Best Time to Visit Auli: What the Last Four Winters Actually Did
The first real snowfall of the 2025-26 winter reached Auli on 23 January 2026, and we left Greater Noida for Auli at half past one the next morning. Our trip sheet for the 25th says "Auli mein din, snow aur hotel stay": a day in Auli, snow, and the hotel. A month earlier, the people who came up for Christmas had been reported disappointed by the missing snow, and on 2 January a district report called Auli deserted.
That winter is the pattern this page is about: your best odds of snow at Auli are late January to mid-February, not the December to February most travel pages give. We went back through four winters, 2022-23 to 2025-26, and wrote down what happened in each, with a name and a date against every claim.
December left the slope short of snow in three of the four; the exception, 2024, had tourists skiing by Christmas. In three, the snow that mattered came in the second half of January. In two, 2022-23 and 2024-25, the national championship was called off for lack of snow, so even the best window comes with no promise. If snow isn't why you're going, the answer changes: skip to the months without snow.
| Season | December | What turned it | The national event |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022-23 | No snow at all | 4 ft by 21 Jan 2023, but gone again within weeks | Cancelled, 23 to 26 Feb 2023, Tourism Minister on record: "there is no snow on Auli's slopes" |
| 2023-24 | Snow on 12 Dec, then dry | Nothing more until 17 to 18 Jan 2024 | We couldn't establish it, so it's left blank |
| 2024-25 | Light snow from 8 Dec, tourists skiing on 25 Dec, 1 to 1.5 ft by 30 Dec | Snow came on schedule this year | Postponed 20 Jan 2025, rescheduled, postponed again 18 Mar 2025. Held on no date that season |
| 2025-26 | Deserted, per a 2 Jan 2026 report from the district | 23 Jan 2026, the season's first real snow | Held 13 to 16 Feb 2026, with India's first night skiing |
The 2024-25 row is the one to read twice. Snow came on time that December, light from the 8th and 1 to 1.5 ft by the 30th, and the season still never held enough for the championship. Even an on-time December doesn't settle a season on its own.
Is December to February really Auli's ski season?
Almost every travel page we read gives December to February as Auli's ski season, and GMVN's own website says the season "heralds" in December. In the four winters above, December never carried the season on its own. Going by what turned into skiable snow, the best odds are late January to mid-February: a narrower and less convenient answer than "December to February", and the one the record supports.
March is the tail. snow-forecast.com's modelled averages give it about 3 cm of snow a week against February's 8, and we found no dated report of a usable March slope in any of the four winters. If you've already booked December, our Auli in December guide is written for you.
Why "first snowfall" headlines put Auli's season too early
Uttarakhand's papers run "season's first snowfall" headlines several times a winter, and most of them aren't about Auli. We think it's the biggest reason English-language travel pages get this topic wrong: find a "first snowfall" story and it's easy to assume it meant Auli, when it usually means somewhere higher and colder.
- 5 November 2025: the season's first snow was at Badrinath. Auli and Jyotirmath (Joshimath) weren't mentioned.
- 2 January 2026: the "first snowfall" story that winter was about Niti Valley, and it named Auli as one of the spots still empty: "Uttarakhand's famous tourist spots Auli and Aizen Top lie deserted" is the line, from ETV Bharat's Chamoli report.
Auli sits at roughly 2,500 to 3,050 m. Badrinath, Hemkund and the Niti valley are higher and colder, and they whiten weeks to months before Auli does, so a page built from those headlines can put Auli's season three to eleven weeks early. If you check the news yourself before booking, read the Hindi reports past the headline. "बर्फबारी" (snowfall) alone tells you nothing: you want Chamoli and Auli named in the first paragraph.
How long does snow last in Auli once it falls?
A snowfall at Auli doesn't stay skiable for long. Rakesh Ranjan, a technical officer working the 2026 season, put numbers on it in ETV Bharat's Hindi coverage. Two feet of fresh snow compacts to about a foot once it's packed down, and after that a snowfall holds a skiable surface for roughly 15 to 20 days before it degrades. So the time to go is within two to three weeks of the last real fall, which a single "it snowed" headline can't tell you and the four-winter table above can.
Depth matters as much as timing. Half a foot of snow is enough to teach a beginner; a professional event needs at least four feet, according to Santosh Kunwar, founder of the Auli Skiing School, speaking to Scroll.in in March 2025.
