Stage 1What Hiking Is, and How to Use This Guide

Hiking is walking with intent over ground that asks something of you. That is the whole definition, and it is looser than the equipment catalogues would like. A retired couple doing a four-hour loop above Lonavala in the rain are hiking. So is a college group on a winter trail in Uttarakhand, and so is a pilgrim climbing the steps at Girnar before dawn. What unites them is not gear or distance. It is that the walk itself is the point, and that the ground, the weather and the daylight all have a vote in how it goes.

Walking, hiking and trekking

The three words overlap, and nobody polices them, but the distinctions are useful because they tell you what to prepare for.

Walking happens on made surfaces: pavements, park paths, village roads. Ordinary shoes and a bottle of water are enough, and help is rarely more than a few minutes away.

Hiking leaves the made surface for trails, open hillside or forest. It usually means a day or less, a real change in height, and some distance from a road. You now need to find your own way, carry what the day demands and turn back if the day turns against you.

Trekking is hiking over several days, carrying or arranging shelter and food, usually in remote or mountain country. In India the word is used for almost any organised walk in the hills, including a single day, which is why a "trek" advertised in Pune can be a three-hour fort climb and a "trek" advertised in Leh can involve a 5,000-metre pass. Read the details, not the label.

Beyond trekking lie mountaineering and technical climbing, where ropes, ice axes and specialist training take over. This guide stops at their edge. It explains where that edge is so that you recognise it when you reach it.

Who this guide is for

Four kinds of reader will open it. The complete beginner wants to know what to do this weekend without spending much or getting hurt. The practising hiker has a few treks behind them and wants to plan their own routes, navigate without an app and move into higher country. The serious specialist wants numbers, procedures and the detail that separates a good decision from a lucky one. The general reader wants to know why people walk up hills in the monsoon, and what the pundits of the old Survey of India were doing with their prayer beads.

The main text is written for the first and last of these. The boxes serve the others:

• First Steps boxes say what to actually do, cheaply, today.
• For the Hiker boxes carry the specifications, rules of thumb and hard-won detail that matter once you are planning your own trips.
• Sidebars hold stories, people and arguments.

How the guide is arranged

Part I is hiking anywhere in the world. It begins with a short history, then fitness, route planning and navigation, then the kit you wear and carry, then weather, the ethics of leaving no trace, and two stages on safety. A band of three stages then covers the care and storage of everything a hiker owns that cannot be cheaply replaced, from a down sleeping bag to ten years of GPS tracks. Part II is the Indian story: its history on foot, its great regions from the Sahyadri to Sikkim, its pilgrim roads, its permits, and the institutes, guides and porters who make so much of Indian trekking possible. The reference section holds a glossary and a list of books and organisations.

A word on risk

Most hiking accidents have ordinary causes: a slip on wet rock, a missed turning at dusk, heat on an exposed climb, a stream that rose during lunch. The unglamorous habits this guide keeps returning to prevent almost all of them. Start early, carry a little extra, tell someone your plan, and turn back while it is still easy. The health advice here is conservative on purpose, and no substitute for a first-aid course or a doctor.

Stage 2A Short History of Walking for Its Own Sake

People have always walked. For most of history they walked because they had to: to herd animals, to trade, to fight, to reach a shrine. The idea that climbing a hill for the view is a reasonable way to spend a Sunday is much more recent, and it arrived by several roads at once.

Pilgrims before hikers

The oldest long-distance walkers were pilgrims, and in many places they still outnumber hikers. The routes to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the eighty-eight temples of the Shikoku circuit in Japan, and the Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath were walked for centuries before anyone thought of recreation. Pilgrims worked out much of what hikers later rediscovered: travel in the right season, rest where others rest, carry little, and treat the mountain with respect. Part II returns to India's pilgrim roads in Stage 22.

The Romantic walker

In Europe, walking for pleasure gained its modern prestige in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The Romantic poets, William Wordsworth most famously, walked long distances through the English Lake District and the Alps and wrote about landscape as something that could change the person looking at it. Mountains that earlier travellers had described as frightful wastes became sublime. That shift in taste is the ancestor of every hiking holiday.

Clubs, parks and the right to roam

The Alpine Club was founded in London in 1857, and similar clubs followed across Europe. They were mostly about climbing, but they built huts, published route descriptions and turned mountain travel into something that could be learned and shared.

In the United States, Yellowstone became the first national park in 1872, and the idea that wild land should be kept for the public spread slowly around the world. The Appalachian Trail, proposed by the planner Benton MacKaye in 1921 and completed as a continuous route in 1937, created the model of the long-distance footpath that people walk end to end.

In Britain, access to open moorland was fiercely contested. In 1932 walkers from the industrial towns of northern England staged a mass trespass on Kinder Scout in the Peak District, and several were jailed. The episode became a symbol of the campaign that eventually produced national parks and legal rights of access. The Pennine Way, which opened in 1965, runs across that same country.

Surveyors and the modern hiker

Walking also made maps. The Survey of India, founded in 1767, measured the subcontinent largely on foot, and in the nineteenth century trained Indian explorers, the pundits, to map Tibet in secret (see Stage 17).

The twentieth century added lightweight nylon and aluminium, the backpacking boom of the 1960s and 1970s, synthetic fleece, waterproof-breathable fabrics and satellite navigation in every pocket. It also brought the realisation that crowds of walkers damage what they come to see, which produced the Leave No Trace ethic (see Stage 11). India's own story on foot is told in Part II.

