New sunstone poster - which one do you like?

Well the good news is that Gulmarg (Kashmir, India) has had it's first snow fall of the season and we are getting loads of bookings coming in to ski the epic Himalayas! So if you haven't already got in touch, even if you're by yourself come join a group or want to find out more about skiing / snowboarding in:

Gulmarg (Kashmir, India)
Iran
Japan
New Zeland

Trekking or Mountaineering in:

Nepal
Tibet
Bhutan
New Zealand

 contact me for more info or queries on: paul@sunstoneadventures.com

Iran looks like it's kicked off too with initial snowfalls in Dizin & Shamashek  as has Hakuba in Japan in which sunstone will be hanging out in January this season!

We thought we'd have a little vote on what upcoming ski & snowboarding poster you'd like to see printed out of the 4 sunstone posters as per below. Just make a comment below this blog on which one you like the most and you'll go into a draw to win a sunstone prize pack with a t-shirt, posters and stickers!

Ski & Snowboard Poster:

1) Getting some deep bank action in Gulmarg, Kashmir. Photo by Sandy Norval.

2) Sandy slashes the board in Gulmarg Kashmir. Photo by sunstone.

3) Paul about to get a face full skiing Monkey Hill in Gulmarg, Kashmir. Photo by Luke Smithwick.

4) Wood for the Trees? Paul gets super deep in the 'Paper Trees' Gulmarg, Kashmir. Photo by Sandy Norval.

Let us know your favourite number for the 2011 sunstone ski snowboard poster in the comment box below?

Time for the trekking & mountaineering section. Which picture would you like to see as the sunstone 2011 poster?

Trek & Mounatineering Poster:

1) Freddie heads up the summit ridge to claim Island Peak 6189m. Photo by sunstone.

2) Karate Kidding around at Island Peak advanced base camp. Photo by Per Blomstrand.

3) Summiting Lobouch East Peak 6119m. Photo by Saran Subba.

4) Per about to Summit on Island Peak 6189m, Everest Region Nepal. Photo by sunstone.

Leave a comment and let us know which number for the ski & snowboard poster? And the Trekking & Mountaineering section? You'll go into a draw for a sunstone goodie bag.

Cheers, Paulio

Skiora! What has sunstone been up to in New Zealand?

A part from (about to start) watching the rugby world cup....the ski season has been great with silky, smooth lines still to be had in stunning spring time. Daffodils are coming out as are lambs being born!




A wee road trip to the stunning Lake Ohau at the start of the season kicked things off in style. Powder on the Friday, hanging out at the high countrylodge, chilling in the 2 jacuzzi's that over look the stunning turqouise lake with views up to New Zealand's highest mountain - Mount Cook. Awesome food - salmon, venison, lamb, beef & great vegetables all sourced locally. What more could we ask for? A contiki bus load of chicks? Tick.




Sunstone client Nicola Bini from Italy scored fantastic turns, flying in over the snow coated Southern Alps from Sydney after 1 meter of snow had dumped, which was a welcoming to Aotearoa of epic proportions.











Followed up by sweet turns at Craigieburn for the weekend, beer tasting & fillet steak at Pomeroy's (english style pub in Christchurch) & a trip across the Port Hills to Diamond Harbour on a pristine bluebird day with the harbour like glass. And yes the tasting of the iconic kiwi steak 'n' cheese pie....was well received washed down with L&P!







Temple Basin touring above Arthur's Pass - will I ever get sick of that view of Mount Rolleston, that so fondly reminds me of my Papa (Grandad)!? No, no I won't....









What's in store next you ask......let's charter a helicopter flight onto the Tasman Glacier in the legendary Mount Cook area....BOOM!

For new details on ski & snowboard trips in New Zealand please check out:

http://www.sunstoneadventures.com/adventures/skiing.aspx

Heliskiing in Gulmarg, Kashmir and surviving an earthquake!

Paul finds it on Monkey Hill, photo by Luke Smithwick.

5 runs heliskiing, my family & friends surviving an earthquake, and the Gulmarg ATM worked.....quite a day!
 