There's no artificial backup. Snow-making machines were installed at Auli in 2010-11 and have never been put to their intended use. Pioneer Edge called them "mere showpieces" in March 2025, and in January 2026 ETV Bharat's coverage of the "Save Auli" protest described the system as run down after 15 years. An artificial ice-skating rink built around the same time, at a cost reported near Rs 5 crore, sits abandoned. We found nothing to support the "artificial snow as backup" some pages promise, and without it a December booking has no safety net.
February 2026, the season that worked
The 2026 Shitalkin Winter Carnival and National Skiing Championship ran 13 to 16 February, and it's the strongest single data point on this page. Seventeen teams competed, including Army and ITBP sides. More than 15,000 visitors reached Auli across the four days, and afterwards the Jyotirmath nagar panchayat collected 13 quintals of plastic waste.
On 15 February, Auli held India's first-ever night skiing event, under floodlights. The slope had been prepared by hand, and a Hindi report on 12 February called that the season's special achievement: the first time it was done manually, without modern machines.
The season's first real snow had come on 23 January, only three weeks before, and the event followed it. That makes the carnival calendar a better booking anchor than any month name. The organisers call it off when the snow isn't there, as they did in 2023 and 2025, so a carnival that's still on as its dates approach is the best signal you'll get. In 2026 the dates moved twice and settled only in early February, and crowds follow the snow within days.
How often is the championship called off?
The national championship has failed to run at Auli in at least seven winters since 2012, by the most careful count we could source. Pioneer Edge, reporting in March 2025, names six of them: 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2021 and 2023. The seventh is 2025, the postponement that same report was covering.
Beyond that the sources disagree. Scroll.in, the same week, called 2025 "the sixth time since 2014" that the championship had been cancelled or postponed, though the named list has four years since 2014, five with 2025. A third report, on the 2022-23 cancellation, called it the third cancellation of a separate international race, citing 2012 and 2017, and 2017 is on nobody else's list.
Our read is that the outlets are folding two events into one number: the national championship and an international FIS-graded race. Every count agrees on the shape. A failed event at Auli comes round every two or three years, going back more than a decade, and the last four winters are the latest stretch of it.
How far ahead should you book Auli?
Auli's Christmas and New Year rooms sell out weeks before anyone knows whether there'll be snow. GMVN Auli was fully booked for 25 to 31 December as early as 8 December 2025, confirmed by the property's own manager. The Hotel Association's president said New Year bookings had already started, with tourists, in the local report's words, "checking weather updates," and the piece itself hedging: "if the weather is kind."
The weather wasn't kind. That season's first real snow fell on 23 January, more than six weeks after the rooms sold out, and a report on 22 December found guest houses full but hotels at only around 60 per cent.
Where the two of us differ is on fixing dates at all. Nav says a fixed late-January to mid-February booking is fine for most trips if you build in flexibility on the ground. Watch the forecast the week before, and if it's dry, spend the days on the meadow and the view instead of the slope, and the trip still works.
Vandana's point is that this suits people who'd enjoy a snowless Auli anyway. For someone booking their one trip of the year to ski, a date with no snow behind it is a real risk. Where we agree: if skiing is one part of a bigger Uttarakhand trip, fix the window and go. If it's the whole reason you're going, hold your dates, wait for the carnival announcement and book around it, even with less lead time. Either way, ask your hotel to confirm slope conditions before you finalise anything.
The road is part of the timing too. When snow does arrive, the road above Jyotirmath can tighten to four-wheel drives only within a day. It's a police decision at a checkpoint, and we've never found an order published for one, so there's nothing to check in advance.
On 24 January 2026 we reached Jyotirmath at quarter to six in the evening, waited there until eleven for the road to open, and then drove up in the dark to a hotel below the top. The papers that week report the road closing that day after vehicles skidded on the snow, then reopening to four-wheel drives only. None of this changes which month you pick, but once you've picked, it's the first thing to ask your hotel about. What closed and when is in the day-by-day road log.
