Ok I’m back…in New Zealand. Just after my last post the internet seemed to vanish from existence and never returned before a left Gulmarg. So here are a few pics from around Gulmarg town.

This shot was taking from the door of my hotel looking across the ski field (golf course in the summer)

I sat next to this guy chatting about my experience of gulmarg and what New Zealand was like.

Yasin Kahn is a local legend around town,a highly respected Kashmiri who runs the Kashmir alpine ski shop. He generally meets and drinks tea with all the pro athletes and production companies that are in town filming. This time it was Andy, Pep and myself accepting the invitation.

These three puppies followed me every morning as walked to the Kiwi house. Worthy of a mention I thought

Up until recently you could only buy alcohol at a couple of hotels around town. I’m not sure if this place is ‘legit’ or not but its not a big deal in true India style if the officials come calling they’ll just serve them alcohol and slip them some rupees. Here it’s Tim O’leary, owner of Alpine Heliski that slipping them a few rupees.

The same razor wire fence from the opening shot of the Gulmarg edit.

They monkeys are definitely a novelty to watch, any other season they would be charging around in about 7ft of snow.

I love these two photos (above and below), the craziness of the situation where the heavily overloaded bus with about 10 people hanging off of it was overtaking us on a blind corner with icy roads, clearly in need of new shocks and maybe a driver with a sense of responsibility.
I’m liking the condensation on the windows making the images look more dramatic.

This shot was taken from the ‘Kiwi house’ looking across to one of the learners slopes. Next year there will be a heli parked in the lower left corner of this photo….epic!

The 3 days before i left Gulmarg saw it snow over 1mtr of snow, since then it pretty much hasn’t stopped.The 3 weeks that i was on the ground in Gulmarg saw the snow pack become increasingly unstable, you can probably see from the amount of sluff that was ripping from a single turn in the edit that with the addition of over a meter of snow it was never going to be good. Since I’ve been back it has continued to snow…with major consequences, a huge avalanche has ripped out killing 17 soldiers and critically injuring another 17, you can read more about it here This wasn’t within the ski area boundaries, the ski patrol in Gulmarg is lead by a Canadian named Pete, and they do and excellent job, I defiantly recommend using a local guide if your heading to Gulmarg, Gulmarg Powder Guides would be my choice, trained by Tim O’Leary Alpine heli ski and Mark Woodwood (a New Zealand Guide who is heading back to climb Mt Everest for the 7th time this April) These Kashmiri Guides have the skill needed when shit hits the fan.

And finally heres a quick little timelaps looking up at the smoke from the shack next door, its glowing orange due to the streetlights in the carpark behind the building

Well I’ve finally done it, I’ve reluctantly started a blog. For those of you out there who don’t know what I do for a living watch this to start with…..

So this is where I am now and what I’m currently doing. Filming in Gulmarg, Kashmir ,India. I have been pulled away from the scorching Wanaka summer and flown to the Himalayan mountain town of Gulmarg. My purpose here,to produce web video content for Gulmarg Heliski’s advertising campaign. The Original idea was to produce 3 webisodes with K2 international pro skiers Andy Mahre and Pep Fujas while they were here. Unfortunately, according to the Kashmiri locals, this is the worst snow season they have ever seen. This time last year there was approximately 9ft of snow outside the door of my hotel, this season there is barely 1ft! Therefore only the one webisode was possible. Andy and Pep left Gulmarg earlier this week to continue the winters shredding back in the US Andy,Pep and I were all here to scout and document the huge Himalayan peaks that Gulmarg Heliski will access when they launch in January 2011. The Gulmarg gondola access some incredible terrain its self and takes you to an altitude 3950m, I was lucky enough to be filming my good friends, Kat and Guy Nurse’s wedding in Kiakora the day before I flew here,however this ment going from sea level to the top of the gondola (3950) in the space of about 36 hours. From there a short hike to the summit of Mt Apharwat (about 4200) carrying my camera pack left me on my knees gasping for air. So going back about 12 hours, I land at Shrinagar Airport which is actually an active military base as opposed to a domestic airport. I walk down the stairs of the plane, look up to see a MIG 29 fight jet rip over head buzzing the airport, straight outta TopGun. The town of Shrinagar has had some bad press recently due to terrorist attacks targeting hotels and city markets. Most insurance companies wont give you travel insurance to come here because is “too dangerous”. Due to terrorist attacks and the ongoing battle with Pakistan (pretty interesting read about it here,Thanks Joe) the military presence in this place is intense, as soon as you arrive at the airport your handed a foreign visitor registration form to sign stating what you are doing in the Kashmir region. When returning, your bags are xrayed about 1 km before even get to the airport terminal, all vechiles are searched at this checkpoint. And if you try to take any photos the soldiers wave their hands at to tell you to put the camera down…..like this First the hand, then the AK Soon after, if your still taking photos he’ll pull the AK up from under his arm and start waving that. I promptly put my camera down at this point.I didn’t really want to witness the next signal. This military presence continues for the eye-opening 2 hour drive up to the town of Gulmarg. Here are a few more pic taken on my way up to Gulmarg. Roadside patrol A common site in Kashmir It really is just the first impression here that is intense. After the first day you realise there is nothing to worry about, 9 out of 10x the soldiers will smile and wave and are stoked to see you. It’s just a little shocking in the beginning to see to many guns. I’ve been in Gulmarg for over a week now and had the change to head down the valley and Tangmarg.This is the village we skied/walked to in the edit above. I went back 2 days after I was there with Pep and Andy. Awesome little village, I had lunch at this random dudes house who I met in the town square , Manzoo Chacha is his name.I meet his 2 sons his wife and sister. He then took me into the heart of the old part of the village. I got him to drop me here so I could go for a walk and take a few snaps. Grommet rocking the Tall-T Most women you see here seem to disappear back inside their houses when they see a westerner walking down the street. This was one of the rear occasions that didn’t happen. As you probably figured from the edit, the kids here love seeing westerners and especially love you taking their photo to show them. At one point on my walk i had about 15 kids following me.You can see some kids in the background running to come and see me. This was the 2nd house I was invited into for a cup of tea while I was walking around Tungmarg These are some of the kids we meet when we walked through the village after skiing A kid and a candy shop Hitch hiking Kashmiri style in the main part of Tungmarg village.

That’s all for now, I’ll hit back soon with some snaps of around the town of Gulmarg and the people here.