Stage 3Fitness: Building Up Distance and Ascent

Hiking fitness is not gym fitness. A person who can run ten kilometres on a flat road can still be wrecked by a steep six-kilometre descent, and a farmer who has never seen a treadmill may walk a whole trekking group into the ground. What matters is the body's ability to keep moving uphill for hours with a load, and to come down without the legs giving way.

The two numbers that matter

Every hike has two numbers: distance and ascent. Ascent is the total height you climb, added up over every uphill section, and it matters more than distance. Ten kilometres on the flat is a stroll. Ten kilometres with 1,000 metres of ascent is a hard day for most people. Descent, the total height you lose, matters almost as much, because going down loads the knees and thigh muscles in a way that climbing does not.

Before any hike, find both numbers. Guidebooks, maps and most route apps give them. If a description gives only distance, treat it with suspicion.

Progressing sensibly

Build up gradually. A common rule of thumb is to increase your longest walk, or your total weekly walking, by no more than about ten per cent a week. It is a rule of thumb rather than a law of physiology, but it captures the right idea: bones, tendons and joints adapt more slowly than heart and lungs, and most overuse injuries come from doing too much too soon.

The figures are indicative, not a test. Terrain, heat and altitude change everything, and a trekker at 4,000 metres will move far more slowly than the same person at sea level.

Training that works

The best training for hiking is hiking. Short of that:

• Stairs. A tall building's staircase, climbed steadily with a light pack, is excellent training for Indian hills. Come down carefully; the descent is part of the training.
• Walking with a load. Add weight to your pack gradually, a kilogram or two at a time.
• Strength. Squats, step-ups, lunges and calf raises, two or three times a week, protect the knees on descents.
• Balance. Standing on one leg while brushing your teeth sounds silly and improves ankle stability.
• Consistency. Three modest sessions every week for two months do more than one heroic session a fortnight.

Before you start: health

See a doctor before beginning a new programme if you are over forty and have not exercised regularly, or if you have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, asthma, a lung condition, a history of fainting or any condition that concerns you. Say that you are planning hill walking, and mention high altitude if that is the goal, because some conditions and medicines matter more above 3,000 metres.

Stop and seek medical help immediately if you have chest pain or pressure, unusual breathlessness, palpitations, faintness or confusion during exercise. These are not things to walk off.

Injuries and niggles

The common complaints are blisters, sore knees on descents, shin pain, ankle sprains and aching feet. Most respond to rest, better-fitting footwear and a slower build-up. Pain that is sharp, gets worse as you walk, or wakes you at night deserves a doctor or a physiotherapist rather than more walking.

Stage 4Planning a Route

Most trouble on a hike is planned in, usually at home the night before. A route that is too long for the slowest member, a start that is two hours too late, a descent nobody checked: these are decisions, not bad luck. Good planning is not complicated. It is a short list of questions answered honestly.

Choose for the weakest member

Plan the day around the least fit, least experienced or least well person in the group. If one person struggles, the whole group moves at their pace, and fatigue is where slips and poor decisions begin. A route that is comfortably within everyone's range leaves spare energy for the unexpected.

Gather the facts

For any route you have not walked, find out:

• Distance and total ascent and descent (see Stage 3).
• The nature of the ground. Paved path, forest trail, loose scree, boulders, exposed rock steps, snow, stream crossings.
• Water. Where it is, whether it is reliable in this season, and whether it needs treating.
• Escape routes. Points where you can leave the route early and reach a road or village.
• Access and rules. Permits, forest checkposts, entry fees, opening hours and seasonal closures. Part II covers India's in Stage 23.
• Recent conditions. Trip reports from the last few weeks, local advice, and a current weather forecast.

Local knowledge beats every other source. A shopkeeper at the trailhead, a forest guard or a villager will often know that the stream crossing washed out last week or that the ridge path is closed. Ask.

How long will it take?

Naismith's rule, in its metric form, allows 5 kilometres an hour on the flat, plus 10 minutes for every 100 metres of ascent. It gives moving time only; add breaks.

A worked example: a route of 12 kilometres with 900 metres of ascent. Twelve kilometres at 5 kilometres an hour is 2 hours 24 minutes. Nine hundred metres of ascent adds 90 minutes. That makes about 3 hours 54 minutes of walking. Add an hour for breaks and the day is roughly five hours.

Then be realistic. The rule assumes fit adults in a cool climate on decent paths. Heat, monsoon mud, heavy packs, large groups, rough ground and altitude all slow people down, so for a mixed group in Indian hills treat it as the optimistic estimate.

Daylight and the turnaround time

Find the sunset time for the place and date, and plan to be off difficult ground at least an hour before it. In steep valleys and dense forest, darkness arrives well before the official sunset. In much of India, twilight is short.

Then set a turnaround time: a clock time at which you will turn back, wherever you are, unless you are certain of finishing in daylight. Set it before you start, when you are rested and objective, and do not renegotiate it on the trail when the summit looks close. On mountains with afternoon storms, the turnaround may be late morning.

Leave a trip plan

Before you set out, give someone reliable a short written plan:

Tell them when you are safely down. A call-out time nobody cancels causes an unnecessary search.

Stage 5Navigation with Map and Compass

Learn to navigate with a paper map and a compass first, even if you will mostly use a phone. The reasons are practical. A map shows the whole landscape at once, not a small moving dot. It needs no battery, no signal and no screen you can read in rain. And the understanding you gain from reading contours makes every electronic tool far more useful, because you can tell when it is wrong.

