With a ready smile and a well-tended, bushy salt-and-pepper beard, tourism officer Rashid Bhat welcomes me to Kashmir: ‘I hope that while you’re here you won’t face any turmoil. No bombing, no hand grenade or any attack. I hope this especially for foreign guests and tourists so that this message goes out there – that Kashmir is as safe as any place in the world.’

After almost two decades of ‘turmoil’ or ‘the disturbances’ as locals call the state’s ongoing woes, Kashmir is trying to get back on the international tourist map. Given the news coverage of its on-off war/freedom struggle/status as a pawn between two regional superpowers (see: A Brief History of Kashmir, on page 60), it is not going to be an easy task. Even if Kashmir’s minister for tourism, Mohammad Dilawar Mir thinks, as he told me at an interview in London, that: ‘People don’t mix tourism with politics.’

The heyday of Kashmir’s foreign tourism was in the 1980s, when 80,000 foreigners flocked to spend time on houseboats on Dal Lake, Srinagar, or to trek in the foothills of the Himalayas. But after the insurgency started in earnest in 1989, visitors voted with their feet, train and plane tickets and went elsewhere. The age-old claim that Kashmir was ‘paradise on earth’ was as good as mountain mud.

‘Until then, Kashmir was the dream destination. It was number one for honeymooning Indians and for movies, too. It starred in Bollywood classics such as Kashmir Ki Kali,’ says Gulam Kakpori, deputy director of tourism for Jammu and Kashmir. ‘And it was number one for India-bound overseas tourists. When foreigners thought of India, they thought of Kashmir. We hope it will be that way again.’

And when foreigners think of skiing, he wants them to think of India – in fact, of Gulmarg, south Asia’s premier ski resort. So does Mr GM Dar – a mountain guide, one of the first locals to learn to ski in the early 1970s, and as close to a legend as this fledgling resort gets. Everywhere I go with him – in the resort, along the road to Srinagar and to the capital Delhi itself – local men smile and call out the Muslim greeting: ‘Assalam alaikum,’ before coming over to shake his hand.

As a qualified instructor trained in Kashmir, Austria and France, Dar has taught many of the local skiers. He once even skied with Jean-Claude Killy, French triple Olympic champion. ‘Gulmarg is the best in the world,’ he says. ‘If we had the facilities, we could host any world-class ski event.’

Gulmarg’s vital ski statistics are pretty impressive. Vertical drop is important for skiers, as it indicates how far, and for how long, you can go before you have to stop to go back up the mountain. Thanks to a new ski lift from Grenoble, made by France-based manufacturer Poma (the surveys for which were completed in the 1980s, before construction was put on hold because of ‘the disturbances’) skiers now have access to 1,330m of vertical drop. That is more than any resort in the US. And whereas in most resorts the trails are marked and you have to share the mountain with thousands of others, this is not the case in Gulmarg.

As Badrul Jamali, senior manager of the Gulmarg Cable Car Company, explains: ‘Around 90 per cent of our business is from domestic tourists in the summer. Winter is our off season. Last winter we had 100 skiers per day, maximum. Here, people don’t have to wait in line. The ski lift operators wait for them.’ This has brought Australian Peter Robinson back to manage the new ski patrol team for a second season. ‘Right now, with the mountain unmarked and uncrowded, Gulmarg offers a similar experience to that of the first skiers in St Anton and St Moritz. It’s the closest you can get to having your own powder ski resort.’ There are five nursery slopes and lifts here, too. But you would not come this far for those. Gulmarg is for advanced skiers and snowboarders who like their slopes steep and their snow deep. The gradient down the five main gulleys – one of which is named Merry Shoulder after a woman who broke a bone there – ranges from 35-55 degrees. That is the same as the toughest runs in Europe and the US. And the depth of snow? When I was there at the end of November – before it had started snowing properly – it ranged from knee, to thigh, to waist height. Deep powder is virtually guaranteed from mid-December to mid-March, and with lift fees of around 6,600 rupees ($148) for six days, you could call this a cheaper way to heli-ski.

Locals and tourism officials are hoping that this could be the year that skiing takes off in Kashmir. Their hopes have been lifted as the warnings issued by Western governments about travel in Kashmir have, in some cases, been downgraded. Until recently, the UK’s Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) warned against any travel to the state. Now it advises against ‘all travel to, or through, rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir’. As Gulmarg is at the end of a main road, it just about qualifies as safe. That and the SLR and Kalashnikov-wielding soldiers every 100 yards or so along the 56km journey from the airport at Srinagar. It is worth noting, however, that the FCO still advises against all but essential air travel to Srinagar. When I travelled though, the security checks were reassuringly extensive. The plane was full, and there were about half-a-dozen foreign nationals on board.

Minister Dilawar Mir says there have been no major incidents directed at foreigners in over a decade, referring to the kidnappings of six people in 1995. One escaped, five were killed. He, like other Kashmiris I meet, feels the media does not treat them kindly. Referring to terrorist attacks in recent years, he says: ‘There should be advice against travelling to London and Mumbai.’

Dar agrees: ‘Things happen everywhere in the world – in Delhi, Mumbai – but if one person dies in Kashmir, it appears on the front page.’ But tourists have been returning to the state. Last year, over 600,000 visited, the highest number for years. And from January to October 2006, over 41,000 foreigners did too.

