
Zanskar Winter Trek
The frozen Zanskar river is the only road in. We walk it at −25 °C to a monastery that sees no one until spring.
2027 season — six routes
Every route runs once. Every date was fixed a year out. If a window closes, we turn around — that's the only rule we won't negotiate.
Routes
Grades run from III (fit walker, no technical ground) to V (full polar expedition skills). Regions are where the mountains are, not where the flights go.
Showing 06 / 06

The frozen Zanskar river is the only road in. We walk it at −25 °C to a monastery that sees no one until spring.

Salt, sulphur and star fields. We acclimatise across the altiplano and finish on the summit of Licancabur.

Fjord to fjord across Spitsbergen on skis, pulks behind, rifle in the tent. Polar light all day.

The full west-to-east traverse of the inland ice. Sledges, skis, kites when the wind allows. Twenty-six days of white.

A kora around the eighth-highest mountain on earth, over the Larkya La. Tea houses, then tents, then thin air.

Onto the Hielo Continental via Paso Marconi. Wind is the objective hazard. Fitz Roy is the view.
On every route
Open a pill. If something you expected isn't here, it's because we don't charge for it separately — or because we don't do it.

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Route 05 · day by day
A full circumambulation of Manaslu (8,163 m) over the Larkya La. The itinerary below is the one we actually run — buffer days included, not promised.
Nine hours of jeep, dust and river noise. The Budhi Gandaki is brown and loud. We sleep well.
The gorge tightens. Suspension bridges, waterfalls, the first mani walls. By Namrung the air is cooler and the trail turns Tibetan.
Manaslu appears above Lho — all of it, at once. Samagaun is our basecamp village: a gompa, a lake, and the last tea house with a stove.
Up to the hidden monastery under the east face and back down to sleep low. Nobody feels great. That's the point.
Tents from here. Dharamsala is a wind-scoured shelf and the last camp before the pass. Early dinner, kit laid out, alarms at 03:00.
Four hours of frozen moraine in the dark, then the long ramp to the prayer flags. We don't stop long. The descent to Bimthang is the day's real work.
Down through rhododendron and bamboo into the Annapurna side. Hot showers reappear. So do appetites.
Two buffer days built in for weather on the pass. If we don't need them, Kathmandu has very good momos and very bad traffic.
The rope team
Every KORA lead has guided the route they lead at least three times. Average experience: nineteen seasons. Average sense of humour at 05:00: adequate.

Polar lead · Svalbard, Greenland
Tromsø. Eleven icecap crossings. Keeps a logbook of every kite day since 2009.

Himalaya lead · Manaslu
Samagaun. Grew up under the mountain. Has crossed the Larkya La forty-one times, always with the same thermos.

Andes & Patagonia lead
El Chaltén. Reads Marconi wind like weather radar. Author of our turnaround rule and most of our jokes.

Zanskar lead
Leh. Walked the Chadar to school as a child. Now walks it with you, slower, with better tea.