trekking

Suryassangyini Chaudhary, a 6-year-old from the city of Baraut in Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh, has become the youngest person to climb the Kanchenjunga base camp.

How many women does it take to start an all-women travel company, set up a women’s welfare network for women in distress, write tirelessly on social and environmental issues, win a bronze at the National Ice Hockey Championship, and keep training an ever-growing number of women to be professional trekking guides in the harsh terrain of Ladakh? Just one, if that woman happens to be Thinlas Chorol.

Even as 100 eager children in one of the remotest schools in Ladakh waited, she came bearing gifts – 1500 kg of school equipment carried by 25 horses in -20 degree C temperatures over 3 mountain passes. Meet Sujata Sahu, who took education from New Delhi to Leh, and much beyond.

Want to explore something which is beyond the ordinary and can give you an adrenaline rush like nothing else? Here are some of the toughest treks in the Indian Himalayas and why you should not miss them.

Ecologically sustainable wildlife tourism is best handled by local communities and the homestays run by Mountain Shepherds in the villages of Lata and Tolma in the Dhauli Ganga valley in Garhwal illustrate just that. Abutting the wild and pristine Nanda Devi National Park, Mountain Shepherds is an offshoot of the Nanda Devi Campaign for cultural survival and livelihoods spearheaded by the Marcha Bhotia community of this valley. You stay in small but comfortable traditional village homes, and enjoy some delicious local cuisine prepared by your hosts. The organisation even arranges for treks in the deodar and birch forests of the national park with local guides who know the local flora and fauna like the back of their hands. Learn more about this interesting model of community-backed tourism.