Reading the map

Scale. At 1:50,000, one centimetre on the map is 500 metres on the ground, so two centimetres make a kilometre. At 1:25,000, four centimetres make a kilometre and far more detail fits. Much of India's trekking country is covered by Survey of India maps at 1:50,000.

Contours. Contour lines join points of equal height. The contour interval, printed in the margin, is the height between neighbouring lines. Lines close together mean steep ground; lines far apart mean gentle ground. With practice the shapes become landforms:

• Summits are small closed rings.
• Spurs (ridges running down from high ground) show as contours bending in a V or U that points downhill.
• Re-entrants (small valleys or gullies) show as contours bending in a V that points uphill, often with a stream in them.
• Cols or saddles are low points between two summits, shown as an hourglass of contours.

Grid and references. Many maps carry a square grid. A grid reference gives a position by reading first the eastings (left to right) and then the northings (bottom to top).

The compass

A baseplate compass has a clear rectangular base with a direction-of-travel arrow, a rotating housing marked in degrees, an orienting arrow and parallel orienting lines inside the housing, and a magnetic needle whose red end points to magnetic north.

Taking a bearing from the map is three steps:

1. Lay the edge of the compass along the line from where you are to where you want to go, with the direction-of-travel arrow pointing towards your destination.
2. Turn the housing until the orienting lines are parallel to the map's north-south grid lines, with the orienting arrow pointing to the top of the map.
3. Lift the compass, hold it level in front of you, and turn your whole body until the red end of the needle sits inside the orienting arrow. The direction-of-travel arrow now points where you want to go.

Following a bearing. Sight along the arrow to a fixed object, walk to it, and repeat. In mist or darkness, send a companion ahead to the limit of visibility, line them up on the bearing, and walk to them.

Declination. Magnetic north and the map's grid north are not quite the same. The difference, called declination or magnetic variation, is printed in many map margins and changes slowly over the years. Across most of India it is small, a matter of a degree or two, but check it for your area and correct for it on long bearings across featureless ground.

When you are lost

Stop. Sitting down for five minutes costs nothing, and walking fast in the wrong direction costs a great deal. Think back to the last place you were certain of your position, and how long ago it was. Look around for big features: a ridge, a valley direction, a river. Set the map so its features line up with the landscape. Then decide: retrace your steps to the known point, or move to a catching feature you cannot miss. If light is going or anyone is hurt, stay put, keep warm and call for help.

Look after the compass

Keep the compass away from magnets. Phones, speakers, some pack buckles and car dashboards can disturb the needle, and a strong magnet can even reverse its polarity, so that the red end points south. Check it against a known direction now and then.

Stage 6GPS, Phone Apps and How They Fail

A smartphone with an offline topographic map is a superb navigation tool. It shows your position to within a few metres, records your track, and lets you follow a route someone else has walked. Most hikers now use one, and they are right to. The trouble is not the tool but the confidence it creates. A phone fails differently from a map, and usually at the worst moment.

How it works

Your phone contains a satellite navigation receiver that listens to signals from several satellite systems: the American GPS and, on many phones, others such as Russia's GLONASS, Europe's Galileo and India's NavIC. The receiver does not need mobile signal. In airplane mode, with location switched on, a phone will still show where you are. What it may not show, without signal, is the map, unless you downloaded that map before you left.

The failure modes

The blue line problem

Coordinates, datums and dedicated devices

Every coordinate belongs to a datum, a model of the earth's shape. Phones default to one called WGS 84; older maps, including older Survey of India sheets, used others, so a coordinate copied from an old map can land a noticeable distance from the real spot. When passing coordinates to anyone, say which format and datum you mean, and describe the place too.

Handheld GPS units and navigation watches outlast phones on battery and survive rain and drops, but they fail too, so the paper map still comes.

Stage 7Clothing and the Layering System

Clothing for hiking has one job: to keep your body within a comfortable temperature range while you work hard, stop, sweat, get rained on and climb into wind. No single garment does that. Several thin layers that can be added or removed do it well, which is why hikers talk about a layering system.

Why sweat matters

In cool or cold conditions, the enemy is often your own sweat. Climbing hard in too many clothes soaks your inner layers, and when you stop on a windy col the wet fabric chills you fast. The discipline is to start slightly cold, remove a layer before you sweat heavily, and add one the moment you stop.

Cotton holds water, dries slowly and loses almost all its insulation when wet. In cold, wet or windy mountain weather it is a poor choice, which is why mountain instructors are blunt about it. In dry lowland heat, a loose, light-coloured cotton shirt can be comfortable, but it becomes a liability the moment the day turns wet and cool.

The three layers

Merino wool stays warm when damp and resists odour on multi-day trips, but it is more expensive and less durable than synthetics. Down gives the most warmth for its weight and packs small, but it loses most of its warmth when wet. Synthetic insulation is bulkier but keeps some warmth when damp, which makes it the safer mid layer in wet climates, including the Indian monsoon.

Shells and waterproofing

A waterproof-breathable shell uses a membrane or coating that blocks liquid water but lets some water vapour escape. The outer fabric carries a durable water repellent finish, or DWR, which makes water bead and roll off. When the DWR wears out, the outer fabric soaks through and the jacket feels as if it is leaking even though the membrane is intact. Stage 14 explains how to wash and re-proof it.

