Whether you are looking for thrilling expeditions and mountaineering and heli-skiing are the sports that interest you more, then head towards the northern part of India, plushed with some of the best extreme sports destinations of the world. Worth checking out are Manali in Himachal, Garhwal region in Uttar Pradesh and Ladakh in Jammu & Kashmir. So what are you waiting for! Just pack your sports gear and get going!

Winter sports are not just about snow skiing, there are plenty of activities one can try out. If you are scared of heights and skiing is not exactly your cup of tea! Then how about skating? Or Ice Skating? You just need to smooth up your balancing act on skates and leave the rest to the snow.

Ice Skating is just like skiing except that instead of swooshing down from snow covered slopes you just glide along a wide skating arena wearing ice-skates. Whether you want to have a skating partner or whether you want to do it alone, ice-skating is a sport, which needs a much better balancing act than in ordinary skating.

The best options to try out ice-skating in India is Shimla, where every year a winter sports festival is held and this sport is one of the major attractions of it. If you are an amateur or a bit naïve about skiing, just try the simple rules of agility, stability and steadiness and no one will be able to beat you.

Mountaineering is a sport that has challenge in every step. The Indian Himalayas yield every kind of challenge a climber could ask for, unparallel in scope for high mountain adventure. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal are India's major mountaineering states, while Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh offer restricted climbing.

Among the Indian Himalayas, the most challenging peaks that climbers crave to climb are Nanda Devi and Kanchenjunga. For the biggest mountaineering challenges in India, a climber can opt the Garhwal Himalayas, the Zanskar range in Jammu & Kashmir, Kullu & Lahaul in Himachal Pradesh and the eastern Himalayan range of Sikkim & Darjeeling.