After a couple superb days powder skiing I awoke a little sluggishly, went down to the restaurant for chai and my usual kick ass masala omlettes at Bakshi's! Another day of skiing before the next storm approaches! I wearily start getting the gear on and everything else will fall into place me thinks! Suddenly Fayaz was up my stairs offering me his mobile, it was Elliot (junior heli guide) for Gulmarg Heliski on the blower. "Are you guiding any clients today? No"! I replied, "Well we've got a seat for you! The grin on my face resembled that of a Cheshire cat, this was my day and even to get 1 ride was going to be a huge buzz.....by midday we'd sessioned the Lenmarg trees (way out wide skier's left) and notched up 5!!!!!Banzai....



Solomon unloading from the heli mission! Photo by sunstone.

It was a weird situation when the guys mentioned the big earthquake in Chrostcvhurch, NZ just as the heli was coming in to pick us up - I didn't have time to call home. Flying up for a 2nd run a wave of emotion came over me, the feeling of total elation and welling up of tears at the thought of my hometown with family & friends potentially being wiped out! 



Sandy Norval explodes his load on phase 1. Photo by sunstone.

After we had sessioned the pine & birch trees, hitting the steep angled north-facing ridges, exploding the many funky powder mushroom features, cliffs and banks it was back to the Kiwihouse base. I thanked all the guys over chai and promised a box of beer for the favour. Sunstone promotes Gulmarg Heliski on their behalf at no extra cost and I had recommended some clients this year, but by no means 5 runs worth so it was a very nice gesture with the view for sunstone to send more business their way!

I got back to the market called the folks and to my relief all family was well. Facebook and email started to alert that friends were all AOK as messages from all over the world poured in! Thank fark for that....the feeling of relief was the understatement of the year!



Solomon and Elliot in the Heli exploring & naming new routes. Photo by sunstone.

Check out: www.gulmargheliski.com



Chief guide Tim and Junior guide Elliot after slope testing. Photo by sunstone.

The kiwi operation has a superb amount of experience, replicating the Alpine Heliski operation back in Queenstown. Tim O'Leary is chief guide and owner having over 25 years experience as does Mark 'Woody' Woodward who will be mountain guiding Everest for an 8th time with Russell Brice's Himex. 



The boys playing in the trees-Elliot airing over Woody! Photo by sunstone.



Paul up to his armpits in the 'paper trees'! Photo by Sandy Norval.

For your Gulmarg adventure package including backcountry skinning, avalanche training, Accommodation, airport pick-ups/All transport and a days big mountain Heli skiing, with any questions/ info contact Paul:
paul@sunstoneadventures.com

www.sunstoneadventures.com

Big Storms in Gulmarg, Kashmir 2011 cause large Avalanche activity

Well we were waiting for the snow and we certainly got it! The good and the bad it was - Having a huge storm delivering over 70cms - GOOD - of snow onto a very weak hoarfrost baselayer – BAD!



It took some time for avalanche control work to progress and once they had a chance to bomb the main bowl there was a huge release, probably grade 3 that swept down some 500m vertical just passing the constructed avalanche dam. This avi was right down to the ground exposing rock, tree roots and concrete strength ice balls – a real warning of the potential that the backcountry had to go.



We are very lucky that Brian Newman’s team are there as it means we can go lap the 2nd phase runs of the gondola and know we’re safe, in a controlled area when it is at such a lethal time of potential avalanche activity. I had a great time starting off heading out (walking wide) skier’s left on phase 1 for 4 runs with Tiger, hitting some air off the mushrooms and pulling re-entrys, and then scoring 4 super sweet runs off the top in silky smooth fast powder that was oh so worth the wait.



Again some people were frustrated, but this is serious terrain which needs serious consideration, yes there are delays procuring explosives from the Indian army but to ride over 1000m vertical runs in cold, dry Himalayan powder is worth all that patience – advice – come for a longer stay, the more time the better to settle into Kashmiri time!



I was stoked with my cache of 6000m vertical meters but also very apprehensive of what the next days’activities were to hold, which would no doubt include many riders heading wide out into the very dangerous back country (rated “considerable” on the avalanche risk category). I hooked up with some buddies and really decided I wanted to come home that night, in tact and to live another day.
I thought – what is the best way to achieve this objective? Terrain management was the answer.

There had been clear slide activity on both southerly and northerly aspects, so I played the stats skiing between 20-25 degree slopes. We first skinned up the Apherwat Summit (4,200m) – what a start to a day with super crystal clear views of Nanga Parbat (at 8,100m the 9th highest mountain over in Kashmiri Pakistan), clipped in and dropped the mello skier’s right of the Shark’s Fin bowl! This took us down into the flat, traversing across to again skin-up to Khimlanmarg 1 (5th bowl skier’s left).



