And The Kashmir Trek Season Begins! - Latest Updates

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And The Kashmir Trek Season Begins! - Latest Updates

Category News

By Swathi Chatrapathy

2018-07-09

This week, our Kashmir treks have finally begun, after all the anticipation! Here are the latest updates!

Kashmir Great Lakes and Tarsar Marsar

On Saturday, July 5th, our first teams to Kashmir Great Lakes and Tarsar Marsar started their treks. As of today the first team has crossed Gadsar Pass and is camping at Gadsar. The second and third teams that left on 7th and 8th are on the trail too. All trekkers are safe. The weather has been on their side too, with sunny mornings and cloudy afternoons.

Our team setting up the KGL Base campsite.

The first team to Tarsar Marsar left on July 7th. This team was split into two, where 7 of them went on the Tarsar Marsar trek. The other 17 went on the Kashmir Great Lakes trek.

This is because July 8th was the death anniversary of Burhan Wani and Srinagar came to a stand still. There was a curfew and transport was a problem. The first 7 team members had arrived in Aru before the curfew.

However, everyone is on a trek, seeing the best of Kashmir.

The team that went to Tarsar Marsar is at the Shekhawas campsite. The team that left on 8th is at Lidderwat. They’re in good hands.

Hampta Pass and Bhrigu Lake

In Himachal, our treks to Hampta Pass and Bhrigu Lake have been running smooth. The only hiccup is the rain, but trekkers have been completing their treks despite rain.

Some of them opted not to visit Chandratal because of the rain. But we highly recommend visiting the moon-shaped lake. It’s something you do once in a life time.

Pin Bhaba Pass 

Our first teams to Pin Bhaba Pass leave on July 14th and 15th.

Both the teams had a surprise webinar with our founder on Saturday. They learnt about the trek and how to prepare for it. They also got some incredible tips that can only come from the years of experience that our founder has. If you’d like to get a peek into the webinar, watch the video below.

Tell us what you think of opening up these webinars to all trekkers and if you have any topics in mind for us to cover. Just drop in a comment with your thoughts.

Kanamo Peak Trek 

Another trek that is starting out is the Kanamo Peak trek, on July 21st. This trek goes into the heart of Spiti and climbs to nearly 20,000 ft! It’s a great alternative to Stok Kangri.

Many trekkers have been asking us if we run Stok Kangri and if we don’t, why we don’t run it.

Well, we don’t run the Stok Kangri trek because we don’t operate in Ladakh. Here’s why – Why Indiahikes doesn’t run the Stok Kangri trek in Ladakh.

Valley of Flowers

The first team to Valley of Flowers is at the actual Valley of Flowers today! They climb up from Govind Ghat to Valley of Flowers and back.

This is one of the only monsoon treks we run in Uttarakhand. It’s because the flowers bloom only when it rains. It’s a sight to behold!

Massive Clean Up At Roopkund

On the Green Trails front, our teams have been endlessly working to leave the slopes cleaner. They wrapped up the summer season at Roopkund with a thorough clean up of a few campsites.

The Bhagwabhasa slope was especially dirty because of a high concentration of trekkers. They cleaned every nook and corner of the trail.

Trekkers clean up near Kelva Vinayak Temple. Picture by Nikshep

Watch the video from 2.05 to get an idea of the clean up work they have done.

They will be continuing their splendid work on the Hampta Pass trail too, which is again prone to seeing a lot of trekkers thanks to its popularity.

A documentary in the making on Green Trails

Meanwhile, we had a special guest on the Roopkund trek. Her name is Lakshmi Rebecca and she hosts a video series, Chai With Lakshmi.

Along with her production team, Lakshmi was on the Roopkund trail, documenting our Green Trails work. She saw first hand the trash on the slope, and the work done by our trekkers to clean it up.

She’ll be out with a film on Green Trails by the end of the this month.

Children from Daffodils School go on a Hiking Club trek

On another note, in Bangalore too, children have been learning about Green Trails. Children from Daffodils went on the Nandi One (Brahmagiri) trek and learnt about the environment.

They trekked all the way to the top, and learnt about trekking, about waste management and learnt a lot about themselves and their classmates too.

Students of Daffodils English School on Brahmagiri Hills.

We think it’s extremely important expose children to the outdoors at a young age, and what better way than trekking! We’ll be taking more students on treks over the coming months.

If you work at a school or college and would like us to take your students on a trek, write to us on izzat@indiahikes.com. We’ll be happy to organise it for you!

We’ll post more updates here as and when we get updates from the slopes.

Stay tuned!

What you should do now

1. If you’re looking for treks to do: Then head over to our upcoming treks page. You’ll find all our Himalayan treks there.

2. If you want to work with us: Head over to our careers page. We have lots of positions open. We also have lots of applications coming in. So the sooner you apply, the better.

3. If you want to see the 13 best treks of India: Then get our guide here.

Swathi Chatrapathy

Chief Editor

About the author

Swathi Chatrapathy heads the digital content team at Indiahikes. She is also the face behind India's popular trekking video channel, Trek With Swathi. Unknown to many, Swathi also writes a weekly column at Indiahikes which has more than 100,000 followers.

A TEDx speaker and a frequent guest at other events, Swathi is a much sought after resource for her expertise in digital content.

Before joining Indiahikes, Swathi worked as a reporter and sub-editor at a daily newspaper. She holds a Masters's in Digital Journalism and continues to contribute to publications. Trekking, to her, is a sport that liberates the mind more than anything else. Through trekking, Swathi hopes to bring about a profound impact on a person's mind, body and spirit.

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