WINTER SPORTS
    
     " ALPINE PREMIER LEAGUE" 
         at Solang Nala (Near Manali), H.P

“What a nice ski slope,” remarked Canadian skier John Lee. Lee and his friends are skiing on the Solang slopes near this picturesque tourist resort and are among the 336 participants gathered here for a four-day Alpine Premier League that began on Monday.
“It's really not so crowded (like the slopes in Europe), we are here for the first time,” remarked Aiden, another skier. According to event organisers, the participants included 12 foreigners from Canada, Switzerland, Finland, Norway and France.
The competitions to be held are slalom, giant slalom, snow-board giant slalom, snow-board cross-country 5-km race for men and women and giant slalom both for junior boys and girls, and men's veteran (40 years and above). The championship is organised by a private firm, Ski Himalayas Ropeway Pvt Ltd, in association with the local ski clubs and the state Tourism Department.

The state-run Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports is providing technical assistance to the event. The Solang slopes had more than three-and-a-half feet of snow, Randhir Singh Salhuria, director of mountaineering institute, said.
“In the past two days, the slopes piled up around 2-feet snow. This time the snow is plentiful. It will stay here till the end of the next month,” he added.
Amitabh Sharma, the skiing event organiser, said teams from the Indian Army’s High Altitude Warfare School in Gulmarg, the Indian Air force, the Indo-Tibetan Border Police and various clubs from Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and the host state would participate in the championship.
After a gap of seven years, the Winter Games Federation of India allowed the Himachal Pradesh Winter Games Association in 2010 to hold the National Senior Alpine Skiing Championship at Solang. Besides the event, the mountaineering institute is conducting skiing courses both for professionals and amateurs in Solang. The courses began last month and will continue till the slopes have snow.
The Solang slopes offer a challenging run to both beginners and advanced skiers and are of international standards, said Salhuria. For newcomers, the institute is conducting basic, intermediate and advanced ski courses at Narkanda, 65 km from Shimla.


info courtesy — IANS (INDO ASIAN NEWS SERVICE)
presented by- Pratik Awasthi