From Pune Hills to Snow Peaks: Ski Mountaineer Siddharth Targets Olympics

By Nupur Joshi
Pune, 29th April 2026: On an early Sunday morning, while most of Pune is still asleep, Siddharth Gadekar is already halfway up Vetal Tekdi. The air is cool, the city quiet, and the only sound is of his breath as he pushes uphill. There is no snow here, no skis strapped to his feet, only dusty trails and steep climbs. Yet, this is where India’s top ski mountaineer builds his strength.

This routine is like oxygen for Siddharth. His days begin at 5 a.m., balancing work as a fitness coach with three intense training sessions. His mornings are spent training others, afternoons are for his own endurance work, and evenings bring another round of workouts. Weekends are even tougher, with four to six hours of continuous training on hills like Sinhagad Fort and Katraj Ghat.

“These are unusual training grounds for a winter sport that require snow, but it is the only way”, he says. “I don’t really need motivation,” he says. “Once you fall in love with the sport, you just want to keep getting better, and makes me want to get out of bed every single morning.”

However, this love came from an unexpected place. Siddharth did not grow up skiing. He spent years in cycling and endurance sports before discovering ski mountaineering during the COVID-19 lockdown. Watching European athletes online, he was struck by how they climbed mountains on skis and descended at speed. “It had a wow effect on me,” he recalls. “It looked raw, adventurous, and incredibly demanding.”

Curiosity soon turned into commitment and with almost no infrastructure for the sport in India, he had to teach himself. He watched videos, read extensively, and eventually travelled abroad to get the right training.
He learned skiing in places like Gulmarg and Kazakhstan, often funding the trips himself. “There is no substitute for being on snow,” he says. “You can only learn so much in theory.”

Learning the sport was not the only difficulty he would face; competing in it was even harder. Ski mountaineering is one of the most physically demanding endurance sports. It requires athletes to climb steep, snow-covered mountains using skis before racing down. It demands peak cardiovascular fitness, strength, and technical skill, and all at extremely high altitudes.

Despite these challenges, Siddharth quickly made his mark. At the Khelo India Winter Games, he won gold and silver medals, competing against some of the strongest teams in the country, including the Army, CRPF, and ITBP. What makes his achievement stand out is where he comes from, very far from the snow-covered regions of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Ladakh, and Jammu & Kashmir that dominate the sport.
“In India, most athletes have access to snow for months,” he explains. “I get maybe a few weeks in a year. So, when I’m there, I have to make every second count.”

This determination carried him to the Asian Ski Mountaineering Championships in China, India’s first-ever participation in the event. Competing in extreme conditions, with temperatures dropping to -20°C, Siddharth delivered the best results by an Indian so far: fourth in the mixed relay, seventh in individual and vertical races, and eighth in sprint.

The experience, he says, was both thrilling and brutal. “The cold was something I wasn’t fully prepared for,” he admits. “Your hands freeze during transitions, the slopes are icy, and even a small mistake can make you fall.” An yet, amidst the chaos, there were moments of clarity when he realised he could compete at this level.

However, back home, the recognition has been limited. Ski mountaineering remains a niche sport in India, and funding is a constant struggle. Siddharth is entirely self-supported, using his earnings as a fitness coach to fund his training, travel, and expensive equipment. For the Asian Championships alone, he had to rely on crowdfunding to raise nearly ₹3 lakh.

“Sponsorship is tough,” he says. “Indian brands don’t see the sport yet, and international brands don’t see India as a market.”

Still, he continues to push forward and is driven by a bigger goal. With ski mountaineering set to feature in the Winter Olympics, Siddharth has his sights on representing India on the world’s biggest stage. His long-term aim is to compete in the Asian Winter Games and eventually qualify for the Olympics.

Though for now, the journey continues on the hills of Pune. Every climb up Vetal Tekdi, every run on Sinhagad, is a step towards mountains that are thousands of kilometres away.

Siddharth believes that this is just the beginning, for him and for the sport in India. “We have the Himalayas,” he says. “We have the culture of hiking and endurance. Once people see what this sport is, they’ll fall in love with it as I did.”

As the sun rises over Pune, casting light over the city, Siddharth begins his descent. In a few hours, he will return to coach others before heading out again for another training session. It is a relentless routine; he has built it strictly on discipline and passion.

And on these dry hills and busy Pune roads, very far from snow, an Olympic dream is taking shape.