Born for battle, how HAWS has become India’s winter sports medal factory

Gulmarg, Mar 1: The medals glittered in the thin mountain sun, but when athletes were asked where the real gold was forged, they did not point to the podium.

They pointed uphill toward the snowbound ridges of Gulmarg and the disciplined, relentless world of the High Altitude Warfare School (HAWS).

At the 6th edition of the Khelo India Winter Games, held here from February 23 to 26, athletes from across India representing states, Union Territories, and institutional giants like the Indian Army, the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), echoed a common refrain that HAWS made this possible.

Founded in December 1948 by General K S Thimayya, then a Brigadier, as the 19 Infantry Division Ski School, the institution was born out of necessity.

Perched in avalanche-prone terrain, it evolved into the Winter Warfare School before being upgraded on April 8, 1962, into a Category A Training Establishment and emerged with its current name and a sharpened mission to master the mountains.

HAWS specialises in snow craft and winter warfare, running elite Mountain Warfare and Winter Warfare courses that blend high-altitude combat readiness with survival instinct and intelligence training. But over time, something else began to take shape on its slopes – athletes. Not hobbyists, not tourists, competitors.

Twenty-five-year-old Kajal Kumari Rai from Shillong had never seen snow before 2024. Twelve months later, she owned it. Kajal struck gold in the Nordic women’s 15 km and 10 km sprints, an ascent as improbable as it was poetic.

The CRPF athlete credits a 15-day initiation into skiing at HAWS for altering her trajectory.

“Joining the CRPF gave me direction,” Kajal said. “HAWS and the Army gave me belief.”

Belief is currency here. It is traded in oxygen-starved climbs and frozen lashes, in the quiet before a downhill charge.

Bhavani T N, who clinched gold in the Nordic women’s 1.5 km sprint, adding to her bronze medals in the 15 km and 10 km this season, also came to snow late.

At 23, she hadn’t touched it. It was at the Indian Institute of Skiing and Mountaineering (IISM) and HAWS where the Khelo India Winter Games veteran from the coffee hills of Karnataka learned her edges, her balance, her bite.

In the men’s Nordic 10 km event, the Army painted the podium in its own colours with Padma Namgail winning gold, Aman silver, and Manjeet bronze. In the 1.5 km sprint, Sunny Singh, Shubam Parihar, and Majeet repeated the medal sweep. All of them credited HAWS not as a facility, but as a crucible.

“HAWS plays a great role in grooming winter sports athletes not just from the Army but also from other forces and states,” Namgail said. “There are no issues of funding, training, coaching, or competition. The best are even sent to Europe. The tracks are tough, the ice is hard but we are always ready because of HAWS.”

Indian Army team manager Col. Kumar Singh Negi calls it systematic. “Expert trainers from Italy, Norway, Sweden and Kazakhstan sharpen technique to international standards,” he said.

Indian Army team coach Rameez Ahmad said HAWS oversees a pipeline of 250 to 300 Army winter athletes every year, alongside five to ten civilian trainees.

“Currently, 24 athletes train in Alpine skiing, 16 in snowboarding, and 20 in Nordic skiing. Some double down in mountain skiing. They log a minimum of 600 training hours annually,” Ahmad said.

“There are ski simulators for Alpine skiing, the only ones in India, roller skis for summer cross-training, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, an indoor sports complex that hums with basketball, volleyball, and badminton even when Gulmarg is buried in white silence. It is conditioning without interruption. Nutrition is calibrated, a dietician charts protein and carbohydrate intake, energy bars and gels are standard issue. The kits mirror those seen at the Olympics.”

Physio Vivek Kaktwan calls the infrastructure “world-class.”

“Funding is stable, the advantage is altitude itself. By staying in Gulmarg, our athletes train more and train better,” he said.

The impact extends beyond the Army.

CRPF team manager Magesh K acknowledged HAWS’ role in elevating his contingent from equipment support to elite coaching.

“Army coach Nadeem Iqbal, himself an Olympian, worked closely with CRPF athletes over the past three years, refining technique and raising performance thresholds. The results are beginning to show,” Magesh said.

They certainly are. In Gulmarg, the medals may hang around individual necks. But their story winds back to a singular address in the snow, a place where warfare training met winter sport, and somewhere along the way, built champions.