At Kangdoori in Gulmarg, at an elevation of 8,530 ft, Brian Newman, an American snow forecaster and snow safety officer for the government of Jammu and Kashmir for the past two decades, was seated in his hut office, his eyes fixed intently on the vast expanse of the Gulmarg ski area. Scores of foreign and local skiers were carving their paths down the slopes as he observed. As we stepped into his office, his demeanour was composed, but upon learning of our journalistic identities, he was visibly taken aback. The death of a Russian skier on February 22, caught in an avalanche triggered by her group in a non-ski area, weighed heavily on his mind.