Greetings from Kashmir and the Indian Himalayas! After a lot of traveling, I made it safely to Gulmarg. It's 3:30am here local time, I'm jet-lagged so time to catch up on the adventures so far. Traveling here was long but no major dramas. The flight from Denver to Newark was fine and then I had a really nice flight from Newark to Delhi. It's long at 13 hours and was pretty turbulent at times, but I kicked back and watched a lot of movies and enjoyed not having to think too much about work.
Delhi was it's usual sh@t show, pardon my French. I stayed at the Red Fox hotel in Aero City, about 10 minutes drive from the airport. My driver was there to meet me and I managed a solid 7 hours of sleep. Check-in for the domestic flight to Srinagar was absolutely chaotic and Air India charged me $165 USD (500 INR per kg) for excess baggage. Ouch! I flew in on a 2 bag international allowance and Air India only has a 1 bag domestic allowance of 15kg plus 10kg hand luggage so I really got stung. I booked my tickets separately so I could fly Air India and I got stung! Might have to actually go through a travel agent next time..... my bad.
Mushtaq, my long-time friend and driver was there to meet me at the airport. I met John, a new guest and skier from my old town of Perth, Western Australia, at the baggage claim. Gavin, a regular guest from the UK, was outside waiting for us as he had arrived around 930am on the earlier flight and Mushtaq had looked after him. Thankfully all our bags arrived and we headed off to Dal Lake for a quick curry lunch at the home of the best Butter Chicken in the area, Stream Restaurant. Yum!
The traffic was really bad in Srinagar so it took us a lot longer than normal to get out of the city, but finally we were on the road to Gulmarg. We got caught in a few more jams in some of the small towns on the way up, but we had a few people smiling and waving at us as we drove, one man even came over to shake our hands and welcome us when we stopped in jam. That was a really nice gesture.
The snowline started really early and by the time we got to Tangmarg (where the snow line normally starts), then the snowbanks were piled really high, higher than I had ever seen them. Wow, I was sure getting excited. The snow road up to Gulmarg was bumpy and heavily rutted, several vehicles got stuck in front of us and a few times we had to get up and help push them out of the way (2 small cars were literally lifted up and moved out the way, it was quite the scene). We had one last jam getting into town and then finally were were there, in beautiful Gulmarg!
The golf course had a lot of snow on it. The poma lifts were buried half way up the lift towers. I'd never seen so much snow. The drive up to the new hotel, the Rosewood was pretty tough, but Mushtaq made it like a champ. We only had to put chains on right on the last bit of road. What a star! We checked in and the porters brought up our bags. Claire and Mike (they came with to Gulmarg last season with Gav), had arrived the day before and had already been out skiing. We met at 7pm for a wee drink and then dinner. I was good and totally unpacked my room and then got a solid 4 hours in before the jet-lag kicked in. That gave me some time to do some work.
This morning we start our avi safety training with the indoor theory session that I will lead and then onsnow for a little bit of skiing but mostly beacon work in preparation for 10 days of skiing. Can't wait! There's lot's more to come.....
In my happy place! Checking out the view of the Himalayas on the flight to Srinagar. My headphones were on and I played the song "In a Big Country" by the band Big Country on repeat as we flew over the mountains. Love it!
Getting into the serious stuff! The visibility was so good that I could see the Himalayas start as soon as we were out of Delhi. I had not seen that before. It was amazing.
Flying into Kashmir now. The views got better and better. There were two ladies, Haj pilgrims who didn't speak any English and were obviously traveling on a plane for the first time, they were tripping out over the view. It all added to the experience and part of the reason why I love coming here. This ain't Vail!
Almost there. This is Nun (7,135m - 23,409ft) and Kun (7,077m - 23,218ft), two sister peaks that are the highest mountains in the Indian controlled part of Kashmir. Nanga Parbat is the 9th highest mountain in the area and we can see that from Gulmarg also. It is in Pakistan and is 8,126m or 26,660ft high. I will never grow old of the views and feel extremely blessed that I get to see this view every year.....
I saw my friend Abdul (who manages our houseboat, the Bul-Bul that we stay on every year) randomly in Srinagar. It was awesome to see him and he gave me a big Kashmiri welcome. These people are so friendly.
Finally we made it into Gulmarg. The snowbanks are piled high with snow. This should be a great trip! Inshallah (God willing, as the Kashmiri's say).
- Matt