Ladakh
High cold desert — turquoise lakes, 5000 m passes and Zanskar's frozen river.
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- Trans-Himalayan Cold Desert
Trails & landmarks
Pangong Tso
The colour-changing salt lake — 134 km long, a third in India, and a Kiagar-style sapphire at noon.
Tso Moriri
A Ramsar lake deep in Rupshu — black-necked cranes, kiangs and the nomadic Karzok village.
Tso Kar
The white lake — high-altitude salt basin with crusted shorelines and bar-headed geese in summer.
Startsapuk Tso
Tso Kar's freshwater neighbour — a quiet pool where kiangs graze and cranes nest.
Kiagar Tso
A shimmering turquoise stop on the Tso Kar–Tso Moriri road — shallow enough to walk into.
Yarab Tso
The hidden lake of Nubra — sacred, rarely visited, and a short walk up from Panamik.
Sani Lake
A still pool beside Zanskar's oldest monastery — Naropa's chorten and a summer Nadro festival.
Khardung La
The 'Pass of Lower Castle' — gateway to Nubra, once claimed as the world's highest motorable road.
Chang La
The high pass to Pangong — a Buddha statue, a tea stall and prayer flags at oxygen-thin altitude.
Tanglang La
The second-highest pass on the Manali–Leh — a lunar plateau drop into the Indus valley.
Fotu La
The highest point on the Srinagar–Leh road — painted mountains and the moonscape towards Lamayuru.
Namika La
The 'Pillar in the Sky' — the first major pass east of Kargil, colourful rock strata on every turn.
Wari La
The back-door pass to Nubra — a quieter, steeper loop from Sakti avoiding Khardung traffic.
Lachulung La
Eroded pillars and the Pang plateau beyond — one of the classic Manali–Leh crossings.
Nakee La
A twin of Lachulung above Gata Loops — 21 switchbacks then the big drop to Whisky Nala.
Zoji La
The knife-edge pass from Kashmir into Ladakh — cliff cut above the Sindh gorge, closed most winters.
Shingo La
The Darcha–Padum trail crossing — now a tunnel-in-progress, still a classic foot pass into Zanskar.
Kanji La
Wild crossover from Lamayuru to Kanji village — a hidden pass with scree, river crossings and no roads.
Ganda La
The first pass on the Markha Valley trek — yak pastures and a view clear to Stok Kangri.
Kongmaru La
The Markha Valley's highest pass — the descent into Shang Sumdo is a psychedelic rockfall.
Stok La
A quick but gruelling pass from Rumbak to Stok village — shortest way to bail from Markha.
Stok Kangri
The classic first 6000er — now on a rotating closure to heal overuse, but the view of Zanskar is unmatched.
Kang Yatse
Markha Valley's guardian peak — II is the trekking peak, I is a technical big summit.
Dzo Jongo
A 6000er beside Kang Yatse — long non-technical snow slopes make this the cleanest Ladakhi first summit.
Mentok Kangri
Three summits rising straight out of Tso Moriri — a Rupshu 6000er with the blue lake at your feet.
Nun Peak
Highest peak entirely in the Indian side of Kashmir-Zanskar — steep snow walls above the Suru.
Kun Peak
Nun's twin across the icefield — a longer, more technical ascent from the Suru side.
Saser Kangri
An ice giant guarding the Karakoram end of Nubra — open only to joint IMF expeditions.
Markha Valley
Ladakh's signature trek — seven days through Skiu and Hankar past chortens, gompas and Kang Yatse.
Chadar Trek
A week on the frozen Zanskar river — ice sheets, caves and the temperature sinks to −30 °C at night.
Sham Valley
Ladakh's 'baby trek' — apricot villages, low passes and monastery stays around Likir and Hemis-Shukpachan.
Rupshu Valley
Changpa nomad country — Tso Moriri, Tso Kar and Kiagar Tso linked by salt plains at 4500 m.
