Skiing in Auli

I had always had the desire to get to the places where there is snow, i had already been to manali and Rhotang but unfortunately did not found any snow. So this time I along with my friends got registered for a Skiing course conducted by GMVNL, not only to fulfil the desire but to quench my thirst for some adventure sport. It was scheduled from Jan 14 - Jan 20 in Auli.

Reaching Auli

Reaching Auli in itself is kind of an adventure, we took a train from Hyd to Delhi which takes about 26 hrs and then had to catch a train from Delhi to Haridwar. From Haridwar we took a cab to Joshimath, which was filled with some excitement when we boarded as we were nearing our destination, some Quick thinking and Action when a land slide had blocked the road, some frustration when nasty driver just did not move till the cab had 11 occupants.

On the way to Joshimath

Land Slide a common thing here

At last after a 12 hour long back breaking journey we had reached Joshimath and thanks to the cab driver we arrived full 3 hrs after the cable car was closed for the day. So we stayed in Joshimath for the night.

First Day

We boarded the first Cable Car in the morning, the ride was an exciting one with the green landscape below slowly turning to white as we gained altitude. We had to get down at the 8th tower and then had to take the Chair Lift to reach GMVNL ski resort.

View from Cable Car

At the Chair Car point it was the first time we touched the snow and moments later started throwing at each other. If the Cable car ride was an exciting one then the Chair Car was .........i do not have any words. It was wonderful, with us sitting on the plank which had just 4 chairs and full 360 degree view of the majestic Himalayas surrounding you, and the tallest among them is none other than Mt Nandadevi.

View from chair car

So by the time we reached our dorms, completed the registration and collected the equipment it was already lunch time. So it was only in the evening that we went out and trekked as high as we could with the Ski boots and sticks just to get used to it. We had quite a good group along with us, so usually in the evenings we would sit around the bhukari had our views exchanged on various topics, as most of us were from different backgrounds and fields.

A Bhukari

It was in the night that we started realising how cold it gets. So we used to sit around something known as Bhukhari and as we thought that we were a bit warm beside it, the thought of getting in to the cold bed would scare us.

Second Day

Today we had to take the full equipment with us and from the chair car point we had to trek a fair amount of distance to reach the slope.

With full ski equipment

Trek to the slopes

At last we were there and the moment of truth had come, after some instructions about how to wear the Skis, we were asked to move front and back and side ways, this is when the great saga of falling started and it continued till the end of the day. In fact we had a session on falling where we just starting sliding on skis and fell down.

The first lessons

We fell while we tried to move front, back, sideways and some of us even had a fall just standing at one place. And when started to ski the only way to stop was to fall. By the end of the first session we came to know, how difficult is it to ski. Our spirits were a bit shattered and we had a small feeling creeping in, Could we learn to Ski in another 2 days, as with our job commitments we were to leave the course in between.

Third Day

This day we went with a determination to get hold of it. We were instructed upon braking and then taking turns and we started picking up quite fast. Falls had considerably reduced and we started skiing short distances and then stop. After the turning session we were doing a fair amount of distance with 3 to 5 turns along the way. The only tiring thing was to again climb up, which consumes a lot of energy. We were being instructed to use the 'V' technique to brake and to turn, as we were still amateurs, but this being an inefficient one, is only useful with slower speeds. Parallel skiing is the efficient and is used at higher speeds. And after watching some Soldiers and trainers doing that I got tempted to ski fast and in that process I had a nasty fall which was a wonderful Kodak moment but unfortunately was not captured.

Final Day

This was the final day for and we were all set to go to the Higher slopes and to add to that were witnessing the first snow fall in our life. We went to the higher slopes and started cautiously as they were really quite steep and long. We had to greatly control the speed and take as many turns possible. It quite an task to again climb up the slope and with the snow fall the visibility also got reduced.

Climbing up the slopes

But after some time the sky was clearing up and with the fresh snow we were all set to ski as fast as we could as it was our last day. We had one or two trials where we increased the speed and then as always we had good 2 to 3 races among us. Its real fun to have races, which just creates the adrenalin rush inside to come first. I managed to come first in one of them but in any case every race

was fun in itself with everyone giving their best and at the end as we not so good at stoping or turning as such speeds we ended up crashing among ourselves and and also with some soldiers in who came in our way.

The Race.....

Many guys from our group were amazed at the speed with which we were skiing and one of them even asked if they could ski like us at the end of the course....Hahaha. So we were all happy as we were able to do a fair amount of skiing but then to be honest there were quite a lot of things which had to be learned. Sadly it was the time to leave and we bid adieu to all the other guys in the course who would stay till the course was completed and we were feeling a bit jealous.

The army windmill after snow fall

Now the long journey back to Hyd had to done and just as we started we had a scary moment, a steel pipe had pierced the cab from beneath and came out in between my friends legs and then went up to the top of the cab and even pierced the roof. We were all lucky, nothing much happened to anyone and we continued. As if its some stoicism with us that always at the end of the trip some thing happens with us, but then we are always lucky. We spent the day in Delhi watching the 5th day of Test match between Ind and Aus which Ind had won........ We also had made a promise to ourselves that we would be back there again next year and attend all the days of the course.

Who says that to Ski you need to go to the Alps, Auli is infact the Indian Alps......