India Zanskar High Mountain Trek

Overview

Zanskar spends more than half the year sealed off by snow, and the summer trekking window is your only walking door into it. From Darcha the trail climbs to the Shingo La at 5,091m - prayer flags snapping over a moonscape of scree and glacier - then drops into the Lungnak valley, where barley fields glow implausibly green against 6,000-metre walls. The route's great moment is Phugtal Gompa: a honeycomb of whitewashed cells built into a cliff cave above the turquoise Tsarap river, still reachable only on foot, where the monks will pour you butter tea. Beyond lie Padum, Zanskar's tiny capital, and Karsha Gompa stacked up its hillside. Altitude is the variable that ends trips here: the route lives above 3,800m for days, so acclimatise properly first - three nights around Leh or Lahaul minimum - and know the symptoms that mean descent. July to September only; the passes hold snow either side. A guide or agency crew with mules is the sensible format (around £1,400 for nine days including permits and food), and go soon with clear eyes: the new Shingo La road is punching through year by year, and the walking route will not outlive it in this form.

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Prefilled for 1 July 2027 — the next best-season window. Search on partner sites — opens in a new tab.