I’m going to attempt to give you the recipe for a Himalayan
Banked Slalom. It’s an out-there dish, not suited to everyone’s taste. It’s got
spice, is definitely fruity and, in reality, involves a smorgasbord of
ingredients to bring it all together.
The pot that cooked up the Banked Slalom |
a banked slalom snowboard competitions aren’t exactly nouveau cuisine! They were the bread and butter of early competitive snowboarding, with its roots right back at the beginning of our sport. This being said, it still took the imagination and determination of one man to bring it to the Himalaya. The Di5 founder, fearless leader and executive chef, Andy, spent two years cooking up this project; countless trips to Srinagar, whetting the appetite of officials, whom before his intervention, had been brought up on a bland diet of skiing. Andy cruised in there with a proposal of something fresh, fun and flavourful. Luckily for everyone, they were in the mood to try something different, support was offered and in 2014 the Himalayan Banked Slalom was going to happen. This was essentially the golden egg that had to be cracked before baking could begin!
Now that all the dreaming, planning and officious work was behind, a recipe had to be concocted, which would result in all that hard work, turning into a tasty celebration of the sport of snowboarding, in Kashmir. This being said, while Andy has many years snowboarding experience, competing at an international level, giving him an understanding of what sort of things go into this type of dish. However, his sous-chef, namely I, had never ridden a banked slalom course, let alone built a berm! What I did bring to our kitchen, was a belief in the dish we were creating, a sprinkling of snowboarding experience and a good dose of Scottish opinion, which chef could take or leave but was there none-the-less. I suppose that covers step one of the recipe, which was obtaining the relevant permissions.
Step two seemed quite straight forward: get the necessary equipment to rope off the course,
so we could stay safe while we created our masterpiece. All it took was one jeep, Andy, myself and Sarpanch (our interpreter/big man!) and a day trip to Srinagar. We ventured to the local bamboo/rope emporium and engaged in some strong-hand tactics to get the best prices. This essentially involved me and the owner squeezing each other’s hands until somebody yields. Let’s just say I secured us a discount! So off we went with our ingredients, 50 bamboo poles and 5kg of rope. (How long is 5kg of rope? Your guess is as good as mine!) Next stop was the trophy shop, which also sold musical instruments and board games, amongst other things. Lastly, we went and bought some beer. Neither of us was under the impression that the week to come was going to be an easy one, we sure as hell were going to need a beer!
just what we needed, lots of bamboo. |
Sarpanch leads the way |
Sandy might have won the hand strength competition but I think the old guy gave him a run for his money! |
Returning to Gulmarg with our supplies, all we needed to do
was get it up the gondola, which surely shouldn’t be an issue as we had the
necessary support from ski patrol. Well, first off, there was an abortive
attempt to raise ski-patrol on the radio, so I went to seek help from someone
higher up. He sent me off up the lift, without the poles and rope, to get
written permission from the head of ski patrol, although I had it on good
authority he had already informed them we were coming. So off I set, aware that
all good recipes take some tweaking. When I arrived, the necessary permissions
were sent to the original guy, who told me his radio didn’t work! It quickly
became apparent that this dish was definitely going to have some Kashmiri
spice! Back down again, I loaded all the gear, then with the help of Tariq,
carried it all out to the ski patrol hut.
The Gully on the left is First Gully, it held the first Himalayan Banked Slalom. click to enlarge^^^ |