No breathable jacket keeps you dry through a long monsoon climb in thirty-degree heat; you will get wet from inside. Many Sahyadri regulars sensibly carry a sturdy umbrella on forest paths, a poncho that also covers the pack, and a complete dry set of clothes sealed in a dry bag for the end of the day.

Head, hands and eyes

• Sun hat with a brim, and a warm hat for cold evenings. A tube of fabric worn as a neck gaiter does several jobs.
• Gloves. Thin liners and warm outer gloves for high country.
• Sunglasses that block UV. At altitude and on snow, ultraviolet light is intense, and unprotected eyes can suffer snow blindness, a painful sunburn of the cornea. Glacier glasses rated for high-glare conditions are needed on snow; the darkest category is not suitable for driving.
• Long sleeves and trousers protect against sun, thorns, ticks and leeches.

Stage 8Footwear, Packs and the Ten Essentials

Footwear

Your feet carry you out, so footwear is the one item worth spending thought on early. The right shoe depends on the ground, the load and your ankles, not on how serious the hike sounds.

Crampon compatibility is graded by stiffness, from flexible walking boots that take only simple strap-on crampons to rigid mountaineering boots that take fully automatic ones. If a trek involves crampons, ask the organiser exactly which boots are needed.

Fit. Try boots late in the day, when feet have swollen, in your hiking socks. Unlaced, with toes pushed forward, a finger should just fit behind the heel; laced, the heel should barely lift and the toes must not touch the front on a downhill slope. Break boots in on short walks.

Grip. Deep lugs and soft rubber grip mud and rock, but no sole grips wet, algae-covered rock, and the worn steps of monsoon forts are notorious. Slow down there and use your hands.

Socks and gaiters. Wool or synthetic socks, never cotton, help prevent blisters. Gaiters keep out scree, snow and some leeches.

Packs

Capacity is measured in litres. A day pack of 20 to 35 litres suits most day hikes. A multi-day pack carrying shelter and food needs 45 to 65 litres, less for those who pack light or use porters.

Fit. A pack is sized by your torso length, from the prominent bone at the base of the neck to the top of the hip bones, not by your height. The hip belt should sit on the hip bones and carry most of the load. The shoulder straps then wrap the shoulders without digging in, and the load-lifter straps and chest strap fine-tune it.

Loading. Put light, bulky items such as the sleeping bag at the bottom, the heaviest items close to your back around shoulder-blade height, and things you need during the day at the top and in the lid. Line the pack with a dry bag or a heavy-duty bin liner; rain covers alone leak in the monsoon.

The Ten Essentials

The systems version, adapted for Indian conditions:

1. Navigation. Map, compass, and a phone or GPS with offline maps.
2. Light. A headlamp with spare batteries, even on a morning hike.
3. Sun protection. Hat, sunglasses, sunscreen.
4. First aid. A kit you know how to use (see Stage 13).
5. Knife and repair kit. Tape, cord, safety pins.
6. Fire. Matches or a lighter in a waterproof bag, for emergencies only.
7. Emergency shelter. A foil blanket or a bivvy bag.
8. Extra food. More than you plan to eat.
9. Extra water, and a way to treat more.
10. Extra clothes. An insulating layer and a rain layer.

Add a whistle (three blasts is the recognised distress signal) and a charged power bank.

Trekking poles are not on the list but earn their place: they save knees on descents, add balance on stream crossings and help on steep monsoon mud.

Stage 9Water and Food

How much water

How much you need depends on heat, humidity, effort and your body. In hot, humid conditions on a steep climb, people commonly need roughly half a litre to a litre an hour, sometimes more; in cool weather, far less. Drink little and often rather than a lot at once, and start the day well hydrated. Pale straw-coloured urine is a reasonable sign that you are drinking enough. Dark urine, headache and dizziness are early signs that you are not.

Salt matters too. A long, sweaty day loses salt as well as water. Oral rehydration salts, sold cheaply as sachets in any Indian pharmacy, or salty snacks, replace it. Drinking very large amounts of plain water over many hours of exertion without eating can dilute the blood's sodium, a rare but dangerous condition called hyponatraemia. Its signs, including headache, nausea, confusion and swelling, can look like heat illness or dehydration. Anyone confused or very unwell needs urgent medical help.

Treating water

In India, treat all natural water unless a trusted local source says otherwise, and treat it anyway if people or animals live upstream. Clear-looking mountain streams run below villages, grazing meadows and pilgrim camps.

At altitude, bottles freeze overnight. Sleep with them inside the sleeping bag, store them upside down so the neck freezes last, and never let a wet filter freeze.

Food

Hiking burns a great deal of energy, and running out of it is miserable and unsafe, because tired people slip and make poor decisions. Eat a proper breakfast, then snack every hour or so rather than waiting for a large lunch.

Carbohydrates are the main fuel; some fat and protein keep you going longer. India has excellent trail food that travels well and costs little:

• chikki, roasted chana, peanuts, dates, jaggery and dried fruit
• theplas, parathas and khakhra, which keep for a day or two
• poha chivda and other dry namkeen for salt
• sattu, which mixes with water into a filling drink
• bananas and oranges on the first day

For multi-day treks, add oats, instant noodles, rice and dal for khichdi, and dehydrated meals where weight matters. At altitude appetite often fades; eat anyway, and favour carbohydrates, which tend to be easier to face.

Stage 10Reading the Weather

Weather decides more hiking days than fitness does. The skill has two halves: reading a forecast properly before you go, and reading the sky once you are out, because mountain weather often changes faster than any forecast.

