The first three days build the same foundation as our short course: edges, toeside, and turns that link. Days 4 and 5 are where this package earns its name. You ride the Gulmarg Gondola to Kongdoori at around 3,100 m and take long descents on real mountain terrain, changing pitch, changing snow, and enough distance that your turns have to work when you're tired rather than only when you're fresh.
Five days is the length we'd recommend to anyone who wants to leave Gulmarg riding the mountain rather than the nursery slope. And it works because you have one instructor to yourself for every hour of it.
What's included
- Airport pick-up and drop: Srinagar (SXR) both ways
- 3-star or 4-star hotel stay with breakfast and dinner included
- Complete snowboard equipment: board, bindings and boots, set up for your stance on arrival
- All essential safety gear: helmet, goggles, gloves and wrist guards
- Snowboard pants and jacket
- All lift passes for the beginner and intermediate slopes used in the course
- Gondola Phase 1 passes: Kongdoori, approx. 3,100 m
- One-to-one snowboard instruction throughout
- Daily transport hotel to slopes to hotel
- Emergency medical support on call
Day by day
Day 1, Stance, edges and sliding on purpose
Boot fit, regular or goofy, binding angles and stance width. Then strapping in, getting up efficiently, skating with the back foot out, gliding on the stomp pad, and the heelside slip, controlling your descent on an edge and stopping on command. Falling technique: fists closed, forearms not palms, roll rather than brace.
Day 2, Toeside, and the day it's supposed to be hard
Toeside slips, falling leaf on both edges, then garlands. Almost everybody finds Day 2 the hardest day of the week. Once both edges are reliable we move to the 8-5 slope and start using the beginner lift.
Day 3, Linking turns
Heelside to toeside and back without stopping between, steered by vision and by the front hand and hips rather than by kicking the tail out. Longer descents at Highland Park, and riding to a rhythm rather than one turn at a time.
Day 4, Gondola Phase 1, Kongdoori
Your first mountain day. The Gondola takes you from the Gulmarg base at 2,650 m up to Kongdoori at around 3,100 m, and the descent back down is longer and more varied than anything you have ridden so far.
Three things get taught here that only mountain terrain can teach. Riding a gondola and a lift with a board, unstrapping the back foot, loading and unloading, and getting away from the offload without sitting down in front of everybody. Carrying speed across flat sections and traverses, which is a snowboarder's problem and not a skier's. And adjusting turn shape as pitch and snow change under you, instead of riding the same turn everywhere.
Day 5, Turns that hold up
The consolidation day. Dynamic linked turns down the full Kongdoori descent, worked on repeatedly until they survive fatigue, which is the real test of whether a skill has stuck. We'll start moving you from skidded turns toward the beginnings of a carve: tilting the board on edge and letting it turn, rather than pushing it around.
We finish riding top to bottom together, with your instructor behind you rather than in front.
What you'll be able to do at the end
- Ride Gondola Phase 1 descents from Kongdoori confidently, top to bottom
- Link dynamic turns on both edges on varied pitch and varied snow
- Carry speed through flats and traverses instead of stalling and unstrapping
- Ride the Gondola and the beginner lifts independently
- Control speed and line well enough to choose your own way down a familiar run
- Feel the first properly carved turns on a groomer
If you want to go further, the chairlift above Kongdoori, steeper pitch and your first turns in soft snow, that's the 7-Day Beginner Snowboard Package.
Not included
Airfare to Srinagar, lunch, personal expenses, travel insurance, snowboard clothing unless added on. GST where applicable
Book
Tell us your dates and we'll tell you honestly whether five days is the right length for you. WhatsApp or call +91-9596300570.
Enquire about this package. WhatsApp us.