Onlykashmir.in News Desk
The Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering, which functions under the Union Ministry of Tourism, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Department of Tourism, Ladakh, to open a new branch in Kargil, a move expected to give organised winter sports and adventure tourism in the region a significant boost.
The collaboration is expected to open up opportunities for professional ski and adventure sports training, skill development and greater participation from local youth, while supporting broader efforts to position Kargil as a winter tourism destination in its own right, a status the town has long sought given its natural terrain and slopes.
The MoU was formally exchanged at IISM Gulmarg between IISM Principal Col. Thapa and Ladakh Tourism Secretary Sanjit Rodrigues, in the presence of Bhuvnesh Kumar, Secretary in the Union Ministry of Tourism, and Dr Ashish Chandra Verma, Additional Chief Secretary for Tourism in Jammu and Kashmir, lending the agreement weight at both the central and regional administrative levels.
Under the new arrangement, IISM will extend its training programmes and institutional expertise to Kargil, making use of the region’s available slopes for winter sports and related adventure activities. The move holds particular significance for Kargil, which has long sought greater development of its winter and adventure tourism potential, with the Ladakh Administration having earlier flagged the need to operationalise an IISM branch there to enable organised winter sports activities, professional alpine skiing training and structured skill development opportunities for local youth.
IISM’s own website lists snow skiing and other adventure courses among its core activities, and describes the Kargil branch as part of a broader push to promote adventure tourism across Ladakh. The institute has already been conducting courses in the town, with its 2026-27 schedule including a ten day trekking course held in Kargil in August, a sign of the institutional groundwork already underway ahead of the branch’s formal establishment.
The new arrangement is expected to strengthen winter sports training infrastructure in Kargil and give local youth structured access to courses in skiing, mountaineering and other adventure disciplines. It also aligns with wider efforts by the Ladakh Administration to develop Kargil into a year-round adventure tourism destination, with proposals already on the table for new ski slopes and an integrated adventure sports centre in the region.
