266: Ski Juwel Alpbachtal Wildschönau & skiing in Gulmarg, India

Today we learn about the Ski Juwel region of the Austrian Tirol, plus we find out about skiing in Gulmarg in the Indian Himalayas.

We also have snow reports from Verbier, Zermatt, Megeve and Ischgl, plus we reveal news of a new competition, exclusively for listeners to The Ski Podcast, in which you can win goodies worth over £400.

Iain was joined by Joey Pearson from Alpback and Krishan Anand from Secret Ski Party in Jammu, India.
---------
Tirol in Austria sponsors The Ski Podcast, which means this winter we’re are finding out more about some of the great destinations in Tirol, and how you can connect with the Austrian way of life: ‘Lebensgefühl’ – that you’ll find there.
---------
COMPLETE OUR 2025 LISTENER SURVEY
You could win over £400 or prizes including a full Terrawest backcountry pack with shovel and probe, Vallon Eyewear sunnies, as well as goodies from Les Arcs, Ikon Pass and more. It only takes a minute or two to complete, so just take this link now
---------
SHOW NOTES
Betony Garner reported from Megeve (5:00)
Robin Shah was in Verbier: check his Instagram here (6:00)
Marco Ladner reported from the opening weekend in Ischgl (8:30)
Find out more about Ischgl in Episode 263 of The Ski Podcast
Complete the 2025 Listener Survey (9:30)
Kirsty Muir won the first Ski Big Air of the season in China (10:00)
Listen out for Iain’s interview with Kirsty going live next month (10:30)
The full name of Ski Juwel is ‘Ski Juwel Alpbachtal Wildschönau’ (12:00)
Joey Pearson is Secretary of the Alpbach Visitors Ski Club (14:00)
‘Ski Juwel’ was created in 2012 when the gondola linking Alpbach to Wildschonau opened (16:00)
The ski area includes 114km of pistes (16:30)
How to get to Ski Juwel (17:15)
Check the Ski Juwel piste map (18:30)
Alpbach: Austria’s most beautiful village (19:00)
Try Night Skiing in Ski Juwel (19:30)
Try the views from Hornbahn 2000 (20:15)
Auffach (21:00)
Try Joe’s Salettl in Inneralpbach for apres-ski (24:00)
Gulmarg resort is much higher than resorts in Europe (25:30)
The ski market in India (26:30)
Krishan is founder of the Secret Ski Party in Gulmarg (32:00)
Indians often travel to ski overseas in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and in Georgia (35:30)

Feedback
If you’ve enjoyed this episode – or even if you didn’t like it – I would love to know. You can leave a comment on Spotify, Instagram or Facebook – our handle is @theskipodcast – or drop me an email to theskipodcast@gmail.com

You can also follow us on WhatsApp for exclusive material released ahead of the podcast.

Paul Bond: “Loving the Tyrol focus. ‘Let’s give it a visit’ we said, 50 trips later. Friendly, great ski infrastructure and Kaiserschmarm!”

uteelo: “Love the show — there’s genuinely nothing else like it. I just skip the environmental segments most of the time: I’m here to hear people talk about skiing!”

There are now 284 episodes of The Ski Podcast to catch up. If you’d like to get some insight on a particular destination or the latest kit, just go to theskipodcast.com, have a search around the tags and categories and you’re bound to find something you’ll find interesting to listen to.

If you’d like to help the podcast, there are three things you can do:

- you can follow us, or subscribe, so you never miss an episode
- you can give us a review on Apple Podcasts or leave a comment on Spotify
- And, if you’re booking ski hire this winter, don’t forget that you can get an additional discount if you use the code ‘SKIPODCAST’ when you book at intersportrent.com or simply take this link for your discount to be automatically applied