Auli month by month
One line a month. The snow months are argued above.
| Month | What it's like |
|---|---|
| December | High demand, unreliable snow. Rooms were reported full over Christmas and New Year in both Decembers we have booking reports for, 2024 and 2025. |
| January | Split in two. Early January has been deserted in at least one recent year. The second half is usually where the season turns: 23 Jan in 2025-26, 21 Jan in 2022-23, 17 to 18 Jan in 2023-24. Push your dates later in the month if you can. |
| February | The best-documented snow month across four winters, and home to the Winter Carnival when it runs, 13 to 16 Feb in 2026. Courses, gear and what a lesson costs are on the skiing page. |
| March | The tail of the season. We found no dated report of a usable March slope in any of the four winters. In 2024-25 the championship was moved to 16 to 19 March and called off again, and in 2025-26 the lower slope was reported bare and melting on 5 February. |
| April | Transition month, thin on both snow and dated reporting. Too late for a snow trip. |
| May | Gorson Bugyal reported fully accessible, snow-free, and in wildflower by early May in one dated 2026 source. Part of GMVN's own official best-time range. |
| June | Usually clear, though snow has lingered on the upper meadow into June in at least one recent year, so check before you count on a bare trail. Monsoon typically sets in by mid to late June and closes the window. |
| July to August | Peak monsoon. We couldn't find a single dated account of what Auli itself is like in these two months, in Hindi or English. GMVN's own best-time range skips them, and the road reports we found are about landslides on the highway below Auli. |
| September | Post-monsoon clearing typically begins. For the nearby Kuari Bugyal trek, GMVN names June and September and skips the monsoon between them. |
| October | Part of GMVN's official best-time range, and post-monsoon, when the view of the peaks is reported at its clearest. |
| November | Cools fast, still generally clear. Badrinath temple closes somewhere in this window each year, which resets the whole yatra traffic pattern on the road below Auli. |
The ropeway only affects how you get up. The Joshimath-Auli gondola has been closed since January 2023, and at a Chief Secretary review on 2 September 2026 its rebuild, extended to Gorson, was still at the design and tender stage, with no reopening date. In every month in this table, the way up is by road. Its full record is on the ropeway page.
How cold does Auli get?
Most Auli pages carry a tidy month-by-month temperature table, and we've left ours out. Every version we could trace runs back to a private travel portal. None comes from a weather station at Auli, and the January minima, minus 1 to minus 4, look more like a daily average for the wider area than an overnight low on the slope.
The one dated reading we could trust runs colder: a guest at a lodge on the Auli slope recorded minus 10 C in February 2016. Take that as the shape of it, and pack for colder than any average you read.
Is Auli worth visiting without snow?
Two of our three trips were outside the snow season, and it's the half of the calendar we'd point most first-time visitors to. In mid-October 2024 we drove our Baleno up from Jyotirmath, leaving at half past nine and reaching our resort at Lower Auli by half past ten. In early June 2025, the green season before the monsoon, we came by bus from Delhi, took a shared jeep up from Jyotirmath and stayed at GMVN at the top.
Auli's official best-time range, by GMVN's own listing, is March to May and October to November, and neither window has anything to do with skiing.
Gorson Bugyal, the alpine meadow just above the chairlift's top station, is the main draw. One dated 2026 source describes the trail as fully accessible with no ice by early May, with wildflowers and rhododendrons in bloom, and calls May "the best month for trekking" at Auli. Snow doesn't clear on a schedule, though: in June 2021 a dated account found a foot or two of old snow still on the trekking route, and called that an unusual year. Camping on the meadow itself has been disallowed since 2018, so plan on a day trek from Auli.
If you've come to see the mountains themselves, go in September or October. Post-monsoon air is what clears the view, and Nanda Devi, one of the highest and most striking peaks visible from this ridge, is reported at its best in this window by an account of the adjoining Kuari Pass trail. That account is over a decade old and is about the neighbouring trek, which makes it regional support at best. It lines up with GMVN's October-November recommendation, and with the seasons: the monsoon dust is gone and the winter haze hasn't started.
The shoulder months come without winter's road restrictions, but the weather can still turn fast: a pre-monsoon storm in May 2025 dumped enough rain in five minutes to leave standing water across parts of the site. Pack in layers for cold mornings and warm afternoons, because at this altitude the swing across a single day is bigger than people expect.
What do you do if there's no snow when you arrive?
Enough visitors now reach a bare slope that it's worth planning for. The meadow above the chairlift doesn't need snow to be worth the walk, and neither does the chairlift, if it's running. The view from the top, toward Nanda Devi and the wider Garhwal Himalaya, is there whatever the snow does; only the foreground changes, between white and green.
