Skiing in Himachal Pradesh :

Kufri (2,500 m), 16 km from Shimla, is one of the oldest places to be associated with skiing in the country. Oddly enough, skiing at Kufri does not owe its origin to the European presence in Shimla, but started two years after Independence, in 1949, when Mr ‘Panchi’ Sen, who had spent some time in Switzerland, came as the manager of the local branch of now-defunct Grindlays Bank. He introduced skiing to the town’s novices on what is now a busy thoroughfare — the slope that leads down from Lakkar Bazaar to the gates of Auckland House School. After spending a while dodging or ramming shoppers and commuters, the skiers shifted to Kufri and in no time at all, skiing had established itself as a popular winter sport. Over mildly sloping fields, over what claimed to be the highway, and over what were fertile grazing slopes through the summer, Kufri provided a series of different runs.

A ski club of sorts took shape. The winter-sports aficionados of Shimla and all others, who would join them, would ice-skate in the town in the morning walk the ten miles to Kufri, ski for a few hours and then walk back to be able to skate again in the evening. 

Altering global weather patterns and changes in the micro-climate have pushed skiers away from Kufri to Narkanda that lies higher up. The slopes at Narkanda are not very long, but their couple of hundred metres are adequate to set off that surge of adrenalin. It’s a heady feeling as you set off with the icy wind brushing your face and in the winter-swept silence the only sound is of your breath and the hiss of skis on snow. Every part of the body is on high alert, the mind sending and responding to messages from distant muscles, nerves taut and prepared for split-second decisions.

Narkanda holds a beginner’s run, a slalom slope and a slope for a surer foot. The setting is picturesque with spruce trees all around. From time to time, the HPTDC offers courses and ski-packages at Narkanda. The sport has given tiny Narkanda a level of entrepreneurial openings and several shops have equipment on hire and they also provide assistance from local boys, who can ski.

In Himachal Pradesh, skiing is available at both Narkanda and the Manali area — Manali also offers heli-skiing on some of the best ‘powder’ in the world.

In Manali, Himachal Tourism in collaboration with the Directorate of Mountaineering and Allied Sports also conducts courses along the Solang valley. Heli-skiing, that rare high-thrill high-end sport is also available in Manali. One of the unique features of this privately-run operation in the Manali area is the compactness of the skiing arena; the area bounded by Deo Tibba and Hanuman Tibba. A sortie of a few minutes takes skiers thousands of feet up slopes that hold some of the finest ‘re-crystallised powder’ in the world. A deep snow-pack, low moisture content in the snow and the wilderness effect have made this a quite a getaway for serious skiers. As has been remarked, “Powder snow skiing is not fun. Its life, fully lived, life lived in a blaze of reality”.