Snowboarding starts harder than skiing and then gets easier faster. Days one and two are genuinely difficult for almost everybody, you will fall, and you will fall in ways that feel undignified. Day three is when it turns: heelside and toeside start linking together, the board stops fighting you, and the sport becomes fun rather than a project.
That is exactly what this package is built to deliver. Three days on Gulmarg's Baby Slope, the 8-5 slope and Highland Park, with your own instructor for every hour of it, takes you from strapping in for the first time to riding a beginner slope in linked turns under your own control.
We have been teaching beginners in Gulmarg since 2006. More than 2,500 skiers and riders from over 40 countries have learned here with us, and we are registered with J&K Tourism as a ski and snowboard school and guiding operator under permit no. JKAT00005678.
You fly into Srinagar. We take care of everything after that.
What's included
- Airport pick-up and drop: Srinagar (SXR) to your Gulmarg hotel and back, roughly a 1.5 to 2 hour drive
- 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 slopes used in this course
- One-to-one snowboard instruction: your own instructor for the full course, not a group of eight sharing one
- Daily transport hotel to slopes to hotel
- Emergency medical support on call for the duration of your stay
Where you'll ride
Three areas, in this order, because each one asks slightly more of you than the last:
- The Baby Slope: short, gentle and forgiving, with soft snow to fall into. Where you learn to strap in, skate, slide on both edges and stop.
- The 8-5 slope: a longer beginner run where garlands become turns and you start carrying real speed between them.
- Highland Park: wider and longer again, with enough pitch that turn shape and speed control become genuine skills rather than formalities.
Day by day
Day 1, Stance, edges and sliding on purpose
Morning starts with a proper set-up: boot fit first, because a loose boot is the single biggest cause of a frustrating first week, then finding out whether you ride regular or goofy, and setting your binding angles and stance width to match.
On snow, you'll learn to strap in and get up without exhausting yourself, to skate with the back foot out, the skill nobody teaches early enough and everybody needs in a lift queue, and to glide with the back foot resting on the stomp pad.
Then the core skill of Day 1: the heelside slip. Standing across the fall line, using the edge to control your descent, and coming to a complete stop whenever you decide to. You'll also learn to fall properly, fists closed, forearms taking the impact rather than an outstretched hand, roll rather than brace. This is why wrist guards are included and not optional.
Day 2, Toeside, and the day it's supposed to be hard
Toeside. Facing up the mountain, trusting an edge you can't see, on a slope your instincts are telling you to lean away from. Almost everybody finds Day 2 the hardest day of the week, and knowing that in advance is half of getting through it.
You'll work through the falling leaf on both edges, sliding down the slope in a zig-zag using only edge pressure, then garlands, which are turns that change your mind halfway through. Once heelside and toeside slips are both reliable, we move to the 8-5 slope and start using the beginner lift so your energy goes into riding rather than walking uphill.
If Day 2 feels like a wall, that is the course working as designed, not you failing at it.
Day 3, Linking turns
The day it comes together. Heelside to toeside, toeside to heelside, without stopping in between, driven by looking where you're going and leading with your front hand and hips rather than by throwing the board around with your back foot.
We move to Highland Park for longer descents, work on riding rhythm rather than one turn at a time, and finish the day with you riding a full run repeatedly without your instructor needing to talk you down it.
What you'll be able to do at the end
- Ride beginner slopes in linked turns, in control
- Slide, steer and stop on both heelside and toeside edges
- Control your speed and stop where you choose, on demand
- Skate, glide and ride the beginner lifts without help
- Fall safely, get up efficiently, and know why your wrists are still intact
- Understand slope etiquette, right of way, and why a snowboarder's blind side matters
Three days is enough to become a snowboarder. It is not enough to become a mountain-ready one, if you want the Gondola, real descents and turns that hold up on pitch, the 5-Day Beginner Snowboard Package is the honest answer.
Not included
Airfare to Srinagar, lunch, personal expenses, travel insurance, snowboard clothing unless added on. GST where applicable
Good to know
- Fitness: normal everyday fitness is enough, but be realistic: the physical load on a beginner snowboarder is getting up off the snow, repeatedly, all day. Legs, core and patience. It is more tiring than a beginner ski day and less tiring than it feels at the time.
- Protection: wrist guards are included and we ask you to wear them. Wrist injuries are the characteristic beginner snowboarding injury by a wide margin, and guards substantially reduce them. Padded impact shorts protect the tailbone and are worth having.
- Altitude: Gulmarg sits at 2,650 m. Most people feel nothing beyond mild breathlessness on the first day. Drink more water than you think you need.
- Season: the Gulmarg season typically runs from late December to early April, with the most consistent snow between mid-January and mid-March. March is arguably the best month to learn, longer days, softer snow, emptier slopes. Conditions vary year to year, so ask us what the mountain is actually doing before you book flights.
Book
Ask us anything before you book, we'd rather you arrive with the right expectations. WhatsApp or call +91-9596300570, or send an enquiry and we'll come back with dates, availability and what the snow is doing right now.
Enquire about this package. WhatsApp us.