Jyotirmath has its own winter reason to visit. When Badrinath temple closes for the season, its worship moves to two nearby sites, Yog Badri at Pandukeshwar and the Narsingh Temple in Jyotirmath itself. So in the very months when Auli's snow may not have arrived yet, there's a reason to be in town that has nothing to do with skiing.
Best time to visit Auli: FAQ
What is the best time to visit Auli?
Late January to mid-February, for snow. That's where the last four winters put the best odds, not the December to February range most listicles repeat. If snow isn't the point, March to May and October to November are Auli's own official best-time months, GMVN's words, for clear views and a green Gorson Bugyal without the winter crowd or the winter prices.
Is December a good time to visit Auli?
Three winters in four, no. 2022-23 had no snow at all in December. 2023-24 got snow on 12 December, then nothing until 17-18 January. 2024-25 had snow by 8 December and tourists skiing on it by Christmas, but the season never held enough of it for the national championship. 2025-26 was described as deserted on 2 January, with the first real snow on 23 January. December can work in a good year, as 2024 showed, but three of the last four were not good years. Already fixed on December? Read the guide for December travellers instead: it's written for people who have already booked.
What is Auli like in January?
Split into two. Early January has been snowless in at least one of the last four years, 2025-26, when Auli was reported deserted on 2 January. Late January is where the season usually turns: the 2025-26 snow arrived on 23 January, and the road restrictions, chairlift crowds and frozen lake all followed within a week. If you can move your dates, the last week of January beats the first.
Is there snow in Auli in March?
Sometimes, but March is the tail of the season. We found no dated report of a usable March slope in any of the last four winters. In 2024-25 the championship, moved to 16 to 19 March, was called off again, and in 2025-26 the lower slope was reported bare and melting as early as 5 February. Don't book March for snow without checking that season's reports first.
What is the best time to visit Auli for snow skiing?
Late January to mid-February. The best single anchor is the Winter Carnival and National Skiing Championship, because it gets called off when the snow isn't there, as it was in 2023 and 2025. In 2026 it ran 13 to 16 February. Watch for the announcement and build your dates around it.
Is Auli worth visiting in May or June?
Yes, for a different trip. This is Gorson Bugyal season, the alpine meadow above Auli, reported fully accessible with wildflowers by early May in one dated 2026 source, though snow can linger into June in some years. There's no skiing and no chairlift crowd, and GMVN's own site names this stretch as part of its official best-time range. Come for the trekking and the viewpoints.
What if I go to Auli and there's no snow?
It happens often enough now that you should plan for it. The meadow above the chairlift doesn't need snow to be worth the walk, and neither does the chairlift, if it's running. Jyotirmath itself has a winter-only reason to visit, the relocated Badrinath worship at Yog Badri and the Narsingh Temple. And the Himalayan view from Auli doesn't disappear just because the slope is bare.
Does the Auli winter carnival happen every year, and when?
Not reliably, and the dates aren't fixed in advance. The national event failed to run in at least seven winters since 2012, going by one outlet's list of six plus 2025, and other outlets count differently, probably because they fold in a separate international race. In 2026 the dates moved twice and settled only in early February. It ran 13 to 16 February.
Is the Joshimath-Auli ropeway running, and does it affect timing?
No. It's been closed since January 2023, and the state reviewed the rebuild-and-extension project again on 2 September 2026 with no reopening date. Auli is reached by road the whole time it's shut, so it changes how you get up, and the best time to go stays the same.
Is there a reliable snow window at Auli?
Not a reliable one. Late January to mid-February has the best odds, going by four winters of dated reports, but in two of those four the national championship was called off for lack of snow. That's narrower than the December to February range most pages repeat, and less certain than any of them admit.
What we could not verify
- What Auli itself is like in July and August. We couldn't find a dated report, traveller's account or operator statement, in Hindi or English, describing Auli in peak monsoon. All the rain coverage is about the approach road or the district.
- A proper temperature record for Auli. The month-by-month tables in circulation all trace back to one private travel portal, and none to an IMD or comparable station. We have dated observations, not a series.
- Whether the chairlift inside Auli is running now. The last documented riders were on 25 January 2026. Garhwal Post's carnival coverage on 15 February names it in a list, which is no proof it ran, and a month-by-month check through August 2026 turned up nothing in either direction.
- Any news on the ropeway rebuild after 2 September 2026. The Chief Secretary's review that day told officials to complete procedures within set timeframes and gave no date. Nothing has surfaced since.
