GULMARG IN WHITE PLANET

White planet, small world - ESPN, 26 October 2010.
Excerpt from the ESPN interview with White Planet author Leslie Anthony:
What was the most dangerous place you skied terrain-wise?
I would say Gulmarg, India. It is definitely like being in a toilet bowl with a hair-trigger flush handle. It is the most dangerous avalanche terrain I've ever seen. You just tiptoe around that place.

I remember seeing tons of ski-magazine stories on Gulmarg about three years ago. A coworker of mine at the time said he was "Gulmarg'd out," talking about how sick he was of hearing about it.
It was one of those "next big things." It's funny you should mention that, because I talk about that in the book -- the way the sport evolved to the point where there would be a media feeding frenzy around any "next big thing." I remember showing up in Bulgaria and a Skiing Magazine editor was there. We were actually on the same plane over. All these guys from Powder were there. TGR film crews were there. A bunch of people from Warren Miller were there. Everyone had caught wind of this place and shown up at the same time. In the book, I use stories like this to illustrate how things have changed in the ski industry and how it affects the average skier.