Muhammad Yusuf left us all after fighting a dreaded disease since 2019. He was an amalgam of several roles – an adventure sports icon, an author, a great teacher, a social activist, an environmentalist, an explorer, an adventure tourism promoter and most importantly a great and humble human being. Boldly, he faced many challenges all through his life.
He saved his life several times while pursuing earth explorations and survived many mountain hazards and accidents, but finally succumbed to the killer disease.
My earliest memory of Yusuf Saheb is from 1976 when I first met him on the Ski Slopes of Gulmarg. I had just joined the college and was selected for a basic snow skiing course.
Due to non availability of ski shoes of my size I had to wait about four days till my shoes were arranged from HAWS, but by then my other batch mates had gone ahead of me in learning skiing techniques, I was disappointed when my instructor refused to train me, he said it was not possible for him to leave his class alone to teach me as an individual.
I had no option but to try my luck to learn the basics of skiing on my own and in this learning process I had many falls and got bruises and severe pain in my knees and ankles. I could not learn skiing like the others learnt in the class. I was frustrated, sitting on my skis at a corner of the slope.
Yusuf sahib who was doing his advance skiing course saw me sitting in a corner, enquired about my dejection and promised to train me himself. In next two or three days his teaching did wonders to my skiing and the following day he took me to my course instructor and told him that your student is ready to take rest of your classes.
When my instructor asked me to go down the slope, he had nothing to say but to praise Yusuf Saheb who put me even ahead of my fellow skiers in ski techniques. It is because of Yusuf Saheb that I learned skiing and I always called him my Guru Ji.
My over four decade’s association with this legendary man took me very close to him, our initial relationship of teacher and student turned into great friendship and brotherhood.
Muhammad Yusuf was inspired by nature right from his childhood when he lived at Dalgate in the close vicinity of Dal Lake. He was climbing Shankracharya every morning and after descent used to swim in Dal lake for hours.
But he virtually started his adventure career when he joined S.P College in 1972, where he insisted the Physical Director to arrange first-ever Rock-Climbing Course at Shankracharchya with the assistance of Tourism Department.
He got first position in that maiden course and was later nominated for Inter-College Mount Harmukh expedition, jointly organised by Youth Services and Tourism Department.
Seeing his abilities and passion for adventure he was invited by Youth Services Department for the first Basic Ski Course in 1973. He performed exceptionally well in that course and was recommended for further training programs. Yusuf was offered a job in J&K Youth Services as Ski Instructor (PET) in 1979 where he worked just for one year and then joined Kashmir University on a better placement of Coach-in-Aquatics and Adventure Sports.
Being highly trained in winter sports, water sports and mountaineering he easily got the job in the University. In fact he was selected as Instructor in WHMI, Manali, but he preferred to work in Kashmir. During his tenure in Kashmir University he trained thousands of students to mountain climbing, skiing, and water sports including this writer.
He led hundreds of exploratory expeditions of the University. During his tenure as adventure sports coach the University had become epic center for adventure sports. With his efforts the UGC had allotted a Regional Center for adventure sports to Kashmir University.
He was good at making Detailed Project Reports that helped the University to get enough grants from the Ministry of Sports and UGC for promoting adventure sports in the region.
Yusuf not only taught adventure sports to University and College students but led them to different exploratory expeditions. He led the first ever circular trek from Bandipura to Pahalgam in 1981, undertook the first Gurez Exploration program, was a spirit behind the introduction of Paragliding, Parasailing, Ski-Mountaineering in Kashmir valley.
He, in fact, did pioneering work in the development of ski-mountaineering and led first ever Lidder-Sindh, Amarnath Cave and Pirpanjal ski-mountaineering expeditions; he was the organiser and member of maiden ski mountaineering expedition to Mt. Mahadev in Srinagar. Needless to mention here, that he loved backcountry skiing also known as ski-touring and pursued it for many long years.
Notably in his youthful days he once purchased an uncommon Mountain Ski from an Austrian skier for Rs. 5,500 in early 1980s when he could buy a scooter with that money. He belonged to a middle class family; he was saving money for his hobbies from pocket money and by teaching children at his home. Yusuf had raised about ten pairs of skis and never begged anyone for a loan of a ski pair.
Yusuf graduated Mountaineering Courses at HMI, Darjeeling in 1975 and 76. He did his instructor’s course in Skiing at Indian Institute of Skiing & Mountaineering in April 1980 and became a full-fledged ski instructor. From an academic point he was pursuing Law in KU but had to abandon it as he was offered a job by the University in 1980.
He did Diploma-in-Swimming at erstwhile National Institute of Sports, Patiala in 1984 and then graduated B.P. Ed at Ganderbal Physical College. Yusuf had graduated from a few other adventure sports disciplines before joining University Services. He was offered extension in service by Kashmir University but he preferred to work as Adventure Tour Consultant and helped young men to take up adventure sports till his last breath.
Yusuf did not live as an individual but like an institution all through his life. He was a multifaceted personality who will always be remembered for the roles he always played as a votary adventurer. He was good at writing, good at teaching adventure sports, good at organisational matters and good at event management. With his brilliant skills scores of seminars on adventure and environment were held time to time.
He used to work on his computer till late nights. He was such a hardworking person that some of his friends used to call him Robot. Yusuf had vast knowledge on varied subjects. He contributed nearly one hundred articles on adventure, environment, sports, floriculture and social issues, in local newspapers particularly Greater Kashmir.
The last article he wrote was on “ATOAK-Give it a chance”, published by Greater Kashmir in Nov.2019. His articles on Google attracted many domestic and international tourist groups to undertake adventures in Kashmir. His articles were not merely considered write-ups but lessons to the new generation on varied subjects.
For his regular publication of articles on tourism he was awarded a “certificate of appreciation and sash award” by Tourism Department in the year 2013. Due to his good writing skills and knowledge on adventure he had developed good relations with the then Directors of Tourism namely Jenab Farooq Ahmad Shah, Jenab Talat Parvez Rohella and Jenab Mahmood Ahmad Shah.
Besides articles, he edited about 15 magazines, brought out on different national and international events by J&K Ski Mountaineering Association JKSMA, Adventure Tour Operators Association of Kashmir ATOAK, White Water Rafting Association, Kashmir University, J&K Mountaineering & Hiking Club, and Tourism Department. His contribution to adventure tourism is immense.
Yusuf was fond of photography as well. His other hobbies were gardening, growing vegetables, flowers and fruit. He had grown scores of apple trees, plum, cherry, pomegranate, pears, grapes, peach, apricot and fig. He was himself spraying pesticides and pruning the trees in his old age.
One secret Yusuf has shared with me is that one of his healthy apricot trees suddenly died after flowering in spring 2019. Yusuf took it as a bad omen and soon he was diagnosed with the dreaded disease. After a few months new shoots grew from the roots of this dead tree.
It gave him hope of survival of the tree and he took it as a good omen for his disease. This encouraged him to fight the disease bravely till his last breath.
The void created by his demise is hard to be filled. Yusuf sahib will be greatly missed and remembered by one and all who knew him personally. Let us pray for his eternal peace.
Rauf Tramboo, Adventure Tourism Consultant, President-ATOAK
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are the personal opinions of the author.
The facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in the article do not reflect the views of GK.