 Keeping one of the world's highest slope safe is an uphill task. It's something the Gulmerg ski patrol comprising local Kashmiri skiers does on a daily basis every winter. When the scenic meadow is no bound and the tourists flock from all over the world. The Gulmerg ski patrol has carved out a safe zone in the Afarwat peaks for skiers, beyond which lies the backcountry, where the patrol's responsibilities end. Skiers who venture into the backcountry and run into mishaps are rescued by the patrolers. Mehrak says they do it outside the ambit of their official responsibilities and at great personal risk on humanitarian grounds. Every morning at 7 am, we attend ski patrol office. After that, our safety officers stay here. The duty is distributed here, so we do it every day. For example, we closed the second phase today because of high winds. We have two types of sledges. One is a casket and the other is a rescue sled. But it's very difficult to rescue. No problem at all. More than 200 rescues are done in the backcountry and in the embouse. And the rescues here are mostly fractures. Leg fracture, femur fracture, spine fracture. There were some unconsciousness in the rescues. The fracture is right knee. In 2010, we did a very big rescue. The summit of the top was a natural trigger. The army was skiing at that time. The army was on course. At that time, there were 20 of them. The officers were dead. This is a group of people. Organisers, cover crews, guys, Avaloids, Medications, team crews. What do you need? Explore the situation. We are ready. For example, someone called you. Someone is in a place. We call them as a witness. We keep the witness in our contact. If he is nearby, we call him. If not, we call him. We will give him information about where he was. We will give him full details about where he was, what his injury was, what his exact location was, when we receive the information. After that, we will pass the information to our cover crew. We will give him information about free petrol and skiing. We will go to that place and assess him. If you see something in the back country, they charge there. They have facilities, like they have helicopters. They can go to the helicopter and evacuate. But we don't have a heli system here. We need an exact location for this. It's not like going to the back country is risky. Besides advanced skiers from the country and abroad, Gulmarg is also thronged by Anthosias from all over Kashmir to learn skiing on the less steep slopes down in the valleys. But instructors, mostly locals, say infrastructure is inadequate to accommodate the heavy influx of tourists. There is no proper infrastructure for snowboarding here. That's why we have to walk from here to the slope. Usually, when I teach my clients on the slope, we take them to the first phase, then to the chairlift. This year, the snow is a bit late. It's snowing in January. That's why the flow of the tourists has decreased. The climate change is decreasing. This is going to switch to the washrooms. There are a lot of slopes here. It's a good slope for beginners and professionals. It's a good facility for them. The global warming is increasing and the snow is decreasing. If we talk about February, it used to be a 4-5 feet snow in Gulmarg. It's decreasing every year. An American citizen has been in charge of snow safety in Gulmarg for the past 15 years. He says rescuing skiers stranded in the back country was the police's job, but done by his patrol team. Our daily operations start off with a routine analysis of the weather and snow, which is then compiled into a forecast. That forecast is addressing the stability. Stability, meaning what is the chance of avalanches inside the ski area today. What unfortunately happens as far as the news is concerned is that somehow it gets reported that it is the police who is affecting the entirety of the rescue in all of its technical nature in the mountains as well, which is categorically untrue. It would be nice to see that this department, for their efforts and for all their training for their exposure to risk, in going out and performing the police's role in search and rescue, were to at the very least receive credit for all those efforts. This is not a common thing to do. This is a search and rescue. First, we have to find the body, where it is, on which side it is, how much it is under the snow, how many people we need for the showling. We can do CPR, EER or splinting in the first aid.