57 Great Lakes Trek
My first trek in Kashmir! ... The Great Lakes Trek starting from Sonamarg, (the entry town below Zozi-La Pass on the border highway from Srinagar to Kargil and then Leh)
Google Earth Image of our Trek Route .. from Sonamarg (01 Sindh River) to Naranag (12 Trek End).
For a Google Earth tour over our Trek Route, you can download the KMZ file (recorded by Amar) from my Files D/L page. The file is named "Amar-KS-Great-Lakes-Trek-GPS"
We did this 7-day "The Great Lakes" Trek in Kashmir from 26th July to 1st Aug 2014.
My friend, Amar Shah (India-Mike Trekking Forum) , had done some research about this trek and had found a Srinagar based family-run Trekking & Guide business (their website has contact details) that has conducted this GLTrek for many years.
After reading a detailed write-up blog regarding this GLT trek on India-Hike website I decided to do this Trek with Amar.
Amar had planned to do this Trek scheduled for 26th Aug 2014 and I too chose same date to go with him. Later, when we neared the departure date Riyaz Pakhtoon (one of the brothers of this family coordinating the trek business) said 2-3 foreigners have dropped out from that date; but he will still go ahead and organize the trek for the two of us. So we decided to go ahead and reached Sonamarg on 24th July, late afternoon.
On 25th July we did a pilot trek on our own to the Thajwass Glacier, near Sonamarg, involving a climb of about 250M and a distance of about 14-15KMs.
On 26th afternoon, Tariq, on of the brothers met us at Sonamarg Hotel and after collecting The Permit from Forest Office at TRC, Sonamarg we went to the Sindh river-side camp and stayed a night there.
The over all summary of this GLT Trek is:
Trek Start: Sonamarg (J&K)
Trek End: Naranag (J&K)
The day-wise Route covered:
26th July Day-1: Sonamarg Sindh River Camp
27th July Day-2: Sonamarg Camp to Nichnai
28th July Day-3: Nichnai - Vishansar
29th July Day-4: Vishansar - Kishansar - Gadsar
30th July Day-5: Gadsar - Satsar
31st July Day-6: Satsar-Gangabal-Trundkhul
01st Aug Day-7: Trundkhul - Naranag (Road)
In all, it was about 45 Hrs of trek (for me) covering a guesstimate distance of around 75 KMs. The trails were in the Hi-Altitude range of 3000M to 4200M (10000 to 14999 feet). The trek was of Moderate difficulty and involved 3-4 High Pass crossing. There were several long stretches of boulder-hopping too.
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See 22 Pics here: GLT Highlights
See All Pics of Trek: All of GLT
Pics of pre-trek walk: Thajwass Glacier
Few scenic shots from this trek are displayed below:
Our first night camp on the bank of Sindh River
Me at Vishansar Lake (alt: 3655M) on Day-2 of Trek
Looking down at Kishansar (R) and Bishansar (L)
We passed this Gadsar lake on Trek Day-3
The bigger of the twin Gangabal Lakes on Trek Day-5
Our Last Day Camp at Trundkhul. Our tent is way down next to the right of blue Forest Dept RH.