled, “Roon!” The door right next to me suddenly burst open. I had arrived.

It was such a relief to finally be at the place I was going to be staying for the next 5 weeks. I bunked in with Wes’ friends, Alan and Sam, in order to save money. Matt has another friend arriving in a week, and we’ll split a room. The cost for a room is 850 rupees per night, approximately $20. The rooms were nicer than I was expecting. Large windows overlook the street below and the gondola station about 200 yards away. There is actually warm water that is heated in a 55-gallon barrel by basically running bare wires directly from the socket into the water. No running water. Electricity is on most of the time. A Wood-stove called a "bukari" heats the room. It’s a tiny cylindrical stove about two feet tall that sprouts a chimney that goes up another two feet, then takes a hard right turn and runs out of the wall. It kind of looks like the Tinman’s hat from the Wizard of Oz

After retelling my travel hang-ups to the guys, Matt points to the windows and has me turn around. I need to press my face against the window to see the entire thing. The clouds have cleared and there is Gulmarg mountain, pointing straight up and stretching either direction 180 degrees. The top ridge slices the backlit sky. Evening yellows behind the mountain contrast with the light blue shadows on the face. We are in the shadow of the mountain.

That night I can’t focus as I try to unpack. It turns out the village has changed quite a bit in the two years since Matt was here. There are a few stores now where you can buy some basic supplies like toothpaste, clothes, and a bit of ski gear.

That night we walk up to a nicer hotel for dinner. The food is incredible. Fresh-made garlic nan (like pita) arrives steaming hot, along with rich curries and rice dishes. The water is actually fine to drink here (so far, anyway) and tastes delicious. It comes straight of the mountain, ice-cold.

A hand clasps down on my shoulder from behind. It’s the Russians! Turns out the flight I was originally on ended up leaving. I didn’t even care; all that mattered was that I arrived. We had some drinks and returned back to Hotel Green Heights. I opened up my sleeping bag, hoped inside and quickly fell asleep. The woodstove ran out quickly and soon the entire room neared freezing temperature, but the sleeping bag is working just fine. I can already feel the 9,000-foot elevation here in town.

The next day we donned our gear and hit the mountain. I bought a season pass (I was only number 20 on the list) that gives you unlimited gondola rides and some special treatment.

The snow conditions here are very lacking. There hasn’t been any new snow in over two weeks and whatever was there before is fairly wind-blown and packed. I couldn’t have possibly picked a worse terrain to try out my new board. Rocks and icy, wind ridges made for a difficult time. My new board is only meant for powder. It is a lot longer and looser than my normal resort board. This makes it difficult to turn quickly and hop over and around rocks. Definitely put a few scratches on in those first few hundred yards. We dropped in below the ridge and traversed about a quarter-mile, three ridges over.

It is very different wearing all the backcountry gear. I have an avalanche beacon strapped to my chest right over my base layer in a gun holster kind of thing. On the outside I have a backpack filled with a shovel, probe (long tent pole for finding buried people), Skins (for going uphill when I split my board into skis), extra jacket, headlamp (for unexpected delays), some water and food.

We dropped in below ridgeline and held high to the right and ended up in some untracked areas with some decent snow. This place is big enough that even though there has been no new snow for over 2 weeks, you can still find places untouched. These guys I’m skiing with are very knowledgeable about snow safety and group riding. One guy goes at a time, skiing to a designated safe zone, while everyone watches. This is important if an avalanche were to happen.

3,000 vertical feet later we are at the bottom of the snow cover. From here we took our gear off and strapped it to our backpacks and started to boot pack out. This is basically hiking over land and snow. We had to climb about 700 vertical feet to get back to the gondola mid station so we could download back down. Half way there we stopped at a snowy meadow and practiced avalanche beacon drills by throwing a transmitter in the snow and then searching for it and digging it out.

So the snow is not very good, but the good news is that a storm is coming, and might bring a couple feet of much needed snow. The bad news is that the current snow surface is quite hard due to melt/freeze cycles and any new snow would create potentially dangerous snow stability. The best-case scenario would be for a large amount of new snow (6 feet or more) that would overload the snow pack and cause natural avalanches, ensuring safe skiing.

Ok, there will be more on the snow conditions and snowboarding adventures later. Right now I am sitting in a little shop, maybe 60 square feet using the only wireless in town. The shop owner, Nabi, is sitting right next to me and we are talking about all kinds of things. He is middle aged, wearing the typical clothing with the typical white/grey beard. Nice guy. We just finished dinner at a different hotel (amazing food, 4 course meal, $5 per person) and are about to go to sleep and get up early tomorrow and, weather permitting, will travel a long distance to find some good snow and long runs.

More to come soon.

-Riley