Arriving in Kashmir is like entering a post-war zone though. The Delhi government will not say how many troops are posted there, but a soldier in civvies whispers to me that it is a third of the army – about 400,000. Subash and Rachna Julka, a couple from Mumbai celebrating their wedding anniversary in Kashmir, say that the military presence is reassuring for domestic tourists. Foreigners are ambivalent, with approval of the absence of Westerners mixed with concern over the military presence.

After a drive through the valley, passing soldiers, farmsteads, flooded paddy fields and men dressed in the phiran (a sort of long woollen poncho), the villages peter out, and the road twists up the mountain through a pine forest. It is easy to forget you are not in the Alps until the road signs remind you: ‘Gulmarg welcomes you,’ followed by a picture of Dar – with bushy Borat-style moustache – riding a Skidoo.

The signs continue. For drivers there is: ‘Be calm around my curves,’ and: ‘If you’re married to speed, divorce her.’ On one about local handi-crafts: ‘Don’t be lured by price temptations.’ Then suddenly: ‘Army checkpoint ahead, please co-operate.’ It is hard not to pity these bored young men, huddled around a fire for warmth. They invariably beam a welcome when they see a westerner in the car. ‘No horn zone,’ continue the signs. Everyone ignores this, especially when your four-wheel drive goes around another blind bend just as a brightly painted local bus comes the other way, so full there are boys clinging to the roof. No one can tell me much about ‘High altitude warfare school’ and ‘dagger environment park’, but they are intriguingly close to another sign that reads ‘picnic spot’.

Gulmarg in winter is a vast snowy plateau dotted with single-storey dwellings with corrugated iron roofs painted green. Above is the mountain ridge: the long journey was worth it. Skiing here is far from today’s pampered version in the Alps or the Rockies. Your ‘luxury’ hotel may have dubious central heating facilities. Your room’s mountain view may be disrupted by polythene – the local form of double glazing. The hire equipment looks as though it is left over from the 1980s (bring your own). And there is not a bus to ferry you around the resort, which may mean, as it did for me, a 2km walk home at the end of a long day.

The après-ski is very different, too. Any shop that used to sell alcohol has been ‘advised’ against doing so. This means that at the end of a long day and that walk home, when you really deserve a beer, you cannot have one. There are upsides, however. There is your own private mountain, for one. And there are the eagles: suddenly – less than 10m away – two flew out of a tree and fought over a scrap of meat.

I asked locals how they feel about tourists coming back to Kashmir: ‘We were left behind by other states 15 years ago, from when the disturbances started, in terms of development, education… in every way,’ says Riaz Ahmed, an engineer at the cable car company. ‘But now they’ve started to come I feel good. Tourism is our bread and butter.’

Dar adds: ‘Tourism is the backbone of the economy. When tourists are here, the flour comes from the mill, the bread comes from the baker, the meat comes from the butcher, the rice seller has work, the waiter waits and the chef cooks. If the tourists don’t come, what will they do? Everyone is involved in tourism.’

Although the warnings have been downgraded, the troubles are far from over. Front page news in the week I visited noted: ‘two militants killed’; that Gulmarg has: ‘turned into a mini Switzerland’; and that ‘two freedom groups clashed… prompting police to fire tear-smoke shells and baton charge’. But Sheikh Zaffer, whose great uncle was the Lion of Kashmir, a revered nationalist and prime minister of the state, says: ‘The turmoil won’t come to a close, because the politicians are playing games, but what can we do? We can’t sit idle. We have to hope that one day it will go away.’

The Kashmiris may have to wait a few years yet for the avalanche of tourists they are hoping for. But for those who like their snow steep, deep and a little more edgy, there is an awesome mountain out there waiting to be skied.

JA Wallman travelled as a guest of Indus Tours, which can arrange trips to Kashmir; (+44) 208 901 7320, or www.industours.co.uk.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF KASHMIR

1846: Kashmir sold by British to Gulab Singh, a local Hindu maharajah.
August 1947: independence from Britain for all of British India. This results in Partition and communal riots between Hindus and Muslims. Kashmir, with a majority Muslim population and Hindu leader, stalls on which country to join.
October 1947: Pakistani tribesmen invade. Indian troops asked to assist.
1949: ceasefire agreed between India and Pakistan; the line of control (LOC) is determined.
1980s: golden years of tourism in Kashmir. Survey carried out for Gulmarg ski lift.
1989: turmoil intensifies and tourism figures plummet.
1998: Gulmarg opens first phase of ski lift, in time for Indian national winter games.
2002: Indian government in Delhi bombed. India blames Pakistan for supporting the terrorists. Both countries mass their troops at the border, and threaten to use nuclear weapons.
May 2005: Gulmarg opens its second phase of development, including the highest cable car in the world.
The future: a restaurant is to open at the top of the ski lift – it will be the world’s highest diner. More ski lifts are to be added and tender documents are currently with ski lift companies, including Poma.

POETS’ CORNER
Kashmir’s ‘paradise on earth’ epithet comes from a couplet written by 14th-century poet Amir Khusrau: ‘If there is a paradise on earth; this is it, this is it, this is it.’

WHERE TO STAY

INTERCONTINENTAL THE GRAND PALACE
Gupkar Road, Srinagar 190 001
Jammu and Kashmir.
Tel: (+91) 194 2470 101
www.ichotelsgroup.com