The 1st South Asian Winter Games were held in Dehradun

Dehradun

- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...

 and Auli

Auli

Auli, is an important ski destination in the Himalayan mountains of Uttarakhand, India. Auli is known as 'Bugyal' in the regional language which means meadow. In fact some French and Australian experts consider Auli to be one of the best ski resorts in the world. Auli is less known ski destination...

, in the himalayan state of Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...

, India in January 2011. The games were conducted by the Indian Olympic Association

Indian Olympic Association

The Indian Olympic Association is the body responsible for selecting athletes to represent India at the Olympic Games, Asian Games and other international athletic meets and for managing the Indian teams at the events...

 and the Winter Games Federation of India. A grand opening and closing ceremony took place on January 10, 2011 and January 16, 2011, in Dehradun and Auli, respectively.

The Ice-skating and Ice hockey events were conducted from January 10 to 12, 2011 in Dehradun and the Skiing events were held from January 14 to 16, 2011 at Auli in Chamoli district.

Infrastructure (Games Related)

At Dehradun a world class state-of-the-art facility has been created at Raipur Sports College. The Ice skating and Ice Hockey arena has a seating capacity of 2,000 and the ice skating rink area is 60M by 30M, in which about 100 to 150 persons can skate every hour. It also has an olympic size (50 by 25 Meters) fully air conditioned swimming pool, basketball courts and a cafeteria inside the complex. The central government had sanctioned Rs 1.5 Billion for constructing this facility.
Auli is a world class destination for skiing. The skiing facility at Auli is of international standards with state-of-the-art ski slopes, artificial snow making system, water storage for artificial snow making system, chair lift system for ski sport and a residential accommodation complex. For the event, most of the works, including the ice making facility were put in place and there were 230 guest rooms that were built for the athletes and officials. The season at Auli has now been extended by creating artificial ice from a captive snow plant.

Infrastructure (General)

The new Passenger Terminal Building at the Jolly Grant Airport is now fully operational. The installation of Night Landing System (NLS) and Instrument landing System (ILS) was completed and the lights, too, were installed on the runway to facilitate night landing. The main runway was extended by The Airports Authority of India, to 7000 ft to facilitate the landing of bigger aircraft such as the Airbus A320 and Boeing 727.
The helipad at Auli was reconstructed to ensure regular chopper services from the Dehradun airport. These services were used to ferry athletes and officials during the event.

Mascot

The official mascot for the first South Asian Winter Games was the Bharal, the Himalayan Blue-Sheep or Big-Horn (Ovis Ammon) Wild Sheep is the native of North America, Mediterranean Basin, Central Asia, Asia and South Himalayas. The Bharal was chosen as the ideal mascot for these games keeping in view its agility, strength, sure-footedness and adaptability for survival in the snow-covered high altitude areas. The male has massive wrinkled horns up to 70 inches in length which forms a spiral, while the horns of the female are much smaller. It weighs around a quintal and stands about 42 inches at the shoulder. Nanda Devi National Park in Uttarakhand is the famous abode of this brownish grey Himalayan Big-Horn called Bharal.

Medal table

Key:

1		11	10	12	32
2		1	3	1	5
3		1	0	0	1
	Total	13	13	13	39

Participating nations

Afghanistan did not participate.

Sports

Four winter sports events were included in the 2011 South Asian Winter Games. Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...

 consisted of slalom

Slalom skiing

Slalom is an alpine skiing discipline, involving skiing between poles spaced much closer together than in Giant Slalom, Super-G or Downhill, thereby causing quicker and shorter turns.- Origins :...

, giant slalom and Super G with both men's and women's events. Cross country skiing consisted of three events for men – 10 km, 15 km and a 4x10km relay, while the women's event consisted of a 3 km, 5 km and a 10 km. Snowboarding

Snowboarding

Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...

 had a slalom and giant slalom with events for both men and women. Skating events included short track speed skating

Short track speed skating

Short track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a circumference of 111.12 m...

 for men and women.

Skiing events were held at the Auli GMVNL, Auli

Auli

Auli, is an important ski destination in the Himalayan mountains of Uttarakhand, India. Auli is known as 'Bugyal' in the regional language which means meadow. In fact some French and Australian experts consider Auli to be one of the best ski resorts in the world. Auli is less known ski destination...

 and the skating event were held at Dehradun RSC Arena, Dehradun

Dehradun

- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...

.

The figure in brackets indicates the number of events

• Alpine skiing
  Alpine skiing
  Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...
  
   (4)
• Cross country skiing (5)

• Snowboarding
  Snowboarding
  Snowboarding is a sport that involves descending a slope that is covered with snow on a snowboard attached to a rider's feet using a special boot set onto mounted binding. The development of snowboarding was inspired by skateboarding, sledding, surfing and skiing. It was developed in the U.S.A...
  
   (4)
• Short track speed skating
  Short track speed skating
  Short track speed skating is a form of competitive ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters skate on an oval ice track with a circumference of 111.12 m...
  
   (5)

Demonstration event

• 
  Ice hockey
  Ice hockey
  Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
  
   (1)
• Figure skating
  Figure skating
  Figure skating is an Olympic sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform spins, jumps, footwork and other intricate and challenging moves on ice skates. Figure skaters compete at various levels from beginner up to the Olympic level , and at local, national, and international competitions...
  
  (4) *Was scheduled to be a medal event, but only India had entered the competition, so it became a demonstration event.