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Date: 26 April 2025

Snowless winters! Ski instructors sell gear & turn to Char Dham Yatra as Auli�s ski legacy 'melts away'

Uttarakhand News
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Snowless winters! Ski instructors sell gear & turn to Char Dham Yatra as Auli�s ski legacy 'melts away'

Over 200 snowmobiles run on the slopes every day in season.

Snowless winters! Ski instructors sell gear & turn to Char Dham Yatra as Auli�s ski legacy 'melts away'

Uttarakhand News


DEHRADUN: Many ski instructors in Auli and Gulmarg, once thriving winter sports hubs, are selling off their imported equipment to buy mules and find work during the Char Dham Yatra, as years of poor snowfall-blamed on climate change-have upended their livelihoods and left the slopes bare at the height of winter. In the windswept heights of Auli in Uttarakhand's Chamoli district, Santosh Panwar has spent two decades teaching people how to glide across powdered snow. But the snow, once a faithful companion from mid-Dec to March, has begun to retreat � its absence now an unwelcome certainty in recent winters.

"The number of candidates enrolling in ski schools has been decreasing annually," he said, noting a steep drop in interest and availability. "Earlier, we used to run at least 20 courses every winter. This year we could run only two, with around 20 candidates in total. We used to get 200-250 people easily earlier."

The dwindling numbers reflect a larger crisis. Not only is snowfall now less reliable, it also melts faster, giving instructors less time to work and tourists fewer reasons to visit.

Auli was scheduled to host the national ski championship in early March, but the event was cancelled - just as it was in 2022 and 2023 - because the required two feet of snow for professionals and six inches for beginners was not there on the scheduled dates. "The snow used to stay," Panwar said. "Now, it vanishes almost as soon as it comes."

The economic fallout has been brutal. Imported ski gear, mostly sourced from Europe, is expensive and difficult to maintain. With the sport in decline, instructors are offloading them � second-hand gear starts at Rs 50,000, while new kits can cost upwards of Rs 2 lakh.

Many have sold their skis to counterparts in Kashmir, where skiing remains more viable for now. Some have used the proceeds to purchase mules, which they now deploy along the pilgrimage routes of the Char Dham Yatra. "It's the only way to survive," Panwar added.

Ajay Bhatt, national ski coach since 2014 and a veteran instructor in Auli, confirmed that the first snowfall now arrives almost a month later than it used to. "Earlier, it came by Dec 15. Now it's mid-Jan," he said. But for him, it isn't just nature that is letting them down.

Bhatt criticised the administration's lack of initiative, especially its failure to promote heli-skiing or maintain artificial snow-making machines. "If the authorities become proactive, we can still improve despite the environmental challenges," he said.

Further north, in the famed slopes of Gulmarg in Jammu & Kashmir, the story reads much the same. Shafat Tantray, who has been running a ski school for 18 years, said the white canvas of his hometown has grown thinner each year, and that what once looked like a five-month season is now shrinking rapidly.

"Earlier there was at least 300cm of snow, now we barely get 180cm," he said. "And it melts fast. During peak winters in Jan, we used to get a maximum of 5�C. This year, it went up to 15-20�C. People from Mumbai came and told us it felt like their city."

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Over 200 snowmobiles run on the slopes every day in season.

Uttarakhand News


Gulmarg, with its iconic slopes and postcard winters, is groaning under the weight of climate change and tourism. "The place has a holding capacity of about 1,000 people per day," Tantray said.

"Now 20 times that number comes. Over 200 snowmobiles run on the slopes every day in season." The impact is tangible, and the predictions are grim. "If this continues, we won't see snow in Gulmarg in the next 4-5 years," he warned.

While tourist numbers have grown in recent years, especially post-pandemic, the boom may be short-lived. Shahid Alam, a Gulmarg-based instructor who has spent 16 years in the business, said the current uptick in skiing tourism hides a long-term crisis.

"Yes, the number of tourists increased in the last 3-4 years, and so did the revenue," he said. "But this is a short-term gain and a long-term loss. The conditions are worsening each year."

The situation, many feel, was avoidable - had global warming been treated with greater urgency. Anoop Nautiyal, a social activist from Uttarakhand who has long raised alarms over climate change in the Himalayas, said the outcome is inevitable.

"Not many understand that global warming is real and is affecting every section of people," he said. "It is ending the livelihood of people, especially in the Himalayan areas like those in ski schools. The need of the hour is to take required steps to minimise the effects as much as possible with collective efforts."


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