Chadar Photo Guide

We have trekked it many times, but the first time we failed due to tough conditions and not having the right boots.
Normal good trekking boots are not good enough, you absolutely need special insulated gumboots sometimes available in Leh.
Here Klara wades through water over the top of ice, just in the very first few minutes; road construction just beyond Chilling in the background.
A road is being built but will take many, many years before it is finished - photo by Jamie

Cave camping; it is normal to stay in caves, and if you do camp, NEVER camp on the ice.
Our Zanskari porters collected drift wood and cooked up a storm then we slept here - Jamie

Narrow ice; fall in and it is quite possible to die, care and experience needed, use local guides, I can't stress that enough - Jamie
It is around a four day walk in and then two or three days out BUT sometimes you have to wait a day or two for conditions to improve.
ALWAYS allow extra time. The minimum trip part way through to Neraks and back is 12 days Delhi to Delhi.
A real Chadar expedition, trekking to the Zanskar valley and back should take at least two weeks, and close to three weeks is better.

The river is not entirely frozen so sometimes climbing around is needed; another tricky section around impassable ice - Jamie

Crawling sometimes works though - Jamie

Part way through is this narrow gorge, the most critical section to being able to walk the Chadar as there is no way around - Jamie

Surprisingly the ice is never static, here a section is breaking up; it floods too, water over the top of the ice - Jamie

Breathtaking - some sections are entirely iced over and straightforward walking - Jamie

Breaking out of the gorge, here are the villages in the large Zanskar Valley who live with snow like this for the whole winter - Jamie
There is only one normal way in and out in the winter, the Chadar, so everybody returns the same way.