GULMARG IN WINTER

Every winter, Gulmarg quietly becomes one of the most magical places in India, and somehow, it still doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Most people know it as the “Meadow of Flowers,” that lush green bowl in the Pir Panjal mountains that draws visitors through the warmer months. But come December, something shifts. The flowers are long gone, the meadows disappear under feet of snow, and Gulmarg becomes something else entirely, India’s only real mountain winter destination, the kind that makes you forget you’re still in the country.

Sitting at around 2,650 meters, about an hour’s drive from Srinagar, it gets hammered by snowfall from December through March in a way that few places in the subcontinent do. Skiers come for the powder. Snowboarders come for the terrain. Honeymooners come for the obvious reasons, because there’s something about fresh snow and Kashmiri hospitality that’s hard to argue with. Photographers show up and simply don’t leave.

Whether you’ve never seen proper snowfall before or you’ve skied across three continents, Gulmarg has a way of surprising you. That’s the thing about it, it doesn’t try too hard. It just sits there in the Himalayas, doing what it does every winter, waiting for you to show up.