Kashmir has a large number of youth who can afford to go for skiing holidays if they get bitten by this bug. In fact this approach needs to be adopted for all tourism related activities. We need not helplessly wait for outside tourists. Our own people can be the best clients if the0y develop the habit of taking holidays, both leisure as well as adventure type. Similarly, most of the facilities and infrastructure should normally be owned and operated by the locals from the adjacent areas as well as from within the State. They can get partners for joint venture for expertise and investment from within the country or even abroad. In a number of European resorts most of the earlier farmers and shepherds are now the owners of major facilities operated there. Thus Winter Tourism in Kashmir is a mine of "White Gold", provided it is exploited in a planned manner in a very professional but an apolitical way.

The recent efforts of the State Tourism Department in promoting Skiing at Gulmarg and other resorts are a very welcome step in tapping the extensive potential we have for the development of Winter Tourism in Kashmir. In mid eighties I had the opportunity of flying in a helicopter with a European ski expert over the snow areas of entire Kashmir valley. He had remarked that Kashmir has unlimited "White Gold". The oil reserves of the Arabs are termed as "Black Gold". Similarly, the huge easily accessible ski able snow areas of Kashmir can be termed as the "White Gold". We have the possibility to set up over a dozen world class ski resorts in our mountain areas. The terrain, snow conditions, and the climate are ideal and in some respects better than the Alps. Gulmarg is probably the nearest resort of its type and size to a jet airport which is soon going to be operational as an International Airport. No other resort in this part of the world is so easily accessible to the International tourist traffic. Even in the last century Gulmarg was considered by the British an important ski resort this side of Suez. In fact, the Ski Club of India was established by Major Metcarp and Major Headow, two British Army Officers, in 1927 at Gulmarg.

Mr.B.N.Pestonji was its first Secretary. Skiing had been introduced as a sport in Gulmarg area almost at the same time as it had started in Alps. Those days all ski competitions were held at Khilanmarg and the pony track was kept open throughout the winter. There were two major events, the Christmas and Easter Competitions. The famous British Sports Equipment Firm, the "Lilywhites" had introduced some trophies for various ski competitions. In fact one of the ski slopes above Khilanmarg is still called the "Lilywhite Slope". The attendance in the open competition held at Christmas in 1938 was over 500. Gulmarg had two 100 room hotels and hundreds of chalets.

There was a Cinema and a Golf Club House with two eighteen hole courses. One could get everything aristocratic and fashionable in the "Bazaar" of Gulmarg directly imported from all parts of Europe. Families of some of the British Army Officers would come to Gulmarg simply to buy these goodies. Marion Doughty in her travelogue, "Afoot through Kashmir Valley" makes a special mention of the "Gulmarg Tea Dance" and the preparations she had to undergo at the British Residency in Srinagar for participating in the event. Gulmarg was discovered by Yusuf Shah Chak, the last Kashmiri ruler who used to camp here for days with his poetess Queen Habba Khatoon. The Mughal Emperor Jehangir and his Queen Noor Jehan too were very fond of Gulmarg.

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