Zanskar Valley
India's most remote inhabited valley — barley fields, crystal rivers and monasteries perched on cliffs.
Nubra Valley
The valley of flowers in Ladakh — Shyok and Nubra converge past cold-desert dunes and double-humped camels.
Hunder Sand Dunes
Cold-desert dunes between snow peaks — Bactrian camel rides on the old silk-route trail.
Turtuk
India's last Balti village on the Shyok — apricot orchards, Yabgo history and the K2 range close by.
Drass
Second-coldest inhabited place on earth — the Kargil war memorial and Tololing ridge loom above.
Suru Valley
A gentle green valley under Nun and Kun — Panikhar, Parkachik glacier and the old trade route to Zanskar.
Drang-Drung Glacier
Ladakh's second-largest glacier — visible in its entirety from Pensi La on the Kargil–Padum road.
Lamayuru
The 'moonland' monastery — 11th-century gompa perched on lunar eroded badlands.
Hemis Monastery
Ladakh's largest gompa — seat of the Drukpa lineage and home to the Hemis Tsechu masked dances.
Thiksey Monastery
A twelve-storeyed mini-Potala above the Indus — the giant Maitreya and a dawn morning prayer worth waking for.
Diskit Monastery
Nubra's oldest gompa and the 32 m Maitreya that faces Pakistan — sunset spills all the way to Hunder.
Phuktal Monastery
A honeycomb of whitewashed cells built into a cliff cave — reachable only on foot from Purne.
Magnetic Hill
An optical illusion slope that seems to pull vehicles uphill — a quick photo stop on the Srinagar–Leh road.
Sangam (Indus-Zanskar)
The muddy Zanskar joins the jade Indus at Nimmu — two rivers, two colours, one confluence.
Panamik Hot Springs
Sulfur springs at the end of the Nubra road — last village before the Siachen glacier permit zone.
Sumur Village Walk
A green Nubra oasis on the Shyok — apricot orchards, the Samstanling gompa and a sand-dune walk across the river.
Bogdang Village
A Balti hamlet near the LoC past Turtuk — walnut groves, stone mosques and the Shyok river at its most turquoise.
Warshi Hidden Valley
The last opened hamlet beyond Turtuk — an 8 km walk into Baltistan that only opened to tourists in 2023.
Stakmo Valley
A quiet side-valley en route to Chang La — the apricot hamlet of Stakmo hides below 6000 m walls with zero traffic.
Yarma Gonpo Monastery
A pink-cliff cave monastery above the Shyok at Tirith — a 1 km climb to a meditation chamber painted with Drukpa thangkas.
Siachen Base Camp Trek
A recently opened 5-day walk from Warshi to the world's highest battlefield base — permits via the Leh DC office only.
Karakoram Pass Approach
The ancient Silk Road pass into Xinjiang — an 8-day high-altitude traverse from Saser Brangsa for expedition groups only.
Hunder Shyok Dunes Walk
Twin-hump Bactrian camels on silver sand — an evening walk between Hunder and Diskit along the Shyok's dry beach.
Padum Bazaar Walk
The Zanskar capital — a dusty market ringed by the Stod and Tsarap rivers, trailhead for the Umasi-La and Shingo-La.
Karsha Monastery
The largest Zanskar gompa, climbing the cliff above Padum — frescoes by Rinchen Zangpo and a high sunset courtyard.
Stongdey Monastery
Zanskar's second-largest gompa — a 30-minute climb to a balcony of 70 monk cells over the Zanskar river.
Zangla Nunnery Walk
The old Zanskar royal seat — a ruined hill-fort, a working nunnery and the trailhead for the Chadar alternative summer route.
Bardan Monastery
A cliff-top Drukpa gompa over the Lungnak river — an 18th-century wood-block printing library inside a three-storey assembly hall.
Rangdum Monastery
An isolated gompa on the Suru-Zanskar divide — a flat-topped hillock of prayer flags in the middle of a grass plain.
