"Gulmarg is suffering from an extended period of very dangerous avalanche
conditions. After the tragic fatality on Feb 7th there have been some very big slides and close calls. Two members of a guided group got caught in a class 3. One of them was spat out early on but a snowboarder was carried 1 1/2 km but amazingly finished only buried up to his chest in the debris. Later the same week a patroller had a close call when he was ski cutting while roped up and the whole slope slid. He had about 20m slack so he fell and was under the snow briefly until the rope reached its end and the slide went by him. He was reportedly shaken up a little...So skiing has been limited to ridges trees until the conditions settle down."
"Its finally snowing in Gulmarg after a very dry January and lean start to Feb. A 3 day storm which brought snow even to Srinigar and closed road access to Kashmir has dumped an uncomfirmed 30-90cm and with the accompanying low temps, some of the lower tree skiing is open for the first time in 2 months. The large contingent of international ski bums here are rejoicing and hoping for more to come..."
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