—Categories: ladakh

The Chadar Trek

Also: see details of Chadar Expedition in January 2012, lead by tour leader Manish Lakhani

Some of you might have been seeing images from my Chadar Expedition – walking on frozen Zanskar River on paintedstork facebook page. I had given a brief introduction to the trek along with a photograph in an earlier post, soon after I returned from the memorable three-week expedition. Before I delve into the depths of it and write more on Chadar, here is a documentary worth seeing for anyone who is remotely interested in Ladakh and Zanskar regions, especially for those who intend to do this trek in the coming years.

Discovery Channel is running a documentary on ‘Chadar – The Ice Trail.’ It is being played almost every alternate day this week. Take a look at the schedule and consider watching this. Here is a short trailer on youtube. It is also worthwhile remembering that Border Roads Organization is building a road running parallel to the river, which will make the trek a redundant and noisy experience in about five to ten years time. But the road has the potential to change the lives of people of Zanskar forever and bring in considerable improvement in quality of life.

—Categories: Jammu and Kashmir, ladakh, photos

Chadar Trek

Also: see details of Chadar Expedition in January 2012, lead by tour leader Manish Lakhani

I am just back from a fourteen-day trek in Ladakh, walking on the ice-shelf of Frozen Zanskar River. They were fourteen amazing days of walking in the depths of the narrow gorges through which the river often flows. The beautiful and clear blue river flowed gently next to us all the way, sometimes disappearing into the depths of the ice shelf and again emerging a little while later. To each side of the river were tall walls of Zanskar Ranges that cut us off from rest of the world. We mostly walked on solid ice but sometimes climbed up the rocks where the ice-shelf (or chadar, as they usually call it) was broken. Here is a picture from the trek, taken from our camp on Day 2. More images and stories from the trek will follow in the coming days.

chadar trek

—Categories: Jammu and Kashmir, ladakh

Chadar Trek – Short Itinerary

Chadar Trek Besides the 20-day Chadar Trek we had announced earlier, we have also included a shorter 10-day itinerary for those who may not be able to afford 20 days off. See updated details on the shorter chadar trek.

The trek will take the same route as the longer chadar trek, except that you will be walking a shorter distance compared to the full trek.