Secret Ski Party

We rejected 179 guests to protect something luxury hotels will never understand. Everyone wants flawless. Flawless rooms. Flawless meals. Flawless moments. But perfection has a problem. You can see it coming. It’s rehearsed, timed, and airbrushed long before it happens. You remember it, only through your Instagram feed but you never feel it. The The Leading Hotels of the World built systems for perfection. The calm choreography of The Oberoi Hotels & Resorts The immaculate design silence of Aman. The sensory ritual of Six Senses The craft is breathtaking. But magic doesn’t live in systems. It lives in surrender. At The Secret Ski Party, we design for the unpredictable. → The snowstorm that delays dinner becomes a candlelit feast in the woods. → A power cut turns into a bonfire with live Sufi music under Kashmir stars. → A wrong turn on the slope leads to a ridge no one’s ever seen before. You can’t plan that. You can only allow it. That’s the paradox of experiential luxury: You have to lose control to create wonder. The world has perfected comfort. We’re chasing courage. 32 families. 179 rejections. Not because we’re building exclusivity. Because magic doesn’t scale. And some things shouldn’t. In the end: Perfection makes you admire the host. Magic makes you remember the night. P.S. If you’ve ever attended an experience that broke the rules and broke your heart open, I’d love to hear about it in the comments. What made it unforgettable?

Why Sight is the Most Overrated Sense in Luxury Everyone builds for the eye. Lighting. Logos. Décor. Fireworks. And it all ends up as entertaining, but forgettable, It's the most crowded way to engage. At The Secret Ski Party, I made a fundamental choice: We are not building for the eye. On opening night, the first memory wasn't visual, It was scent. The sharp, raw smell of snow itself. Cedarwood burning, pine carried in on the wind, by the time the first note of Sufi music played, the memory was already written. I call it Sensory Subtraction. Here is the hierarchy I curate by: Smell lingers longest. Smoke from a Bukhari, Pine in the air, that’s the anchor. Taste anchors memory - Wazwan by the bukhari, a saffron hot toddy, tequila kissed with Kashmiri chilies. Sound sets the scene. Boots crunching on snow, a voice that feels like prayer and silence when it matters. Touch creates intimacy, The Butlet handing you your gloves before you know you need them, snow melting in your palm, hand-beaten copperware, heavy with history. Sight comes last. One of our guests told me: “I’ll never forget the smell of pine in snow even lingering into my room” Not the décor. Not the photos. The smell. That's the lesson. Anyone can add. My job as a founder and curator is to subtract, until only what matters remains. Because true luxury isn't excess. It’s restraint. What’s the one detail from your most powerful memory that’s stayed with you the longest? #TheSecretSkiParty #CulturalIP #ExperientialLuxury #FounderInsights #LuxuryTravel #Kashmir #RestraintIsLuxury

Most founders say YES because they can’t afford to say NO. But the truth is this: the wrong YES destroys trust faster than any NO. This 5-step filter has saved me from deals that looked great on paper but would have broken the soul of The Secret Ski Party. Money is recoverable. Trust isn’t. The cost of a wrong yes is bigger than the price of any no. What’s your non-negotiable when it comes to brand deals?

Most people think “luxury travel” is: A suite upgrade Champagne on arrival A spa voucher A driver in a black Mercedes Dinner reservations made for you That’s not luxury. That’s just service. True luxury is much more human. At The Secret Ski Party, luxury means: A 12-course Wazwan prepared by 3 generations of master chefs over 48 hours, paired with Himalayan single malt GianChand and Kashmiri chili spiced picante with the finest El Cristiano Tequila flown in from Mexico from something you can’t buy off a menu. Dining around one of the oldest Bukhari fireplaces in Kashmir, where the glow is both literal and cultural. Ski guides who don’t just show you the slope, but share folk stories of the valley as you descend it. Cocktails like a Saffron Nigroni and an Alpine Highball crafted by a top 50 in Asia Mixologist only for that night, never to be repeated again. Conversations curated with the same care as the courses, because who sits next to you can matter more than what’s on the plate. Luxury isn’t convenience, Anyone can build an itinerary. Few can build a myth. The question is: Would you rather buy a package… or be part of a story people will retell for decades? #TheSecretSkiParty #Luxury #CulturalIP #Memory #Kashmir