Start with the forecast

Check a forecast the day before and again on the morning of the hike. In India, the India Meteorological Department issues district forecasts and colour-coded warnings, from green (no warning) through yellow and orange to red. An orange or red warning for heavy rain in hill country is a reason to postpone, not a challenge.

Remember what a forecast cannot see. General forecasts describe towns in valleys; summits and passes are colder, windier and wetter. Temperature falls with height, on average by roughly 6.5 °C for every 1,000 metres, so a pleasant 20 °C at a roadhead at 2,000 metres can mean near-freezing air on a pass at 4,500 metres, before you add wind. Wind strips heat from the body quickly, and the combination of wind, rain and exhaustion causes hypothermia even when the thermometer reads well above zero.

Reading the sky

• Small, flat-bottomed cumulus clouds in the morning usually mean fair weather.
• Cumulus growing tall by late morning warns that afternoon showers or thunderstorms are likely. When the tops spread into an anvil, a thunderstorm has formed.
• High, thin cirrus thickening into a milky sheet, especially with a halo around the sun or moon, often means a larger weather system is approaching, perhaps within a day.
• Smooth, lens-shaped clouds sitting over peaks indicate strong winds high up.
• Cloud creeping up the valley below you can close visibility in minutes. Take a bearing before it arrives.

An altimeter watch helps too. If the altitude reading rises while you are sitting still, air pressure is falling, which often means worsening weather.

Mountain winds and daily rhythms

On clear days, sun-warmed air flows up slopes from mid-morning, building cloud over ridges by afternoon; at night cold air drains downhill, making hollows the coldest campsites. In most mountains the mornings are clearest. Start early.

Cloudbursts and flash floods

A cloudburst is an extremely intense downpour over a small area, most common in the Himalaya during the monsoon. It can turn a trickling stream into a torrent of mud and boulders within minutes, far from where the rain fell. Never camp on a streambed or a low gravel bar in a narrow valley, and move to high ground if a stream suddenly rises, turns brown or starts carrying debris.

Stage 11Leave No Trace

A popular trail is a shared thing, and it wears out. Litter on a fort, toilet paper behind every rock at a campsite, a braided mess of shortcut paths down a meadow: none is the work of one careless person, but of thousands of small choices. The ethic called Leave No Trace turns those choices into seven principles. They were developed by land managers and outdoor educators in the United States and are now taught worldwide.

1. Plan ahead and prepare. Know the rules, the weather and the ground, so you are not forced into damaging decisions.
2. Travel and camp on durable surfaces. Stay on the trail, even when it is muddy. Use established campsites.
3. Dispose of waste properly. Carry out everything you carry in.
4. Leave what you find. Flowers, stones, fossils, carvings and artefacts stay where they are.
5. Minimise campfire impacts. Cook on a stove. Where fires are allowed, keep them small.
6. Respect wildlife. Watch from a distance, and never feed animals.
7. Be considerate of other visitors. Keep noise down and yield on narrow paths.

What they mean in India

Plastic and wrappers. Carry a bag for your own rubbish and for some of other people's. Fruit peels and food scraps count as litter too; in cold, dry high country they take a long time to break down, and they teach monkeys and dogs to raid camps.

Toilets. Where there is no toilet, dig a small hole about 15 to 20 centimetres deep, at least 60 metres from water, trails and campsites, and cover it afterwards. Carry out used toilet paper and sanitary products in a sealed bag. On snow, rock and busy routes, use toilet facilities or carry waste out.

Water. Never wash with soap, or wash dishes, in a stream or lake. Carry water well away and scatter the grey water.

Fire. Many forests, meadows and protected areas ban fires outright, and dry-season fires in Indian hills have killed trekkers as well as destroyed forest. Carry a stove.

Monkeys. Feeding langurs and macaques makes them aggressive and dependent. Keep food out of sight on popular routes.

Noise. A speaker playing music on a trail ruins the one thing everyone came for, and disturbs wildlife.

Forts and heritage. Many of India's hill forts are protected monuments. Do not scratch names into stone, remove stones, or climb crumbling walls for a photograph.

Meadows. High pastures take decades to recover from repeated trampling and camping. Stay on paths and do not cut corners on zigzags.

Stage 12Safety on the Trail: Heat, Water, Lightning and Monsoon Ground

This stage and the next are deliberately cautious, and no substitute for a first-aid course, local advice or a doctor. When in doubt, stop, turn back and seek help early.

Heat illness

Indian hills can be hot even when the air feels bearable, and humidity stops sweat from cooling you.

Prevention is mostly timing. Start at dawn, avoid exposed climbs in the middle of the day from March to June, wear loose light clothing, rest in shade, and drink and eat regularly.

Lightning

No place outdoors is safe in a thunderstorm. The aim is to not be exposed when one arrives.

• Check the forecast and plan to be off summits, ridges and open slopes before storms usually build.
• If you hear thunder, you are within striking range. Move down, off high points and away from isolated trees, water, and the metal chains and railings on fort steps and pilgrim paths.
• Do not shelter under rock overhangs or in shallow caves; ground currents can jump across the opening.
• In a group, spread out several metres apart so that one strike cannot injure everyone.
• As a last resort, crouch on your pack or a foam pad with feet together.
• Wait about 30 minutes after the last thunder before moving back onto exposed ground.

People struck by lightning do not carry a charge and can be touched safely. If someone is not breathing, start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) if you are trained, and call for help.

