Gulmarg

Gulmarg is a bowl of meadow at about 2,650 metres on the north slope of the Pir Panjal, an hour and a half from Srinagar. Its old name was Gaurimarg, after the goddess; the sixteenth-century Kashmiri sultan Yusuf Shah Chak is said to have renamed it for its flowers, and the meadow in June still argues his case. The British turned it into a summer resort, laid out what became one of the highest golf courses in the world, and between the wars started skiing on its slopes.

The Gondola changed everything. Its first stage climbs to Kongdoori; the second, opened in the mid-2000s, goes on to the shoulder of Apharwat at close to 4,000 metres, and made Gulmarg a name among serious skiers worldwide. The terrain off the top is big, steep, mostly ungroomed and avalanche-prone — far more Alps backcountry than family resort.

Gulmarg has almost no permanent village; it is a seasonal place, worked by people from Tangmarg and the villages below — pony men, sledge pullers, cooks and ski patrollers — and grazed in summer by Gujjar and Bakarwal herders who bring their flocks up from Jammu. The Maharani temple, a Shiva shrine raised by the Dogra royal family early in the twentieth century, sat on its hillock for more than a hundred years until an electrical fire burnt it down in June 2024; the Dharmarth Trust has since rebuilt it in the same form and reopened it to devotees. Down the road, the shrine of the Sufi saint Baba Reshi draws Kashmiris of every faith.

Food is Kashmiri, and the best of it is wazwan: rista and gushtaba, meatballs in red and white gravies, rogan josh, yakhni in yoghurt. Mornings are noon chai, salted and pink, with a girda bread from the baker; afternoons are kahwa with saffron and almonds.

Buy Gondola tickets online the night before and take the first car; queues build fast and the second stage closes whenever the wind or snow says so. Never ski off Apharwat without a certified guide, a transceiver and an avalanche forecast — people die here most winters. Agree the price with pony and sledge men before you start, and pay the official rate card. In summer, the walk to Khilanmarg is easy, and Alpather lake below Apharwat is a proper day out.

Gulmarg's livelihoods depend on a short season and a fragile reputation. Hire local guides and pony owners through the registered unions, tip fairly, and dress modestly in the villages and at Baba Reshi. Keep litter off the meadows — the herders' animals graze what you leave. Check current travel advisories before you go, and listen to your hosts about where it is wise to walk.

Almost everyone comes through Srinagar, and it deserves more than an airport transfer: the old city's wooden shrines, the Mughal gardens and a quiet night on a houseboat on Dal Lake are the other half of Kashmir.