The latest ski-related activity attracting followers in India is grass skiing, in which athletes zoom down slopes in the summer using special skis fitted with wheels.
The Vajpayee Institute in Manali has set up a 120-meter-long grass skiing slope in Solang Valley that is open from June to October.
For years, Mrs. Mahdavian said, she thought she would trade anything to be able to walk barefoot on grass, ski down a mountain or slow dance.
My daughter, who started at Mad River's small, excellent ski school at 5 years old, proudly announced, "I can ski on snow, rocks, grass and ice!" "When you're out west," says Rick Causey, who works at the mountain's ski shop and at the Barn, "you can spot a skier from back east.
More Grass-Roots Skiing Cannon Mountain Bode Miller learned to ski at this classic New England spot.
Jen and Aaron Brill designed Silverton (a stone's throw from Telluride in the heart of the San Juan Mountains in southern Colorado) in the spirit of the grass roots public ski fields of New Zealand.
"Usually you can ski anywhere," he said, waving his ski pole toward a slope of grass beneath us as we rode the chairlift.
More than 100 lift towers have been removed and slopes have been planted with more grass to integrate the ski runs in winter.
Ms. Walker, now 34, often wears colorful clothes while skiing, like pink ski pants with a grass skirt or her yellow hat with a blue pompom, and she has a lighthearted laugh that matches her outfits.
THE television advertisement shows a tanned young man skiing effortlessly through a meadow of flowers and grass.
