Kashmir Great Lakes Trek

The ‘Great Lakes’ as the name suggests treks through many high altitudes alpine lakes situated at the foothills of different snowy mountain peaks in Kashmir. The trails pass through streams, plenty of colourful meadows and cross three mountain passes. The trek from Sonamag to Naranag via Nichnai Pass is among the most beautiful trekking routes in the Himalayas. The trek has innumerable beautiful alpine lakes throughout its trails. The vistas will leave you with memories that would last a lifetime. Since it’s a moderate level trek, it can be taken up by amateur trekkers and fit first-timers. Arduous days, steep and rocky passes and altitudes approaching 4200m all make it a moderately challenging trek in one of the most beautiful and serene parts of Kashmir.

The trek begins from the town of Sonmarg and the easiest way to get there is to fly to Srinagar, where Adventure-Pulse representatives will meet you. From Srinagar, you’ll drive to Sonmarg and spend the night there. The trekking itself begins from Day 2, where you’ll reach the famous Tabletop and set up your very first camp site. From there it’s a 7-day trek through the most beautiful part of India, all the way up to a small town of Naranag where you meet completion.

For some, The Great lakes Trek is hands down the most beautiful trek in India. While you’re on it, the meadows and vistas will draw comparison to Switzerland and the Banff, but we think it’s even better. The various lakes you will cross are Krishnasar, Vishnusar, Gadsar, Nandkol and finally Gangabal. These large alpine lakes will change colour as the day progresses and it truly a spectacle to look out for. The trek takes you through different landscapes and you’ll be awestruck by the drastic way the landscape changes.

What to expect?

The Kashmir Great Lakes Trek is a trek that involves 8 days of trekking. Over the days, you’ll cross 3 high altitude passes namely the Nichnai, Gadsar and Zaj. The hardest parts of the trek are the climb upto the passes which constitutes about 25-35% of the trek. Apart from the climbs, most of the terrain is flat with long gradual descents through green meadows.

You’ll be crossing majestic silver birch, pine and deodar forests as you journey to above the tree line on day one and back down on day seven. For most of the trek, you’ll be crossing meadows larger than any stretch of the imagination and surrounded by majestic snow-covered mountains. Their Glaciers melt and feed the lakes that you find on the trek.

On average, you can expect to walk for around 7-8 hours a day. We encourage people to walk slowly and at their own pace so that they can acclimatize properly. While on the trek you’ll be camping and we will provide comfortable tents, sleeping mats and sleeping bags. You can learn more about the staying arrangement and the different meals in the link below.

The 3 mountain passes on the trek

Nichnai Pass –

The Kashmir Great Lakes Trek is takes you through three passes on different days of your journey. The very first pass you will be crossing is the Nichnai pass. The pass stands at a staggering altitude of 4097 Meters. After surpassing your campsite at Table Top, you will be entering the Nichnai valley. The nichnai valley homes vast meadows, some sections covered by beautiful trees of pine and Bhojpatra and also flowing streams that are the major source of water for the trekkers. Trekkers spend one night at the Nichnai campsite, which is right under the pass itself, in order to minimize the time taken to cross over to the other side of the valley.

The journey towards the foot/base of the pass takes anywhere between 1 to 2 hours depending on where your campsite is located. On this trail, you will walking through a combination trail, which includes small bolder sections, narrow ridges and flat paths alongside a small stream. Once at the foot of the Nichnai pass, we have a steep ascent all the way up to the top, which will take us anywhere between 1 to 2 hours depending on the pace of the group.

The views from the Nichnai pass are absolutely stunning. Imagine being surround by 360 degree views of a magnificent mountains, and standing literally in the middle of nowhere. The Nichnai pass is also very very windy and it also tends to get cold so make sure you have your layers on. There pass also has a Maggie point where you can sit, and relax before you head on the descent. Most of the times, trekkers prefer have a cup hot Kahwa and Maggie and also catch on to their breath before moving ahead.

Once ready to move, we move on to the next part of the journey which is the descent that leads us to the other side of the valley. This decent can be tricky like any other, due to narrow paths and gravel. It’s a short decent however and will take you around 45 – minutes to an hour before reaching the flat meadows of Gadsar.

Gadsar Pass :

The next pass that you will be crossing over is the Gadsar Pass. Before actually crossing the Gadsar pass one would already be in the Gadsar valley. The crossing over of the first pass that was Nichnai, the valley opens up in to the meadows of Gadsar. And the journey onwards of the valley, takes you to one of the most stunning lakes of all, The Gadsar Lake. This lake is usually a lunch point of the journey before reaching the Gadsar campsite. The journey to Gadsar lake takes anywhere between 1.5 to hours, you will be walking through a huge garden of meadows and come across beautiful and colourful flowers everywhere around.. apart from the lake of Gadsar you will also see multiple small glacial lakes on the way. After crossing a beautiful flowing stream, you will finally reach the lake.. This lake is surrounded by huge boulders and right in the middle is where you see this beautiful turquoise lake that changes colours every few seconds because of the reflection of the sky.

After spending a night in the Gadsar valley, it will be time for us to cross over the pass. Gadsar pass will be more challenging to navigate through in comparison to the Nichnai pass. This pass also stands at an altitude close to the Nichnai pass, at 4200 meters.

The journey to Gadsar pass is far more challenging comparatively given that the pass is more steep, takes longer to climb is also quite narrow in some places and is filled with gravel which make it more difficult to surpass. It will take us around 2 hours to cross over the Gadsar pass and another hour and half for the descent.

Zaj Pass :

This is the last pass of the Kashmir Great Lakes Trek. Zaj pass in isolation is actually an easy pass and is not as steep as the other two. However, the overall journey of the day does pit your endurance to test. Before approaching the Zaj pass, one has to cross a huge section of boulders which will take at least an hour or more to cross. This section of boulders is usually the most dreaded boulder section of the journey. It is always recommended that you seek help from the team if you are not very comfortable and sure about balancing your body weight on uneven terrain. After crossing these boulders we have another section of a steep climb, it’s a small hill that will take us only 30 to 40 minutes. Post this climb, as you reach your rest point, you can clearly see the top of the Zaj Pass. After resting for a bit we start walking towards the Pass. Zaj pass is not steep, and has a very gradual climb. This also happens to be the most awaited pass as the views from the top of the pass are absolutely stunning. We get a bird’s eye view of the Nundkol and the Gangabal lakes from the top and also stunning views of Mount Harmukh standing right in front of our eyes.

The descent from Zaj pass towards Satsar, is short but tricky. The entire descent is filled with gravel and takes multiple turns down in a spiral shape .. all the way to the narrow meadow going towards Nundkol. One has to be careful on this descent as there are chances of slipping due to the type of terrain.

Everything You Need to Know About The Kashmir Great Lakes Trek.