Snow on the slopes at Auli, January 2017. Photo © ArmouredCyborg, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
What GMVN’s beginners’ courses cost and include, which weeks have had enough snow to ski, the slopes and lifts, skiing for a day without a course, and what to bring.
The short answer: Auli is the one place in Uttarakhand where you can learn to ski, and GMVN, the state tourism corporation, runs beginners’ courses there from January to March, but only when there is snow. In the 2025-26 season its seven-day course cost Rs 19,900 with a dormitory bed and meals or Rs 10,000 without, and its fourteen-day certificate course Rs 39,000 or Rs 19,000, with skis, boots, poles and lifts included. This winter’s batches and fees had not been published by 9 November 2026. Snow is the real question: the machines meant to make it have never worked, and national championships here have been cancelled or postponed for want of it, so book for February if you can and keep your dates loose.
By Meghna Bora, Contributor, Nainital. About the author ↓
Most of this page holds good every year. The things below change from season to season, so they sit here with the day we checked them.
Skiing at Auli, winter 2026-27
That is the question that decides everything at Auli, and the honest answer is: usually by February, not always by January, and rarely in December. In the last three winters the first proper snow on the slopes came on 17 January 2024, on 8 December 2024 and not until 23 January 2026. Our guide to Auli in winter has the full record, month by month, with temperatures.
The national championships show how fine the margin is. The championship planned for 23 to 26 February 2023 was cancelled because there was no snow. The National Winter Games set for late January 2025 were postponed for the same reason. In 2026 the snow of late January was already melting fast by 5 February, and the championship of 13 to 16 February went ahead on two slopes, with snow carried in where it was thin; teams from 17 states and from the Army, ITBP and CRPF took part. Over the years, four national winter games and two international races have been lost to poor snow at Auli.
So treat a ski trip here like any trip that depends on weather. February is the month race organisers prefer and the one we would book. January can be good once the first big fall has come. March brings longer days and some fresh falls, but old snow goes soft and patchy on the lower slopes by the middle of the month.
GMVN runs two beginners’ courses at Auli each season. The seven-day course gives no certificate and suits anyone who simply wants to learn to stand, turn and stop. The fourteen-day course ends with a certificate and goes further. Both need no experience. The fees below are from GMVN’s own skiing page for the 2025-26 season, for Indian adults, and include GST.
| Course | With dormitory and meals | Without stay |
|---|---|---|
| 7 days, no certificate | Rs 19,900 | Rs 10,000 |
| 14 days, with certificate | Rs 39,000 | Rs 19,000 |
The fee covers skis, boots and poles, the ski lifts and the training; with the stay, it adds a shared dormitory bed and Indian meals at GMVN’s resort. Clothing is not included. GMVN asks for half the fee in advance, and if it cancels a course because there is no snow, it keeps 10 per cent of that advance, which tells you how often snow has been the problem. Book through GMVN’s own website or its resort office at Auli once the batches are announced, and choose a February batch if your dates allow.
Private ski schools and tour operators also run courses and packages at their own prices. We have not checked their rates or instructors, so ask what is included, who teaches and what happens if there is no snow.
Most visitors do not join a course. They come up for a day or two, hire skis and boots, and many take a short lesson from a private instructor. That is the right way to try skiing once, as long as you keep to the gentle ground near the bottom of the slopes.
We found no published rates for hiring equipment, for day lessons or for the chairlift. Travel sites quote anything from about Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 a day for skis, boots and poles, and they do not agree on the chairlift either. Ask for a written price before you start, check that the boots fit, and agree whether the instructor’s fee is by the hour or the day.
The ski ground runs from about 2,500 m to 3,050 m by the Chamoli district’s figures. The main run is the Nanda Devi slope, recognised by the international ski federation, FIS, since 2010, a recognition that runs until 2029. The district describes it as about 3 km long with a drop of about 500 m. Beginners learn on the gentler ground lower down.
GMVN’s chairlift on the slopes is the lift most visitors use, and it has run in each of the last two winters: on 25 January 2026, two days after the first snow, its manager counted more than 1,200 riders. The ropeway from Jyotirmath, which used to carry people up to the top of the slopes, has been shut since January 2023, when land subsidence in the town moved the ground near its first tower.
