Kashmir Great Lakes Trek

Overview

Runs in: July, August, September. Outside that window we do not sell the trip rather than run it badly.

Day by day

8 days, in the order you will walk or drive them.

1. 1Arrive Srinagar — a night on Dal LakeDay 1

   Arrive and transfer to a houseboat on Dal Lake. Kit check and medical screening in the afternoon, then a shikara across to the Mughal gardens if there is light. Full briefing and dinner aboard. Anything you are not carrying is left here.
2. 2Drive to Sonamarg (2,730 m), trek to NichnaiDay 2

   Three hours up the Sindh valley to Shitkadi outside Sonamarg, then the first walk: a steep hour through pine to the tableland above, and a long gentler stretch along the stream to camp at Nichnai. Roughly 9 km and five hours, with about 800 m of gain.
3. 3Nichnai to Vishansar (3,700 m) via Nichnai PassDay 3

   Two hours up a grass slope to Nichnai Pass at 4,080 m, the first of the four, then a long descent into a broad meadow crossed by a snowmelt stream. Camp short of Vishansar lake with Kishansar ridge above. About 12 km and six hours.
4. 4Vishansar and Kishansar — rest dayDay 4

   A deliberate day off the clock. A short walk up to Kishansar lake and the ridge between the two waters, then back to camp. This day exists so the pass sequence that follows is walked on rested legs, and it is where trout fishermen with a state permit get their morning.
5. 5Vishansar to Gadsar via Gadsar Pass (4,190 m)Day 5

   The high point of the trek. A steady climb past Kishansar to Gadsar Pass with both lakes below you, then a drop into a valley of wildflowers to Yamsar and Gadsar lake. An army post checks documents at the camp. About 14 km and seven hours.
6. 6Gadsar to Satsar (3,600 m)Day 6

   Out of the Gadsar bowl over a shoulder and across open meadow to the Satsar group — seven small lakes, most of them dry by late season. A second document check here. Around 12 km and six hours, easier underfoot than yesterday.
7. 7Satsar to Gangabal via Zaj PassDay 7

   The hardest day for footing: an hour of boulder-hopping out of Satsar, then the climb to Zaj Pass at about 4,100 m and a long descent to the twin lakes of Nundkol and Gangabal under Harmukh. Around 13 km and eight hours. The finest camp of the trek.
8. 8Gangabal to Naranag, drive to SrinagarDay 8

   A 13 km descent — 2,000 m of it — through birch and pine to the road head at Naranag and its eighth-century Shiva temple complex. Lunch there, then two and a half hours by road to Srinagar, arriving late afternoon. Trip ends.

Dates and prices

Seat counts are live. A date leaves sale the moment it fills — we do not overbook and sort it out later.

What is included

Questions about this trip

Answered from this departure's own numbers. Anything not here, the desk will tell you straight.

3 reviews

Each one is linked to a booking on one of the departures above.

• This is not a first trek and the listing says so — I should have listened more carefully. Six to eight hours a day for six days straight is cumulative in a way Hampta was not, and the boulder section out of Satsar took me nearly two hours. Faultless organisation, ponies for the loads, honest leaders. Train for it properly and it is superb.

• Day four at Vishansar looks like a wasted day on paper and it is the reason the rest of the trek works. We had two people in the group struggling on day three who were completely fine by day five. Gangabal on the second-last night is the most beautiful campsite I have slept at anywhere in India.

• Every single day delivers something. Gadsar Pass with Vishansar and Kishansar laid out behind you is the picture everyone posts, but the descent into the wildflower valley afterwards is the bit nobody warns you about. Camp food was better at 3,700 m than most places I eat at sea level.