KASHMIR GREAT LAKES TREK

Kashmir , India

KASHMIR GREAT LAKES TREK

8 Days 7 Nights

₹21,900.00

10/10

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Overview

Arrive: Srinagar, Kashmir Depart: Srinagar Kashmir Best Time: June to September	Duration: 8 Days Trek-Distance: 68 KM Highest Altitude: GadsarPass (4180m)

The Kashmir Great Lakes Trek is a moderate hiking trail in the western Himalayas of the Kashmir region. The base-camp Sonamarg lies on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway. The ending point Naranag village is also connected with the same Highway. The trek can be done in both ways, but to escape the direct Sun it is recommended to commence the trek at Sonamarg and end at Naranag as it treks mostly in a westerly direction.

The Great Lakes as the name suggests treks through many high altitude alpine lakes situated at the foothills of different snow-clad mountain peaks. The most famous lakes are Vishansar and Gangabal Lakes. It crosses streams, plenty of colorful alpine meadows, and ascends three mountain passes with an average altitude of 4000m above sea level. The highest mountain peak of the trek which dominates the second part of the trek is Mount Haramukh standing at 5300 meters above sea level.

The Great Lakes Trek expedition is no walk in the park. Arduous days, steep mountain passes, and altitudes approaching 4200m demand a sure-feet and a good amount of physical and mental fitness. The difficulties of the trek are rewarding and the challenges are worth it for the sense of achievement. This trek of the Kashmir is the most beautiful and most serene of all treks in the Himalayas.

WHILE PLANNING YOUR TREK, AS A BEGINNER KEEP THE FOLLOWING POINTS IN CONSIDERATION:-

you feel fit enough to trek for hours.
you walk two or three kilometers daily.
you don’t have any breathing problems.
you are not scared of heights.

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Schedule Details

Day 1: – Arrival. Reception at Srinagar airport/bus station.

On arrival at Srinagar airport or bus station, our representative cum driver will receive you and drive to Sonamarg for an overnight stay in a tented camp. We have a tea or kahwa before the dinner at the evening. The drive through Ganderbal villages takes maximum 3 hours to cover a distance of around 100 kms. Sonamarg is the last town with a market before the start of the trek.

Day 2: – Sonamarg – Nichnai (7 hrs trek).

After breakfast at the campsite, we pack our load and backpacks on horses and start our trek. Our trek is a slightly steep ascends the meadows and enters a pine/ birch forest at Shokdari. There’s a army check post where we have to produce our ID cards or passports. The process takes not more than 10 minutes to tally the ID’s with the trek-permits which we had acquired well in advance. The officials are very friendly and the short break is worth to have a distant sight of the Thajwas glacier and the vibrant Sonamarg town. We trek pine forest for 3 hours and have our lunch at Shokdari Top. After the lunch our trek enters birch forest a slight descend trek, very comforting in walking as we enter the vast and long Nichnai meadow. It takes another hour or two to reach our camping ground to have our tea or kahwa and finally the dinner and an overnight stay.

Day 3: – Nichnai – Vishnasar – Krishansar Lake (7 hrs trek).

After the breakfast, we leave Nichnai meadow crossing a small icy-water stream, we start ascending one of the three passes of the trek the Nichnai Pass (4080m). The pass will test our legs and most importantly our stamina. The trek which takes an hour of some steep hiking looks never-ending. We ascend the pass through grazing pastures of sheep and goats. After crossing the pass we enter into the Vishansar Valley which is also called as “the valley of medicinal plants”, due to its sheer varieties of alpine flowery plants. We take our lunch and trek all the way down to Vishansar Lake. We take our tea or kahwa and the dinner at the campsite. Vishansar Lake is just a 10 minutes walk away from our campsite.

Day 4: – Vishansar – Gadsar (8 hrs trek).

