Markha Valley Trek is great choice for winter trek in Ladakh region. Ladakh offer a completely unparallel mix of its unique buddhist culture as well as its barren landscape. Prayer flags welcome you on the high passes as well as to the villages in Markha Valley.Markha Valley trek in winters is slightly more challenging because of the cold and the snow conditions. Walking on the snow throughout the trek is definitely a highlight of this trek.
NEW DELHI
3 Hours Before Flight Time
Fly to Leh and reach Leh by Noon. Check into a hotel and relax. The first 2 days for any trek in Ladakh region are extremely important. These 2 days will ensure that you trek and enjoy the Markha valley. Flying into Leh brings you to an altitude of 10000 ft+. Therefore, it is of immense importance that we get ourselves acclimatized. On day 2, we explore the local market as well as explore going for some sightseeing (Thiksey Monastery, Leh Palace and the famous Shanti Stupa).
Drive from Leh to Chilling. Chilling is a small village along the road from here we will start our trek to Skiu. We will cross the river today using a bridge to reach the other side of the river. The entire terrain will be snow covered by now. With a few ascends and descends, we will reach the village of Kaya first followed by Skiu. Check into the homestay and relax.
It is the most scenic walk today. With a completely frozen Markha river on our right, we will also experience how it is to walk on Chadar as we will get few long stretches on this frozen river. With almost a fairy-like view, it is a absolute delight. We reach Sara village. Sara village is a small village with about 10 or 12 homes and may be about 2 of them offering homestays but it sure is worth staying at Sara.
As we continue on our trek, we might come across some ibex, some extremely rare birds and if we are lucky, we might spot a snow leopard as well. We cross an old wooden bridge before making our way to the Markha village through a pass. Although, it is also a small village, Markha has its own ancient Monastery and a school. Spend the night at Markha in a homestay. We will also have a phone line facility here at Markha.
After having explored, the Markha village, we will start retrace our steps back to reach Skiu. Everything would have changed with the continuous snow fall and our trek back will therefore be an exciting one as well. We reach the Skiu village and check into the homestay. It is a long walk back so after having our meals, we’ll call it a day.
We will start at ease today and trek back to Chilling. With some gradual ascends and descends, we will reach Chilling and take the same bridge to cross the river. Our cars will pick us up from Chilling and we will drive back to Leh. We stop on the way and pay a visit to famous Gurudwara Patthar Saheb. We check into the hotel by the afternoon and relax.