Again this bowl is one of the more mello pitches to descend, quite windblown but once in the lower reaches of Lilywide just superb powder skiing! Tom and I decided to keep skiing fall-line right down to the HAWS (High Altitude Warfare School) – weren’t thinking about that one when they named it ;-) into the forest, where the silky pow kept on coming, hitting powder puff mushrooms and finishing right down by the road. A superb ski, relaxed, taking it one-by-one with the group, in constant communication, forecasting our plans to each other (with agreement) and most of all safe and sound and back for some nice chai and great Kashmiri Food!



Unfortunately as predicted there were avalanche incidents – 2 avalanches including 1 burial of a Kiwi guy whom took a 400m ride concluding heading over a 15m waterfall. He was lucky and as a friend watched the video footage, he observed he was under the snow for 12 minutes (far longer than the reported 5 mins), having his guide dig him out. Apparently he came too, blue-faced and was singing in Indian – how bizarre. They were skiing Hapat Khued bowl (3rd bowl skier’s right) south-facing in which this terrain is significantly steeper than that of the skier’s left options. Although in saying that a steeper shot on skier’s left, south-facing in lower Apharwat North Bowl also ripped with a 2m crown measuring 300m. Again luckily the party was uninjured, but again a very close call. Stay safe in the back country!



Check out an excellent resource: www.gulmargsnowsafety.com

Remember the 5 A’s to consider:

ASPECT, ANGLE, ALTITUDE, ACCUMULATION, ATTITUDE

Take a reputated avalanche course and live to ski another day!

For safe backcountry access guiding in Gulmarg contact: paul@sunstoneadventures.com
++91 9469639402



As I look out my bedroom window it’s snowing again in Gulmarg!

www.sunstoneadventures.com

Snow arrives in Gulmarg, Kashmir – finally ;-)

Finally 60-70cms of snow arrived in Gulmarg, Kashmir on 13th & 14th January with it clearing for two superb bluebird powder days on the 15th & 16th!
Before this dump it was pretty damn slim pickings, with a 60cm fall around the 2nd of Jan which fell on NO base, before this the only fall was back in November which had left little reminence of anything.



So it was finally game-on with Sunstone client Bryan Morris using some of the skinning skills we’d practiced on Mary’s Shoulder alongside some crucial avalanche training previous to the big dump arriving. With the recent snowfall Bryan Newman (Avalanche Forecaster) had made it clear that it was falling onto a ‘rotten’ snowpack’ and in reality we needed a really big, heavy snowfall to ‘flush out’ this predominant weak layer. In essence this hasn’t happened but after avalanche control work, bombing the Main Bowl there were no controlled releases as we skied across dirty bomb pits in beautiful waist deep powder. There has been some signs of activity with the slope opposite Mary’s Shoulder (below the gondola, 100m from start of the mid-station) sliding and South-West face of the Main Bowl below Army Ridge ripping out also. Avalanche advice is ‘High Risk’ for the Alpine Areas and ‘Moderate Risk’ for Below Tree Line'.



A gorgeous couple of bluebird days, firstly ‘Skinning the Monkey’ doing laps on Monkey Hill with all the skiers with Alpine Touring gear contributing to a couple of superb skin tracks making for lovely ascents up through the forest. The next day, again was a lovely start skinning up the Monkey Hill ridge from the Police Station and dropping in a steep & deep line – a great way to make your way from the market to the gondola. Once at the gondola we hooked up with Mad South African Sean for a couple of laps on Phase 1, some nice turns down the ‘shirt-front’ and some wiggling down some gullies milking the mellow but fun fresh pow pow. Rumours were aghast that Phase 2 would indeed open for 2pm, we weren’t holding our breaths but as always in Gulmarg you have to ‘hedge your bets’ and hang around on the off chance. After lunch it seemed it wouldn’t run but the sounds of the bomb squad doing their thang sounded promising. Bryan Newman always tries hard to at least get it open late for 1 or 2 golden runs and after another quick run on Phase 1 the call was ‘OPEN’. The few who had the tenacity and/or patience to hang around were rewarded with sweet waist deep powder in perfect visibility and calm conditions!