Sani Village Walk
The oldest monastery site in Ladakh — a Kushan-era stupa field and a meditation cave used by Naropa.
Zanskar River Raft Walk-in
A walk-and-raft through the Zanskar gorge from Chilling — towering vertical cliffs, wild camps and Class IV rapids.
Nyingri La (Umasi Approach)
A remote crossing from Kishtwar into Zanskar — a glacier pass approached from Atoli through the wilderness of Hagshu.
Darcha–Padum Trek
The classic 8-day traverse from Darcha in Lahaul over Shingo-La into the Lungnak of Zanskar — monasteries every evening.
Hanle Dark Sky Reserve
India's first Dark Sky Reserve — the IIA telescope perched above a Changpa nomad plateau, milky-way at zenith.
Chushul Valley
The 1962 war valley at the south end of Pangong — the Rezang La memorial and a wide Changthang grass-plain.
Korzok Monastery
A 300-year-old gompa on the north shore of Tso Moriri — the Changpa camp's summer festival of masked Cham dance.
More Plains
A 40 km flat high-altitude plain on the Manali-Leh road — wild kiang herds graze under the Gya peak and Tsokar's salt rim.
Nyoma Ridge
A small Indus-side village with a new altitude airfield — a ridge walk to the white-washed Nyoma gompa above the valley.
Puga Hot Springs
A geothermal field in the Tso Moriri approach — sulfur vents, a borax-laden stream and Changpa nomads camped alongside.
Kargil War Memorial
At the foot of Tololing and Tiger Hill — a museum corridor below the scarred 1999 peaks and a wall of martyrs' names.
Tiger Hill View Trail
A view-only ridge walk near the famous 1999 summit — no civilian access to the top, but the approach ridge is open.
Mushkoh Valley
The 'valley of tulips' in Kargil — every May the western slope blushes pink with the wild Mushkoh tulip.
Sankoo Valley
Kargil's greenest pocket on the Suru river — apricot orchards, a seven-metre Maitreya at Karste and the Suru road into Rangdum.
Mulbekh Chamba
A roadside rock-cut 9 m Maitreya Buddha carved in the 8th century — the visual hinge between Buddhist Ladakh and Islamic Kargil.
Wakha Valley Walk
The side valley east of Mulbekh — Shargole gompa, a rock-cut ChamRinchen stupa and a quiet gorge to Bodhkharbu.
Leh Palace & Old Town Walk
The nine-storey 17th-century Namgyal palace — a warren of mud houses climbs up from the Jama Masjid to the Tsemo hill.
Shanti Stupa
A white-domed Japanese peace pagoda above Changspa — a 500-step sunrise climb to the best city-and-Stok view in Leh.
Spituk Monastery
A Gelugpa gompa on a conical hillock over the Indus — 100 monks, a Kali shrine and the start point of the winter Chadar.
Stakna Monastery
A 'tiger's nose' hill monastery on a bend of the Indus — a short stepped climb to a Drukpa assembly hall of silver statues.
Matho Monastery
The only Sakya gompa in Ladakh — famous for the Matho Nagrang oracle festival on the two Rongtsan monks in spring.
Alchi Monastery
The jewel of 11th-century Kashmiri Buddhist art — four mud temples on a flat Indus bench with priceless Rinchen Zangpo frescoes.
Likir Monastery
A 23 m gilded Maitreya outside a Gelugpa gompa — the trailhead for the classic Likir–Tingmosgang day-walk.
Basgo Fort
A ruined 17th-century Namgyal citadel on a fluted mud-cliff — three Maitreya temples survive on the summit ridge.
Shey Palace
The old Ladakh summer palace — a short climb to a 12 m copper-gilt Shakyamuni and views across the Indus paddies.
Wanla Monastery
A 13th-century three-storey Avalokiteśvara temple on a ruined fort ridge — halfway point of the Lamayuru–Alchi trek.