Skiing in Srinagar

A group of Srinagar-based winter sports enthusiasts recently skied and snowboarded on Srinagar’s highest peak, mount Mahadev.

The local adventure club, Silk Route Exploits, sponsored byKashmir Ski Tours and supported by Islamia College Mountaineering Club, carriedout skiing and snowboarding on the mount Mahadev that has an elevation of 3966m(13,012 ft) and is part of Zaberwan range in Srinagar district.

   

The aim of the trip to the highest peak of Srinagar andconduct skiing and snowboarding there, was to look into the opportunities ofwinter sports in Srinagar.

Mount Mahadev is part of the Zabarwan mountain rangeoverlooking Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is the highestmountain range of Srinagar.

The group that was led by Kashmir Ski Tours senior memberAga Ashtar (Skier) also included Shabib Hyder (Skier), Hasnain Khan(Snowboarder), Qasim Bazaz, Nadeem Hussain, and Aqib Ayash.

The group started their exploration from Dara area on firstday and after hiking for seven hours made stay for night.

On the second day they again hiked and made their secondcamp at Lidwas for night. On third day the group hiked to the Mahadev summit.

As per a statement issued here, the snow condition was goodfor skiing and snowboarding. After brief halt they decided to ski down.

“As soon as we started our decent down from the base of theMahadev summit on our skies and snowboard the joy of exploring these ski linesfelt real,” said a member of the group.

Another member said that it was not easy to reach the summitas they had to negotiate around eight to 10 feet of snow for that.

“In Srinagar we can do skiing as well like we do in Gulmargbut there is need to make awareness about it and develop at least basicinfrastructure on peak route,” said member of the group.

The exploring skiing initiative was held in two phases. Thefirst phase was held in mid winter in Gulmarg while as the second phase washeld at the Mahadev peak.

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