It is snowing everywhere in the hill stations and for skiing lovers, one could not ask for more. To ski is to travel fast and free over untouched snow country. It is to follow the lure of peaks which tempt on the horizon and to be alone for a few days or even hours in clear, mysterious surroundings. The reality is that some of us are more daring and untiring in their pursuit of unexplored territories.

Sometimes skiing could be dangerous. Skiing all alone one may have a monologue with snowy environment. The ski slopes of Gulmarg are among the world’s best skiing destinations. People from different countries come and go after having a date with the idyllic land. It is very sad that some of them have bitter climax. In the latest incident there are attempts to retrace Norwegian skier Franciscka Rogne in the Gulmarg who has been missing for more than a week. She had disappeared on a ski trip when avalanches had struck. In the earlier two such happenings in the State an Australian skier Shaun Shaggy Kratzer had died on Gulmarg slopes in February last year. He was skiing down along with a few others when he was overwhelmed by a huge avalanche.

Avalanches are very powerful and unpredictable know no mercy. They are regarded as the biggest danger property in mountains. Someone who is buried under snow has an 80 per cent chance of survival if he or she is dug out within 15 minutes. This is because it becomes difficult to breathe and impossible to move even under a few centimeters of snow. After 30 minutes their survival chances are reduced to 30 per cent.

The worst thing about skiing is when you are not skiing. Skiing is the art of catching cold and going broke while rapidly heading nowhere at great personal risk. In fairness to skiers they don’t grumble about their fate. For them it is a passion the intensity of which only they are aware of. Serious mishaps in more advanced countries like Italy, Canada, Austria, Switzerland, United States, Germany, France and Chile have not had any demoralizing effect on them. Who has not been bewitched by the allure of the sparkling Alps? One estimate counts about 115000 people being injured every year on the Swiss slopes. Wounds are as these take place in serious road accidents in head, shoulder and spine. Skiers are repeatedly being advised to observe certain dos and don’ts. Among other things they are expected to avoid other people and objects and concede the right of way to people in front.

There are really only three things to learn in skiing:
1. To put on your skis,
2. To slide downhill,
3. To walk along the hospital corridor.

Teaching danger to skiers, however, is meaningless. They want to live fearlessly even if means living dangerously. All that one can do is to make sure that the ski slopes are the safest to the maximum extent.