I take offense when someone calls Kashmir “India’s Switzerland.” Switzerland is pristine, perfect, polished. Kashmir is not that. I grew up here.  My great-grandfather and grandfather ran businesses here and I've seen how: The snow makes Gulmarg magical, but the same snow can trap you indoors for days. The rivers sparkle in summer, yet flash floods remind you how fragile life can be here. The valleys feel endless but the paths can humble even the most confident traveler. But despite this, you keep coming back to Kashmir. To experience crisp, white snow crunching under your boots in Gulmarg or to watch elders tell stories in the firelight. Switzerland is beautiful, but for me, Kashmir is soulful. The Secret Ski Party exists to let people step into that version of Kashmir. Stop calling it Switzerland. Come see Kashmir for what it really is: raw, real, unforgettable. #Kashmir #KashmirTourism #SwitzerlandofIndia #SecretSkiParty

My great-grandfather brought the first bag of cement into Kashmir in 1929. My grandfather hosted brunches across its valleys. And now, I build stories on snow at The Secret Ski Party. If you think about it, hospitality runs in my blood. Because today, as I host people in the breathtaking landscapes of Kashmir and help them ski through untouched snow, I’m not just doing it for the sake of it. I’m carrying forward a legacy. Why host you at a hidden table where a Kashmiri family serves a 12-course Wazwan? Because I want you to experience what Kashmiriyat really is. Why guide you through Gulmarg’s slopes? Because I want the world to know Kashmir as the ski capital of Asia. Why create nights of music, laughter, and conversation in the snow? Because I want these to be memories you carry for a lifetime. The Secret Ski Party isn’t a festival. It’s a journey where every detail chosen to make you feel the magic of #Kashmir. For me, success isn’t ROI. It’s rewriting how the world sees #Kashmir. The day it becomes a place of culture, adventure, and myth, that’s when I’ll feel I’ve truly succeeded. What’s the legacy that defines your work?

No, I don’t do events. I create modern myths. A guest once left our Sufi night in Gulmarg and whispered: “This feels like a story I’ll tell my grandchildren.” That when I realised I wasn’t just curating dinners or parties. I became a custodian of lore. A campaign sells a trip. Myths are what people carry home and retell. At The Secret Ski Party, we designed myths with intent: The Sham-e-wazwan The Highest Table in the Himalayas Scarcity as design Every detail was built on non-negotiables: Heritage before hype. Ritual before itinerary. Scarcity before spectacle. Davos, Burning Man, Art Basel, they’re not events anymore. They’re myths people return to. Kashmir deserves its own. Now the real question is: do you want to host events people attend or myths people never forget? #TheSecretSkiParty #CulturalIP #ExperientialLuxury #FounderInsights #Kashmir #MemoryPalaces

A Wazwan is never just a meal. It’s Kashmir’s culinary heritage on a plate. 12 courses arrive on a hand carved copper tarami as a ritual and at The Secret Ski Party, we carried that ritual to 8,700 feet. We curated the entire setting. Guests seated with intention, because conversations last longer than the 2 hour meal itself. The fire lit in Kashmir’s oldest Bukharis, 137 years old, because warmth is both literal and cultural. Spirits reimagined: Himalayan single malt GianChand hot toddies with Kehva, El Cristiano Tequila kissed with Kashmiri chilies to dance with the Rogan Josh. One guest told me that the flavours pulled her back to her grandfather’s kitchen. That’s when I knew this was reverence. Because true luxury isn’t spectacle. It’s when ritual, setting, and company align to create belonging. If you could save one culinary ritual for the next hundred years, which would it be? #TheSecretSkiParty #CulturalIP #ExperientialLuxury #Wazwan #Kashmir

India now sits on the same map as Antarctica, Machu Picchu, and Rwanda. And it starts with Kashmir. Thrilled. Humbled. A little stunned. The Secret Ski Party has just been featured as one of the Extraordinary Journeys for 2026 in the same category as: Sailing Antarctica with Silversea Asia by Air with the Four Seasons Private Jet Tracking Gorillas in Rwanda Following the Incas to Machu Picchu And then… Gulmarg, Kashmir. Our little idea. The Secret Ski Party. When I started this, it was a feeling. A way to prove that India could create something that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the world’s greatest journeys. For us, this recognition is less about tourism and more about cultural positioning. The Secret Ski Party is India’s contribution to the global map of curated journeys: design-forward stays, high-altitude rituals, Kashmiri terroir on the table, and a community of tastemakers skiing into memory together. The goal has always been to show that Kashmir can generate experiences that stand beside the world’s most coveted, by creating something original. Thank you, Dani Thomas, for believing that Kashmir belongs on this map and for placing the Secret Ski Party in the company of journeys I still dream of taking myself. Antarctica, Machu Picchu, Rwanda… one day. But for now, it’s the Himalayas that feel like the edge of the world. Extraordinary is no longer somewhere else. It is also here, in the Himalayas at the Secret Ski Party. (full link in comments)