Gulmarg, India
Himalayan powder at backpacker prices. One of the highest gondolas on earth drops you into untracked bowls.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
Cost
Serves travellers at Backpacker→Mid-range level. Typically around $60 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
Khelo India Winter Games March
National winter sports championship
Worth knowing
Draw cash in Srinagar. Gulmarg has almost no machines and the things you actually pay for here, guides, gear hire, ponies, food in the village, are cash.
money · editorial
The second gondola stage tops out near 4,000 metres and the bowls below it are unpatrolled, uncontrolled terrain with no avalanche control worth the name. A guide and a transceiver are the norm here, not an upgrade. Prepaid SIM cards bought elsewhere in India do not work in Kashmir.
know before · editorial
Snow is unreliable before January and usually finished by late March. Outside winter the gondola still runs for the view, but there is no skiing and the village is largely shut.
when not to go · editorial
Accommodation is a small cluster at the gondola base and a scatter along the golf course road, and that is the entire choice; there is nothing else for an hour in any direction. Some people base in Srinagar on a houseboat and drive up, which costs you the early lift queue.
where to stay · editorial
The village is a short walk end to end and the gondola does everything else. Ponies and sledges fill the gaps in winter. A car gets you there and then sits still.
getting around · editorial
Fly to Srinagar, then about two hours by road up through the pine forest to Gulmarg. There is no other way in, and the road can close after heavy snow.
getting there · editorial
Quests
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Gulmarg gondola
One of the highest in the world, reaching 3,980 metres in two stages.
Apharwat
The ridge from which Nanga Parbat is visible on a clear day.
The highest golf course in the world
2,650 metres. In winter it disappears completely under the snow.
St Maximilian's Church
Wood and stone from 1902, from when the British came up here to escape the heat.
Maharani Temple
Small, red, on a mound in the middle of the meadow.
The Gulmarg meadow in summer
The name means meadow of flowers, and from June to August that is exactly what it is.
See
Take the gondola up to Apharwat, at 3,980 m
Eat
Drink kahwa, the Kashmiri saffron tea
Wazwan
A Kashmiri feast of many mutton courses, served on one shared platter.
Kahwa
Green tea with saffron, cardamom and almond. Served all day.
Nadru
Lotus root from the Kashmir lakes, fried or in yoghurt.
Moment
Ski the first run after a snowfall, with the mountain empty
Himalayan dry snow
It falls at 2,700 metres into very dry air. Anyone who skis knows the difference on the first turn.
A hand-woven pashmina shawl
It takes months on a hand loom. The machine version costs a tenth and is not the same thing.
Trail
Walk up to Apharwat
Thirteen hundred metres of climb when the gondola is everyone else's way up.