Gulmarg

Gulmarg — 'meadow of flowers' in Kashmiri — is a high-altitude bowl at 2,650 metres in the Pir Panjal mountains, surrounded by peaks that receive enough snowfall between November and March to make it one of Asia's best, least-known ski resorts.

The Gondola cable car at Gulmarg, one of the highest in the world, rises to 3,980 metres in two stages and delivers skiers and summer trekkers to a ridge with views that, on clear days, include Nanga Parbat — the world's ninth-highest mountain — at a distance of some 140 kilometres. The snow at this elevation is dry and deep, receiving between six and ten metres annually in good years, and the skiing is largely ungroomed powder that international resorts would label 'extreme' were it better marketed.

In summer, Gulmarg's meadow fills with wildflowers of sufficient variety that the British established a botanical survey station here in the 19th century. The golf course — laid out in 1911 at 2,650 metres, one of the world's highest — operates in a setting that makes the game's usual pastoral associations seem considerably more plausible. The Baba Rishi shrine, a Muslim saint's tomb at the edge of the meadow, receives Kashmiri Hindu visitors as readily as Muslim ones — a small, specific example of the syncretic religious culture that the valley has historically maintained.

Places to Visit in Gulmarg

• Gulmarg Gondola
• Apharwat Peak
• Strawberry Valley

Things to Do in Gulmarg

• Gondola ride to Apharwat Peak
• Winter skiing (seasonal)
• Alpine meadow walks