After the breakfast, we start our day’s trek looking over and over to Vishansar Lake while we ascend to Krishansar Lake. The Krishansar Lake is a sibling of the former, it lies just over a ridge. We take its eastern shore to ascend the second and the highest pass of the trek the Gadsar Pass (4180m). The pass-trek is steeper than that of the Nichnai. It takes 2 hours to ascend the pass. On the top of the pass, we have the aerial view of the whole Vishansar valley among it are situated the twin lakes of Vishansar and Krishansar “the source of Neelam River”. We trek-down the Gadsar valley and take our lunch at the Gadsar Lake. The valley is also full of the flowery alpine plants and the green carpeted mountains look fabulous with their snow-clad tops. Our alpine pasture trek is full of Kashmir sheep, while walking down the trek it looks never ending as finally we arrive our camping ground at Kostour Kot. Before few years there used to have another army check-post, but luckily they are gone. Now no more checking at Gadsar. We take our tea or Kahwa and have our dinner at the evening.

Day 5: – Gadsar – Satsar Lakes – Megandoab (5 hrs trek).

After the breakfast we ascend Kostur Kout leaving Gadsar valley, it takes 2 hours of a trek to enter the meadow of Rasbal. At the Rasbal a flowing river disappears inside the boulders and flows underground. The trek follows a fertile meadow. We continue our trek through seven small lakes of Satsar and camp at Megandoab at the foothills of the third pass of Zajibal for an overnight stay. Today we take our lunch at the campsite as this is the shortest day of the trek.

Day 6: – Satsar – Gangabal lake (6 hrs trek).

After the breakfast at the campsite we start our trek by criss-crossing boulders. We ascend the last pass of our trek ‘Zajibal Pass (4080m)’. It takes maximum 3 hours of alpine trekking. As we reach atop, all our tiredness falls apart by looking at the views and the mountain scenery of the Mount Haramukh (5300m) just standing in the front and at its footsteps lie the twin beautiful alpine lakes of Gangabal and Nundkol. There is also a clear view os the distant Kolesar Lake. We descend the pass and reach our campsite at Gangabal Lake for an overnight stay. We take our lunch at the lake and tea and dinner at the campsite.

Day 7: – Gangabal – Naranag. (6 hrs trek) – Srinagar (2 hours drive).

We leave Gangabal and Nundkol Lakes and trek down the meadows of Trunkhol. We may need to produce our permits and show our ID cards at the Army check-post at the Trunkhol. We continue our trek down and enter the tree-line. We trek down to Naranag village through the pine forests of Bodpathri. Here ends our 6 days of walking. We take our lunch at a Restaurant and take our car drive back to Srinagar houseboat or hotel for an overnight stay. Dinner and breakfast at the houseboat or the hotel.

Day 8: – Departure day.

Our representative will drop you at the airport or bus station for the departure.

F.A.Q

WHAT TO CARRY?

<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0.85em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; font-family: futura-pt-book, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: #080808; background-color: #fafafa;">The trek is supported by horses. You will need to carry only a light sack, weighing about 4-6kg for your items like passport, money, and camera gear. The following is a list of the items you should carry on the trek. If you have items that can not be used on the trek, you can store them at our houseboat or our office and take them back after returning from the trek. <ul style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 20px 7px; padding: 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-alternates: inherit; font-variant-position: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: inherit; font-family: futura-pt-book, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-optical-sizing: inherit; font-kerning: inherit; font-feature-settings: inherit; font-variation-settings: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: initial; color: #080808; background-color: #fafafa;"> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Please note that only postpaid Indian mobile sim cards (Jio, Airtel and BSNL) work in Kashmir Valley. There’s no cellular connectivity from Day 2 to Day 6 of the trek.</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Passport or a valid ID card</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Duffel Bag 60 liters</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">One Pair Trekking Shoes</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">One Pair Trail Approach Shoes</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Trekking Pants</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Hooded Rain Jacket</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Shade Hat</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">One Pair Sunglasses</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">One Pair Liner Gloves</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Small Size Day-Pack</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Two Pair Trekking Socks</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">One Pair Sandals</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Extra Warm Clothes</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Warm Hooded Down Jacket</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Sunscreen Cream</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Lip Balm</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Any Personal Medication</li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 3px 0px; border: 0px #e1e1e1; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Please double check your passport or Aadhar numbers before submitting through booking form. These numbers are required for preparation of trek permits. </li> </ul>

What's Included

Accommodation
Breakfast
Dinner
Entrance Fee
Insurance
Meals
Treaking Gear

What's Excluded

Airport Transfer
Domestic & International Flights
Extra Activities
Personal Expense

Activities

Adventure
Treaking

Catch The Himalayas

Catch The Himalayas

KASHMIR GREAT LAKES TREK