I’m from Australia where my friends and I get excited about a 5cm snow storm. That was until I started to snowboard overseas. Now I’m in Gulmarg where it’s common for a snow storm to dump three metres.

Gulmarg is a village in Kashmir, the state between India and Pakistan. Most Kashmiris are Muslim, but despite their religion most Kashmiris have a better relationship with Hindu Indians than with Pakistan.

Gulmarg sits five kilometres from the militarized Line of Control. It’s one of the most heavily militarized regions in the world. There are 700,000 Indian army troops that are in this state and I would imagine there is a similar number of troops over the Pakistan border. Gulmarg isn’t a very commercial ski resort, more a backcountry paradise for those who are willing to work hard for their lines or who don’t mind playing a game of cheat with mother nature.