River and stream crossings

Moving water is stronger than it looks. Knee-deep fast water can knock an adult over, and a pack can then hold them under.

1. Glacier-fed streams rise through the day as snow melts, so cross early in the morning.
2. Scout for a wide, shallow, braided section. Avoid places just above rapids, waterfalls or jammed logs.
3. Undo your hip belt and chest strap so that you can shed the pack if you fall.
4. Keep footwear on. Face upstream and use poles or a stout stick as a third leg.
5. In a group, link arms and cross together, the strongest person upstream.
6. Never tie a person to a rope in a current unless you are trained; a rope can pin someone underwater.

If the water is fast and above the knees, many instructors say do not cross. Wait for it to drop, find another way or turn back. In the monsoon, never cross a flooded stream at all.

Monsoon ground: landslides, waterfalls and leeches

Landslides and rockfall. After heavy rain, avoid steep slopes, road cuttings and narrow gullies. Watch for fresh cracks, tilting trees, small stones or mud trickling down, and muddy water springing from slopes. Do not linger beneath cliffs. When a red or orange rain warning is out for hill districts, do not go.

Waterfalls and streams. Every monsoon brings reports of people swept away at waterfalls, pools and streams in the Western Ghats. Stay well back from edges of wet rock, do not enter pools below falls, and treat a sudden rise in water as a signal to climb to high ground.

Leeches are unpleasant but mostly harmless. Their saliva contains an anticoagulant, so a bite bleeds for a while. Tuck trousers into socks or wear leech socks, and check your feet and legs at stops. To remove one, slide a fingernail under the sucker at the narrow end, then flick off the other end. Salt, tobacco and flame make leeches let go but can cause them to regurgitate into the wound, and most first-aid advice avoids them. Press on the bite to stop bleeding, keep it clean and watch for infection.

Stage 13Altitude, Solo Hiking and First Aid

Altitude illness

As you climb, each breath holds less oxygen. The body adapts, a process called acclimatisation, but only slowly. Go up too fast and you risk altitude illness. It can affect anyone, including the very fit, and fitness gives no protection. Risk becomes significant above about 2,500 metres, and many Indian treks and pilgrim routes go much higher. Leh, where most Ladakh treks begin, lies at around 3,500 metres, and flying there means arriving with no acclimatisation at all.

The rules are simple and absolute.

• Never go higher with symptoms of altitude illness.
• Mild AMS: stop and rest at the same altitude. If symptoms do not improve, or get worse, descend.
• HAPE or HACE, or any worsening illness: descend immediately and get medical help. Go down as far as needed, often several hundred metres or more, until the person recovers. Do not wait for morning if it is safe to move. Never send an ill person down alone.

Oxygen, portable pressure bags and prescription medicines can buy time, but they do not replace descent. Medicines used for altitude illness must be discussed with a doctor before the trip.

Acclimatising. Above about 3,000 metres, widely used wilderness-medicine guidance is to raise your sleeping altitude by no more than about 300 to 500 metres a day, with a rest day every three or four days. Day trips higher, followed by sleeping lower, help. Avoid alcohol and sleeping pills. After flying to Leh, rest completely for at least the first couple of days. A pulse oximeter gives a number, but symptoms matter more; never dismiss a sick person because a reading looks acceptable.

Hiking alone

Solo hiking gives freedom and quiet, and it removes the safety net of a companion who can go for help. If you walk alone:

• Choose well-used trails you know, in good weather.
• Leave a written plan with a call-out time (see Stage 4), and check in when you finish.
• Carry a charged phone and power bank, the Ten Essentials and more warm clothing than you think you need.
• Set a conservative turnaround time.

Do not go alone into monsoon gorges, glaciers, remote high country, or forests with elephants or bears. Many protected areas require a guide, or do not allow solo entry at all. Women hiking solo in India often choose popular trails, share live location with someone at home and take local advice on where to go.

First aid

Take a first-aid course, ideally one designed for remote settings, where help may be hours away. Mountaineering institutes include first aid in their courses, and wilderness first-aid courses are run in India by various organisations.

Blisters. Stop at the first hot spot and tape it. A blister that has formed is best protected with a blister plaster; seek care if it becomes red, swollen or painful.

Hypothermia happens in the monsoon and at night in the hills, not only in snow. Watch for uncontrolled shivering, clumsiness and confusion. Get the person out of wind and rain, into dry clothes and insulated from the ground, with warm sweet drinks if they are fully alert, and call for help. A cold person who stops shivering and becomes confused is in serious danger.

Frostbite shows as numb, white or grey skin. Do not rub it, and do not rewarm it if it might freeze again. It needs medical care.

Care and Preservation

Stage 14Storage and Care of Tents, Rain Gear and Sleeping Bags

A four-season tent, a good waterproof shell and a down sleeping bag can each cost tens of thousands of rupees, and all three can be ruined in one monsoon inside a cupboard. Hiking gear rarely wears out on the trail. It usually dies at home, packed away damp, stored in the heat, or washed with the wrong soap. This stage and the next two cover how to keep what you own working for years, and how to keep the records of your walks for decades.

The enemies of outdoor gear

Moisture and mildew. Mould needs damp, warmth and time, and a monsoon supplies all three. A tent packed wet can grow black spots within days; mildew stains permanently and attacks waterproof coatings.

Hydrolysis. Many coatings, seam tapes and boot midsoles are polyurethane, which slowly breaks down with moisture and heat even when never used, leaving a sticky, flaking surface, a sour smell or a crumbling sole. It can be slowed, not reversed.

