Skiing

Gulmarg is India's only ski destination that serious skiers travel for, and the reason is Apharwat: a long, lift-served, ungroomed face with a genuine vertical drop, sitting above a resort that also happens to have gentle nursery slopes. Very few mountains anywhere offer both to that degree.

If you have never skied

You will learn at Kongdoori, reached by Gondola Phase 1. The slopes there are wide and gentle, instruction is available from absolute beginner level, and the usual progression is: stopping on day one, linking turns by day three. Book an instructor for at least two days — a single lesson tends to leave people able to stop but not to turn, which is the most frustrating place to be.

If you already ski

Apharwat, via Gondola Phase 2, is the mountain. It is off-piste, ungroomed, unpatrolled terrain with real avalanche exposure. It is not a resort run with a rope at the edge. Hire a certified local guide, and treat anyone offering to take you up without one as a reason to walk away.

When to come

• December — unreliable. The base is still building and lower runs can be thin.
• January and February — the season. Deepest, most consistent snow.
• March — skiable, but soft and patchy by afternoon as the days warm.

Gear

Skis, boots and poles all hire locally, and the kit at Kongdoori is better maintained and cheaper than at the Gulmarg base. The two things worth bringing yourself are goggles and gloves — hire quality on both is genuinely poor, and the glare off Apharwat on a clear day is punishing enough that sunglasses will not do.

Finally: build a spare day into any ski trip here. Gulmarg loses days to weather every single season, and when Apharwat closes there is no substitute run to move to.