Ski Pakistan

Pakistan has great potential for its ski industry with a large amount of mountainous terrain stretching up to the Himalayas, and also a strong military heritage of ski competition but the country’s ski area development has been held back by economic and political issues. These include border conflicts with India in Kashmir and fighting around the Gulmarg ski area there that was at its low point in the 1990s, but more recently in Pakistan’s own North West Territories the Taliban destroyed the country’s one commercial resort during their occupation of the beautiful SWAT Valley up to 2009. This was one of the less significant atrocities during their occupation of the region.

The centre had been created in the early 1960s with chairlifts between around 2900 and 3100m above sea level in the Himalayas and a hotel installed in the late 1980s, a gift from Austria. The Pakistan government now has plans to rebuild the centre.

There are other small ski centres in Pakistan but they are mostly at military bases including Nalter and Kalabagh run by the country’s army and airforce. These stage competitions each winter for military personnel and are hotly contended.

Pakistan is also of note in world skiing terms as it is the favoured access route to K2 and the country’s other four ‘8000ers’ for extreme ski mountaineers attempting to climb and ski down the world’s highest peaks. K2 is considered the most dangerous and has seen several deaths of extreme skiers attempting to conquer it including the ill fated expeditions of Fredrik Ericsson in 2009 and 2010.