Ladakh, Bhutan, Pakistan, India, Sikkim, Tibet-side Kailash kora.
Gurudongmar Lake sits at 5,430 m (17,800 ft) in North Sikkim, close to the Chinese border, and you reach it by road from Lachen on a very early start. The hard parts are not the walking but the permit paperwork, the narrow morning window and the speed at which you gain height. Rules for foreign … Read more
Sikkim is a small state in northeast India, set in the Eastern Himalaya and flanked by Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. It holds Kangchenjunga, the third-highest mountain on Earth, and a large national park that protects much of the high country. For a trekker, that means a compact region with big mountains, a layered history and … Read more
Key takeaway: Secure a 600 INR permit in Leh to trek this 82km Himalayan route between late May and mid-September. Reaching 5,260m at Kongmaru La, the journey relies on a community-run homestay system costing roughly 1,500 to 2,500 INR daily. Proper three-day acclimatization in Leh is essential to safely navigate this high-altitude desert and its … Read more
Mount Kailash is not the highest mountain in the Tibetan plateau, nor the hardest to reach, but no other peak in Asia carries the same weight. At 6,638 m, it is sacred to four religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and the older Tibetan faith of Bon, and it has never been climbed, by a mix of … Read more
Kangchenjunga is the third-highest mountain on earth at 8,586 m, and for a long time it was thought to be the highest. From the Nepal side it takes three weeks to reach its base. From Sikkim, the small Indian state wedged between Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, the walk to the viewpoint at Goecha La takes … Read more
Most Himalayan treks are planned around the monsoon, which means avoiding it. The Valley of Flowers is the exception. This high glacial valley in the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand, in northern India, is at its best in late July and August, when the rain that empties every other trail brings up a carpet of alpine … Read more
The Markha Valley is where most people meet Ladakh on foot for the first time, and it is hard to imagine a better introduction. Over five or six days the trail follows a green ribbon of barley fields, willows and mud-brick villages through a landscape that is otherwise rock, sky and wind. It ends over … Read more
Bhutan is not a country you stumble into. Every visitor pays a daily fee, every trek is walked with a licensed guide and support crew, and the trails are quiet in a way that has become rare in the Himalaya. That quiet is the reward. On the two treks most people consider first, the Druk … Read more
There is no other trek quite like the walk up the Baltoro Glacier to Concordia and K2 Base Camp. In about two weeks of walking from the last village, the trail passes beneath four of the fourteen peaks above 8,000 m and a dozen of the most dramatic granite towers on earth, and it does … Read more