Auli does have snow-making equipment, but it has never done its job. The machines and the artificial lake that feeds them were built for the South Asian Winter Games of 2011, and local reports say they have never covered the slopes. In January 2026 residents began a “Save Auli” protest demanding that they be put to use, and in November GMVN began inspecting them again. Until something changes, skiing at Auli depends on what falls from the sky.
The course fee covers skis, boots and poles and nothing else. You will need waterproof trousers and a waterproof jacket over warm layers, because you will fall and the snow will melt into anything that is not; waterproof gloves; a warm cap; thick socks; and sunglasses or goggles, since sun on snow at this height is fierce. Bring sunscreen and lip balm for the same reason. Some shops in Auli and Jyotirmath hire out jackets and trousers, but sizes and quality vary, so bring your own if you have them. Mornings are well below freezing in January and February.
Auli is 491 km from Delhi and about 12 hours by road, and 308 km and about ten and a half hours from Haldwani, by Google Maps. The last 12 km climb from Jyotirmath, the town still widely called Joshimath, and after snow that road is the hard part: on 25 January 2026 police let only four-wheel drives and local vehicles past the TV Tower bend. Our guide to how to reach Auli covers trains, buses, the drive and where to break it.
For a course, GMVN’s own resort is the simplest base, because the dormitory and meals can come with the fee and you are on the slope every morning. Otherwise there are a few private hotels at Auli and far more rooms in Jyotirmath below, which means a drive or taxi up each day; our Auli in winter guide weighs the two.
For a seven-day course from Delhi, allow about eleven days in all: two days to get up, with a night at Rishikesh, Rudraprayag or Karnaprayag; the seven days of the course; two days to get down; and a spare day for weather. From Haldwani, plan two days each way by the Kumaon road, with a night at Karnaprayag. Arrive at Auli the day before your batch starts, so the altitude has a night to settle.
Check the snow before you leave home, not after. Watch the forecast and the reports on our snowfall tracker in the week before, and if the slopes are bare, ask GMVN whether your batch will run before you set off. If you want snow but not necessarily skiing, the places with the surest snow in Uttarakhand are compared on their own page.
We could not read GMVN’s page for this winter, so we do not know this season’s batch dates or whether the fees have changed. We found no published rates for hiring skis, for private lessons or for the chairlift, and no official age limits for the courses. We could not confirm when, or whether, the snow-making machines will work again, or when the ropeway will reopen.
The course terms come from GMVN’s own page as we read it on 27 October 2026, and the snow and championship record from dated local news reports. Nobody from this site telephoned GMVN or a ski school for this page. If you have skied at Auli this winter and something has changed, please tell us.
GMVN’s seven-day beginners’ course cost Rs 19,900 with a dormitory bed and meals, or Rs 10,000 without, in the 2025-26 season, and its fourteen-day certificate course Rs 39,000 or Rs 19,000, with GST, for Indian adults. That includes skis, boots, poles, the lifts and the training. This winter’s fees had not been published by 9 November 2026.
January to March, when there is snow on the slopes. In the last three winters the first proper snow on the slopes came on 17 January 2024, 8 December 2024 and 23 January 2026, and February has usually had the deepest cover. GMVN runs its courses only when the snow is there.
Yes. GMVN’s courses are for beginners, and the seven-day course needs no experience at all. The fourteen-day course leads to a certificate. If you only want to try it for a day, you can hire skis at Auli and take a short lesson from a private instructor.
Through GMVN’s own website or its resort office at Auli, once the season’s batches are announced. Half the fee is paid in advance, and if GMVN cancels a batch for lack of snow it keeps 10 per cent of that advance. Book a February batch if you can.
Only in some years. Of the last three Decembers only 2024 had good snow on the slopes, and GMVN’s courses start in January. If December is your only time, treat skiing as a bonus and plan the trip for the snow views.
No. The machines installed for the South Asian Winter Games of 2011 have never covered the slopes. On 2 November 2026 GMVN said it was inspecting them and would try to repair them, but there was no result to report by 9 November.
Yes, from shops and private instructors in Auli and Jyotirmath, but we found no published rates. Travel sites quote anything from about Rs 500 to Rs 1,500 a day for skis, boots and poles, so ask for a written price and check the boots fit before you pay.