Heat speeds hydrolysis, softens adhesives and weakens fabric. A car boot, loft or metal trunk in a north Indian summer can pass 45 °C.

Ultraviolet light weakens nylon, polyester, rope and webbing. A tent left pitched in strong sun for weeks can tear like paper.

Dirt, sweat and body oils abrade fibres and zips, clog breathable membranes, spoil water repellency and feed mould.

Compression flattens down and synthetic insulation, which keep you warm only by trapping air.

Pests. Rodents chew packs to reach food smells; cockroaches and silverfish graze on dirty fabric and paper; termites attack canvas, paper and wooden trunks on the floor.

Salt from sweat and coastal air corrodes zips, poles and buckles.

The well-meant fix. Detergent, fabric softener, bleach, a heater or a sealed plastic bag has killed more gear than any mountain.

Tents

Dry it fully, every time. As soon as you get home, pitch the tent or hang the fly, inner and groundsheet separately in the shade, with the underside of the groundsheet exposed. Dry the stuff sack and peg bag too. In monsoon humidity this can take a day or two indoors with a fan; it is worth it. Never leave a tent packed damp for more than a day.

Clean gently. Shake out grit and brush the zips. Sponge dirty patches with lukewarm water and a mild non-detergent soap or a cleaner made for tents. Never put a tent in a washing machine or dryer, and never have it dry cleaned.

Store it loose. Keep the dry tent loosely folded in a large breathable cotton or mesh sack, not stuffed tight in its carrying bag, on a shelf in a cool, dark, dry cupboard. Keep poles and pegs in their own bags. Rinse poles in fresh water after coastal or salty trips and dry them before storing.

Delamination and stickiness. If the inside of the fly or groundsheet turns tacky, flakes, or smells of vinegar or sour chemicals, the polyurethane coating is hydrolysing. That tent's waterproofing is failing and cannot truly be restored. Keep it dry and cool to slow the process, and plan to replace it.

Seams and re-proofing. If seam tape lifts, re-seal the seams with a sealer suited to the fabric; silicone-coated fabric and polyurethane-coated fabric need different products. When water stops beading on the fly, clean it and then apply a spray-on proofer made for tent fabric, following the maker's instructions and testing a small patch first.

Rain gear

Wash it. Dirty waterproofs breathe poorly and wet out sooner. Wash them regularly with a technical cleaner made for waterproof fabrics, zips and flaps closed, and rinse twice. Never use fabric softener or bleach, and avoid ordinary detergent, whose residues attract water.

Restore the water repellency. The durable water repellent finish often revives with gentle heat once the jacket is clean: a tumble dryer on low, or an iron on its lowest setting through a cloth, but only if the care label allows it. When heat no longer works, re-proof. For membrane jackets, a spray-on proofer applied to the outside is generally preferred, so the inner lining keeps wicking.

Delamination. Bubbles, peeling or crackling inside a jacket mean the membrane has separated from the face fabric. It is common in older jackets, especially lightweight ones, and worsened by heat, body oils and damp storage. It cannot be economically repaired.

Store it hanging. Hang shells loosely on a wide hanger in a ventilated cupboard. Do not leave them balled up in a pack between trips, and never store a poncho or rain cover wet.

Sleeping bags and insulated jackets

Air after every use. Open the bag fully each morning on a trek, and again at home, and dry it in the shade until it is completely dry.

Store it lofted. Never keep a sleeping bag in its compression sack between trips. Store it in the large breathable storage sack most come with, or hang it, or lay it flat on a shelf. Down and synthetic fill both lose loft if kept compressed for months.

Wash rarely, and properly. A cotton or silk liner keeps the bag clean far longer. When down does need washing, use a down cleaner, by hand or in a front-loading machine on a gentle cycle, and lift the heavy wet bag supported from beneath so the internal baffles do not tear. Dry it on low heat in a large dryer with clean dryer balls, often for several hours, until no clumps remain. Air-drying down in monsoon humidity takes days and invites mildew.

Stage 15Maintenance and Safe Storage of Boots, Ropes, Stoves and Other Hard Gear

Boots

After every hike. Take out the insoles and loosen or remove the laces. Knock off the mud, brush with a soft brush and rinse with lukewarm water. Do not soak leather boots.

Dry them slowly. Stuff them loosely with newspaper, changed a few times, and leave them at room temperature in moving air. Never dry boots beside a heater or fire, on a sunny terrace, or in a clothes dryer. Heat cracks leather and weakens the adhesives that hold the sole on.

Care for leather. Once clean, treat leather with a product suited to its type: wax or cream for smooth full-grain leather, a spray for nubuck and suede. Follow the product's instructions on whether the boot should be damp or dry. Do not overdo it; too much oil softens leather and reduces support. For boots with a waterproof membrane, use products the maker says are compatible. Fabric boots need only cleaning and an occasional spray-on proofer.

Mould in the monsoon. If leather boots grow mould, brush it off outdoors, wipe with a cloth dampened in clean water, dry thoroughly and condition. Test any cleaner on a hidden spot first.

Store them breathing. Keep boots in a cool, dry, ventilated place with shoe trees or loose paper inside. Not in a sealed plastic bag, not in a damp shoe box, and never in a car.

Rope, harness and slings

Some hikers carry a short rope for scrambles, or own a harness from a basic mountaineering course. Textile safety gear ages even when unused. Ultraviolet light, heat, chemicals, abrasion and falls all weaken it.

