Srinagar: In order to expand the winter tourism product range, skiing clubs, adventure lovers have pitched for the promotion of snow, winter trekking in Kashmir.
Many youngsters associated with mountaineering and other adventure sports have started organising winter trekking camps. They say that the aim is to lay the ground for making it a full-time winter tourism event and attract tourists across India and abroad.
Basit Ahmad who operates Trem Trekkers, a trekking club said that this year he organised two such events where many trekking enthusiasts went on snow trekking.
ìI reside near Pir Panchal Mountains and all my winter treks were around the mountain range of Pir Panchal this year. The groups were comprised of youngsters from Kashmir who are very interested in adventure sports. Such events will boost winter tourism and will help people to earn a livelihood. Most times the beautiful Yousmarg of our area is deserted in winter.”
“If such trekking events are organised and government supports us, Yousmarg will come alive in winter like Gulmarg. We are in the beginning phase and we hope this will lay the ground for outside tourists to explore winter trekking with us,î Basit said.
In addition to many young trekkers, some athletes like Muzamil Hussain Mir are organizing Snowshoe trekking events across Kashmir. Muzamil who is a trekker and an athlete said that they are trying to start snowshoe sports events and winter trekking events in Kashmir. He also said the aim was to attract more youth and built it on the level of skiing through his J&K Adventure Sports Club.
ìWe have been collaborating with Kashmirís Tourism department and international companies like Decathlon, a sports goods company. Decathlon provided us with equipment and we are organizing trekking events this winter.
Recently our group went to Tosa-Maidan for sports shoe trekking. Such events not only help youth to enjoy but also keep them away from drugs and other social evils.
Our aim is to prepare youth for such adventure sports so that they can create their own winter trekking clubs and handle the national and international winter sports enthusiasts in the near future,î Mir said.
In a bid to be part of this adventure tourism in Kashmir, these youth are preparing themselves for the sector. Farhan Sangeen, who owns Hook Hike Kashmir, a well-Known trekking club said that since winter trekking is new in Kashmir, they are preparing themselves and taking baby steps.
ìI have applied for different winter trekking and other adventure sports courses. I want to be more professional so that I can add value to this budding industry.
So far I am organizing these winter trekking camps on easy routes and all the participants are local. As soon as we get more expertise I will expand it to non-local tourists.
We recently went winter trekking to Ganderbal Mountains. It was a great learning experience. Local youth are very enthusiastic about this,î Farhan said.