Winter Transport in Kashmir · ZoonCabs

Winter transport in Kashmir is a different problem from moving people in June, and this is ZoonCabs's guide to it for the agency writing a December to February package: what closes, what stays open, the vehicle the Gulmarg climb needs, and how to plan so a snowed-in day is a change of plan rather than a refund.

Kashmir in winter is a different transport problem from Kashmir in June, and most packages that fail in January fail because they were planned in June's terms. This is what closes, what keeps running, what the vehicle needs, and how an agency should write the package so that a snowed-in day is a change of plan, not a refund.

What stays open

• Srinagar airport and the city. Flights are delayed and occasionally cancelled in fog and snow, but the airport operates through the winter. The airport road is cleared. City days run; the gardens are bare and the lake may freeze at the edges, and clients who came for that are not disappointed.
• Gulmarg. The reason most winter clients come. The road is kept open as a priority, because it is the ski season, and "open" is a true statement that says nothing about "quick". The last stretch above Tangmarg is where it slows, and where chains or a vehicle suited to snow matter.
• Pahalgam. The road to Pahalgam itself stays open. The upper valleys above it, Aru, Betaab and Chandanwari, are on and off with the snow and are run by local vehicles in any case.
• The Jammu highway. Open all year, and closed after heavy snow for hours or a day at a time while it is cleared. It reopens. It is the only all-year road into the valley.

What closes

• Sonamarg. Closes for part of the winter from the first heavy snow until spring, on a date set by the weather. Do not sell it for December to March without an alternative day in the package.
• The Mughal Road. Shut for the winter. Jammu to Srinagar is the highway or nothing.
• Doodhpathri and Yusmarg. Reachable on some days and not on others; snow days on those meadows are wonderful and cannot be promised in advance.

The vehicle

An SUV, whatever the headcount. The Gulmarg climb in snow is not a sedan road, and a car that managed it in October is not evidence about January. Chains on board, someone at the wheel who has done the road in snow, and a dispatch desk that will say "not today" when the road is not right. Tempo travellers go up in season; in heavy snow the party may transfer to SUVs at Tangmarg, decided on the day. The Innova page covers the SUV class.

Writing the winter package

1. Book Gulmarg as an overnight, not a day trip. The day trip is the version that a road closure ruins; the overnight is the version that survives it. Staying up there also gets the morning, which in winter is the only reliably clear part of the day. The Gulmarg guide explains why.
2. Keep a flexible day. A Srinagar day that can become the Gulmarg day if the road was shut, or the other way round. Fixed dates on every day is how a package loses a whole valley to one snowfall.
3. Allow for the airport. Winter flights slip. A pre-booked pickup with the flight number waits for the actual arrival; a departure day should leave the hotel with the airport road and the check-post in mind, and never be the same day as a Gulmarg descent.
4. Say what closes. A client sold Sonamarg in January was sold something that does not exist. Put the alternative in the package, not in the apology.

How dispatch handles a closed road

On a ZoonCabs booking the driver reports to dispatch, dispatch reroutes or reschedules the day, and dispatch calls the agency with the change. The client hears it from the agency, in the agency's words. A day that cannot be run is not charged as run. What dispatch will not do is send a vehicle up a road it has decided is not right, however the itinerary reads.

Frequently asked questions from agencies