- When Gorson Bugyal clears of snow each year. One dated 2026 source has it snow-free by early May; a 2021 account found snow on the trail into June. Two data points don't make a pattern.
- Whether the September and October clarity holds for Auli's own viewpoint. Our best support is an account of the adjoining Kuari Pass trail, over a decade old.
- One agreed count of cancelled championships. Outlets count the national event and a separate international race differently, so alongside the most careful count we could source, at least seven, we've set out the disagreement.
- Auli's first snowfall date in 2021-22. We couldn't find it in English or Hindi. Tourists were skiing by New Year's Eve that year, which suggests the season didn't fail, but with no dated first snow it stays out of the table.
- Whether the snow-making machines could run again. No GMVN or state statement addresses their condition, only that they haven't been used since installation in 2010-11.
Planning your own dates?
Tell us what you're going for, snow, the meadow or just the view, and roughly when, at hello@wctoindia.com, and we'll tell you how your dates line up with what the last four winters did. If you've been up recently, tell us what the slope was like and we'll credit you by name.
Sources
The four-season snow record: 2022-23 cancellation and Tourism Minister quote, Amar Ujala, 16 Feb 2023, corroborated by Drishti IAS, 18 Feb 2023; 2023-24 snowfall dates, Aajtak, 13 Dec 2023 and Amar Ujala, 18 Jan 2024; 2024-25 snow and postponements, Aajtak, 30 Dec 2024, ETV Bharat, 20 Jan 2025, Pioneer Edge, 18 Mar 2025; 2025-26 deserted-then-snow, ETV Bharat, 2 Jan 2026 and Amar Ujala Chamoli, 25 Jan 2026; slope bare and melting, Amar Ujala, 5 Feb 2026. Our three trips: our own trip sheets for October 2024 and January 2026, and our memory of June 2025. The road on 24 January 2026: Chamoli SP Surjeet Singh Pawar via ANI, 24 Jan 2026. Snow mechanics: technical officer Rakesh Ranjan, ETV Bharat, 29 Jan 2026; snow-making machines, Pioneer Edge, 18 Mar 2025; March snowfall, snow-forecast.com modelled averages, read 8 Sep 2026; the abandoned ice rink and its Rs 5 crore cost via ETV Bharat, 15 Jan 2026; and the Auli Skiing School founder via Scroll.in, 18 Mar 2025. Cancellation history: Pioneer Edge, 18 Mar 2025, Scroll.in, 18 Mar 2025, and Devbhoomisamvad, 16 Feb 2023, for the international race. The 2026 carnival and night skiing: News on Air, 13 Feb 2026, ETV Bharat, 15 Feb 2026, ETV Bharat, 17 Feb 2026; the slope prepared by hand, Squarecube Times, 12 Feb 2026. Chairlift: rider count, Amar Ujala Chamoli, 25 Jan 2026; carnival listing, Garhwal Post, 15 Feb 2026. Ropeway: closed since January 2023, Pioneer Edge, 3 Oct 2023; still shut and traders' demand, Amar Ujala Chamoli, 21 Jun 2026; 2 September 2026 Chief Secretary review, reported by Amar Ujala's Dehradun edition and via 24ghanteonline.com and nazariyanews.com, both 2 Sep 2026. Booked-out rooms: Amar Ujala Chamoli, 26 Dec 2024; Amar Ujala, 8 Dec 2025, corroborated on occupancy and the missing snow by Amar Ujala, 22 Dec 2025. The minus 10 C in February 2016: a guest's review of Shepherd's Lodge Devi Darshan, Auli, on TripAdvisor. Gorson Bugyal and shoulder season: theaulimeadows.com, 2 May 2026, for early-May trail conditions; a dated 2021 report for snow lingering into June; GMVN's own destination page for the official best-time range and the Kuari Bugyal June-September window; an Indiahikes account of the adjoining Kuari Pass trail, published 2012, for post-monsoon visibility. May 2025 rain event: Aajtak, 19 May 2025. Winter worship relocation to Jyotirmath: regional coverage of the Badrinath closing season. GMVN skiing and course information: gmvnonline.com/skiing, read 8 Sep 2026.
Changelog
- First published.
- Rewritten around our own trips. No fare, distance or date changed. Took out a January 2026 night temperature of minus 6 C: it came from a hotel page that also listed the closed ropeway as running. Corrected the December record: tourists were skiing at Auli on Christmas Day 2024, so three of the last four Decembers were short of snow, not four.