Bryan (Sunstone Client) was stoked and we both thanked the Newman for getting it open and finally getting at it. Down for a beer in the sun at the market and a great feed of butter chicken, garlic naan, Ginger/Garlic Chicken with mixed Vege and a few yarns from sean washed down by some Kingfisher Premium finished off a superb varied day. The season has officially opened and another huge storm forecast for Friday could bring more epicness! Sweet as :-):-):-)



www.sunstoneadventures.com

On the way to Gulmarg, Delhi & The Taj Mahal

Arriving in Delhi after not such a good start at christchurch airport with emirates trying to charge excess backage of $800NZD. Normally I get away with the ski & mountaineering gear. Often throwing in that it's safety gear to get the sympathy vote and talking my way around things ;-) I guess in the past 18 months the airline industry has really tightened its belt and is gaining extra revenue from where ever it can! But what about a fat tax? Is it time for that? Overweight people having to cash up in lieu of luggage? Long are the days gone that you can expect a sporting allowance. 

So the best option is to air freight my ski bag, with time on my hands, not having my first client for skiing up in Gulmarg, Kashmir until 10th of January it may make it in time - this is however good old India.  

A cost of 460 bucks but I'm happy to take the hit and it means the 50 new sunstone gulmarg t-shirts will get over there. 

Arriving late in the evening to cold Delhi I take a prepaid taxi (390 rupees) into main bazaar where all the cheap backpacker accommodation is situated, and it's conveniently placed in between the city metro and New Delhi station. I awake to NYE day and head to Metrpolis (founded 1928) this is one of the more celubrius eateries with great food and service. A few beers and who turns up but Aussie snowboarder Neil from Gulmarg - his cohort Kiwi Tim soon joins us after flying in from Bangkok and we plan dinner and beers! A good night ensue with more beers at club India and the guys head in as they're booked on an early flight the next morning. I continue on and hook up with some lovely Irish girls, some dancing with the locals and the night is done - welcome 2011! 

So by tracking my freight I can see it's making its way to Delhi via Sydney and Singapore which should give me enough time to shoot down to Agra - and finally see the magnificent Taj Mahal, a trip I've been saving for a 'filler' that has presented itself. 

I arrive by train, 7 hrs not 3 and am glad I am reading the superb 'girl with the dragon tattoo' and have some quality tunes on hand. We arrive around dusk and a quick tuk tuk to near the west gate and I'm at Shanti Guesthouse. In truth Agra is a shit hole and really only deserves 1.5 to 2 days of your time! The Taj Mahal really is mind blowing, an architectural marble (see what I did there) and they're right when
they say it is one of the greatest structures produced known to man.

The symmetry and detailed craftsmanship at such a scale is quite mind boggling and the camera gets a good work out! I'm picked up by a 9 year old boy who starts directing me around taking shots with my camera to great effect. He's got all the shots and as I'm traveling solo it's worth the 50 rupes I reward him for his 10 mins maybe not the 200 he further asks for, but as they say if you don't ask you don't get and I'm sure he's done over many gullible tourists in the past.
 
I take a tuk tuk and check out the remaining sites - Agra Fort, baby taj mahal, gardens opposite the taj and Akbar's tomb. I'm glad to see the back of Agra but not the Taj. Check out Joney's restaurant for good eats especially the Malai Kofta! 

Back to Delhi and I do a movie at Connaught place (taking 1 stop, 8 rupees, metro from main bazaar) followed by a legendary Kathi Kebab at Nizam's around the corner. The next day it's lunch with Mike, a yank I met in Gulmarg in my first season who works in development as a Project Manager. Mike is now based in Delhi working for Real Medicine Foundation, as the programme seems to be up and running he continues to try and win more funding. Previous to this was 9 months spent in the field, with director Catlin recruiting 90 local workers taking 400 interviews to put the structure & process in place. Real Medicine provides treatment and medicine for needy, poor villagers in surrounding Madhya Pradesh region. They look to improve and help health processes in conjunction with the Indian government programmes. Check out: www.realmedicinefoundation.org

Further delays on my ski bag, oh well I have so much stuff 2 trips isn't going to be a bad thing - the 50 sunstone tees will ALL make it to Gulmarg! 

www.sunstoneadventures.com