First snow shoe adventure sports in Kashmir

January 23 (TravelAndy): India’s Jammu and Kashmir state hosted its first snow shoe championship today, at Gulmarg valley, said The Greater Kashmir.

Kashmir’s tourismdepartment and SnowShoe Federation of India arranged this event, to attract several adventure enthusiasts to the Himalayan valley.

“Snowshoe is relatively new activity in our part of the World. It is quite popular in Europe and USA both as recreational tourism as well as professional sports activity. Today we joined hands with SnowShoe Federation of India (SSFI) to organize an event at Gulmarg and we are delighted with the response,” said Mahmood Ahmad Shah, director of Kashmir tourism.

“We have big plans in store for the Snowshoeing and for that we will be procuring Snowshoes shortly. Currently SSFI has only eight pairs of racing snowshoes but we will be acquiring general snowshoes for the general tourism activity that can be used in sporting as well. It is the actuivity that can be done by any one and doesn’t require special skill. You just need few inches of snow and pair of snowshoes to do this. We can do it any part of the State, be it Pahalgam, Gulmarg, Sonamarg, Yusmarg or even Patnitop,” he added.