A Waltz on Snow

Its ski season again at Auli as Aloke Bajpai heads for the Himalayan slopes and the cotton-white snow before spring sets in.

Though the mercury is threatening to rise in the western part of India, the north seems to be in for a long winter this year, which is good news for some of us.

On the slopes of Auli Pic: Ajay Khullar

A decade ago, Gulmarg was the main skiing spot in the country. But with tourist traffic to Kashmir fast drying up, the government was compelled to look elsewhere for an alternative. Years of hard work and crores of rupees later the Auli Ski Resort has become the best of its kind in the country.

Kicking up a snow storm

Expert skiers zoom up and down the Auli slopes Pic: Mercury Himalayan Explorations (MHE)

Over the last ten years I have seen Auli evolve from a mere meadow into a resort that can today boast of some of the best slopes, a state-of-the-art network of chair lifts and ski lifts and some monstrous snow-beaters. To top it all, it is now connected to the nearest town of Joshimath by a cable car system said to be the longest of its kind in Asia.

In the winters of the late '80s and early '90s when skiing was in its infancy, we had to cover the seven-kilometer distance between Joshimath and Auli on foot, trudging through ankle- and knee-deep snow - uphill. Fresh snow on the slopes had to be beaten manually to make it ski-worthy and each run down the slope meant a long hard trudge up again for a re-run. Today it all seems so much easier.

You get to Auli via Rishikesh. A 10-hour bus ride on a winding road, snaking through some spectacular terrain and deep ravines, gets you to Joshimath. The journey goes all along by the Ganges and you can see the merging of the various rivers at the many prayags dotting the route, the most famous being the Rudraprayag where the legendary Jim Corbett shot down a notorious man-eating leopard decades ago. It is advisable to reach Joshimath by 4.00 pm at the latest lest you miss the last cable car ride to Auli.

Ski Skills

Waiting in line to get started Pic: MHE

Learning the curves of skiing

Log huts in Auli

The next morning is completely action-packed. The basic principle of skiing is to keep your body weight forward, which you can do by bending your knees and pushing your body forward. The rest is a matter of time. If you are reasonably determined, you could get the hang of it within a week or less. But during those seven days, you will find yourself skiing backwards, skiing on your haunches, lying face down with your legs entwined in unimaginable positions, skiing slam bang into someone who has just staggered to his feet and getting both of you in a tangled heap. You just can't escape the spills and the chills. But they're great fun too, and at worst, will leave you with a few bruises and sprains. Soon, however, you will find yourself getting into the swing of things and it is a sport guaranteed to give you a thrill you have never experienced before. It is easy to get addicted to it - most visitors return the next winter for that headlong rush of excitement. And, of course, the evenings spent around the 'bukharis'.

The 'bukhari' is an ancient heating system which works with wood and getting it to work is an art in itself - one of the several things you learn at Auli. A combination of the right placement of wood, right amount of kerosene and some vigorous blowing is what you need to get it going. A slight error, though, and you could be left without your eyebrows.

All evenings are sans televisions, radios or newspapers and the vast expanse of snow around the resort restricts your movement anywhere outside. So post-skiing action is concentrated around the 'bukharis' where the day's events are discussed and dissected over several rounds of steaming coffee.

Auli dormitories also teach you some other vital skills like how to live without a shave and bath for days, how to amicably share one bucket of warm water in the morning with 15 other bunkmates, how to cope with toilets with latch-less doors… and still be blissfully happy.

Which is why, come February, a faithful band of adventure seekers stuffs its bags with woolies and heads for a samba on the slopes where the days are crisp and sunny and the only thing frozen in the winter chill is time.

Getting Spiritual At Joshimath

For those who want to take some time off from skiing or are perhaps nursing an unfortunate injury thereof, there is Joshimath.

Visitors to Auli usually tend to stay a day or two at Joshimath (6,150 feet) to get acclimatised. It is 16 kilometres from Auli by road, which is not very dependable and it takes very little snowfall to close the road to all except army vehicles with chains attached to the tyres. The other and more alpine option to reach Auli from here is to take the cable car. But the catch is that it takes you to the top of the ski slope, a distance of about three kilometres from the resort and tourists struggle with their luggage to cover the distance. Some are even covered with mud and snow - signs of involuntary ski practice without the skis. Taking a jeep from Joshimath costs about Rs 25 per seat but if the cable car is out of order, the jeep drivers charge as much as Rs 300.

Taking a ski lift to the top Pic: Ajay Khullar

The luxury of sunbathing

Tented accommodation in Auli Pic: MHE

Cable cars make life easier Pic: Achal Dhruva

A hill station located at an altitude of 6,000 feet in the Chamoli district of Garhwal Division in Uttaranchal, Joshimath is a reasonably big town with a large presence of the army and the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP). It lies in the mountain slopes above the rivers Alaknanda and Dhauliganga. Today Joshimath has emerged as an important hill station and offers wide tourism potential. However, of late, people seem to have forgotten its religious and historical importance.

The towering facade of Nandadevi

School children excercising in Joshimath

Panorama enroute to Joshimath Pic: Achal Dhruva

The word Joshimath or rather 'Jyotirmath' means the place of Jyotirlinga of Shiva. It is a mesmerising place with beautiful views of the snow-capped mountains including the famous Nandadevi peak and the landscape and is considered to be one of the most sacred places by Hindus who believe that Badrinath (Vishnu) resides here in winter. It is one of the four great 'maths' established by Adi Guru Shri Shankaracharya in the eighth century AD for sanyasis. There are several ancient temples to visit. The town is the winter abode of Lord Badri, who is brought down from Badrinath to the Vasudeva Temple at Joshimath somewhere around the festival of Diwali. Tourists can visit Badrinath, Kedarnath, Chopta, Valley of Flowers and Hem Kund sahib Gurudwara on excursion from Joshimath during summer.

Joshimath has a temple dedicated to Narshimsha, an incarnation of Vishnu. An arm of the idol is said to be thinning and it is believed that when it breaks off, the road to Badrinath will be closed by a landslide. There are other temples dedicated to Hanuman, Ganesha, Surya, Gaurishankar and Naudevi as well. These temples surround that of Vashudeva that has a two-meter high black stone idol installed standing on a lotus pedestal and flanked by standing figures of Sridevi and Bhudevi. There are also the idols of the ten avtars of Vishnu.