Back in February our team rider Caja Schoepf traveled to India to explore country and culture and ski the Himalayan mountains in Kashmir.

The trip into the unknown started on February 9th, 2011. Caja and Lena Stoffel dared to venture into one of the most exotic and highest ski resorts in the world, the tiny mountain village Gulmarg in the north of India. Gulmarg means „field of flowers“ and is situated in the former Kashmir principality, now being claimed to belong to India, Pakistan and China alike.
While this region is famous for its vivid, untouched nature with an enormous diversity of flowers and animals in summer, it is also known for its harsh winters with a massive amount of snow and dangerous mountains. On a clear day one can see the Nanga Parbat (8.126 m) as well as the K2 (8.611 m) from the mountain station of Apharwat, a more than impressive sight!

Caja and Lena also got to experience the more well-known side of India with Yoga, Curry, lots of sun and esotericism further south in the “Venice of the East”, on romantic house boats on the Dal Lake near Srinagar. Further south the girls got to know the lively city of Delhi that never seems to sleep as well as at the Taj Mahal with its meditative atmosphere.

The project was a real challenge for Caja: „I learned a lot from being the organizer of the trip as well as an athlete, in a country where you get surprised over and over again. I will always remember the experiences made on this trip. Thanks to Felix Urbauer, I think Lena and I managed to realize our goal to take home a trailer with pictures that portray our adventure as
vividly as possible“. Mission accomplished – the result speaks for itself.

More scenes and pictures not included in the trailer can be seen in the new Aestivation movie „Lifelong“ whose premieres are taking place all over Europe right now. More info on: www.aestivation.eu