Keep a simple log for each item: date of manufacture, date of first use, falls, and inspection dates. Wash ropes and harnesses only in lukewarm fresh water, with mild soap if the maker allows, and dry them loosely coiled in shade. Store them in a rope bag in a cool, dark, dry cupboard, well away from car batteries, fuel, paint and solvents.

Stoves and fuel

Gas canisters are pressure vessels. Store them cool, dry and out of direct sun, disconnected from the stove, and away from living areas and heat sources. Most canisters carry a warning against exposing them to temperatures above about 50 °C, which a parked car or a terrace store-room can reach in an Indian summer. Discard rusted or dented canisters, fully emptied, according to local waste rules. Humid storage rusts the base of steel canisters quickly.

Liquid fuel such as kerosene or petrol belongs only in proper, labelled fuel bottles, never in drinks bottles, and stored away from living spaces. Before long storage, follow the maker's instructions on emptying the stove. Check and lubricate rubber O-rings, replace any that are cracked, and clean the jet. Test every stove before a trip.

Never run a stove inside a closed tent or room. Carbon monoxide gives no warning and kills. Gas canisters and fuel are not permitted on passenger flights; buy them at your destination.

Water filters

After a trip, backflush the filter as instructed, sanitise it if the maker recommends, and let it dry completely before storing it; a damp filter grows mould and bacteria. A hollow-fibre filter that has been wet can be damaged invisibly by freezing, and makers generally advise replacing one that may have frozen. Keep a note of roughly how many litres a cartridge has treated against its rated capacity. Purification tablets have expiry dates and degrade in heat and damp once their foil is opened. Take batteries out of UV pens.

First-aid kits

A first-aid kit left in a hot store-room quietly stops working. Medicines pass their expiry dates, and many are labelled to be stored below about 25 or 30 °C, which Indian summers exceed. Adhesive dressings lose their stickiness, blister plasters soften in heat, disposable gloves perish and antiseptics dry out. Keep the kit in a waterproof bag with a written list of contents and expiry dates, store it in a cool interior cupboard, check it before each season, and replace anything used. Take particular care with personal prescription medicines, inhalers and adrenaline auto-injectors.

Batteries

• Lithium-ion batteries in phones, power banks and headlamps last longest stored at around half charge in a cool place. Fully charged in heat, or flat for months, they degrade, and a deeply discharged one may never recharge. Top up every few months.
• Never charge or use a swollen, hot or damaged battery again; take it to an electronic-waste collection point.
• Alkaline AA and AAA cells leak and corrode contacts. Remove them from devices before storage.
• Power banks and spare lithium batteries fly in cabin baggage only, within airline capacity limits.

Binoculars and camera lenses

In warm, humid climates fungus grows inside optics, spreading as fine threads across the glass and eventually etching its coatings. It is common in India. After a wet trip, wipe the outside, let the optics air out of their case in a dry room away from direct sun, then store them in an airtight box with fresh silica gel, or in a dry cabinet held at roughly 40 to 50 per cent relative humidity. Do not leave them for months in a padded case, which traps moisture.

Clean lenses with a blower first, then a soft brush, then a lens cloth with a little lens-cleaning fluid. Never take binoculars apart; waterproof models lose their seal. If fungus is already inside, send the instrument to the maker's service centre or a specialist repairer.

Stage 16Preservation and Archiving: Maps, Logs, Tracks, Photographs and the Indian Climate

Boots and tents can be replaced. The record of your walks cannot: the map with a pencil line across a pass you crossed at twenty, the notebook with the name of the shepherd who showed you the way, ten years of GPS tracks and photographs. This stage covers keeping that record, and then pulls the band together with the Indian climate, target conditions and a yearly routine.

Maps and guidebooks

Paper has the same enemies as gear, and a few more. Damp brings mould and foxing, the brown spotting of old paper. Silverfish and cockroaches graze on paper and its sizing. Termites eat it. Light fades printed colours, and folded maps wear through at the creases.

• Store maps flat in a drawer or an acid-free folder, or folded maps upright in an archival box, in an interior cupboard.
• Refold along the original creases, never new ones.
• On the trail, carry a photocopy, a printout or a map in a clear polyester or polypropylene case, not a rare original.
• Mark routes in soft pencil. Pens and highlighters bleed and cannot be removed.
• Never laminate an original or tape a torn one; both are permanent. Keep a torn map in a folder and use a copy.
• Scan or photograph old maps and out-of-print guidebooks.

Trip logs and notebooks

Write trip notes in pencil or pigment-ink pen, which resist water and fading; ordinary ballpoint and felt-tip ink can run or fade. Waterproof notebooks survive monsoon days. Within a week of each trip, copy the essentials into a digital log: date, route, party, times, weather, water sources, permits, problems and contacts. Photograph or scan the notebook pages, then store the notebooks in a box with silica gel.

GPS tracks

Export every recorded track as a GPX file, an open format that almost every mapping program can read, and keep it on your own storage. Do not rely on an app's cloud. Apps close, change their subscriptions, lose data and delete accounts. Name files so they sort by date and say what they are, such as 2026-10-14_Harishchandragad_Pachnai.gpx, and keep a short plain-text note beside each one.

Tracks and photographs carry location data. Before posting them publicly, remove it where it could harm: wildlife sites, sacred places that ask for privacy, and the start point at your own home.

Photographs

Keep the originals at full size, in widely readable formats such as JPEG, or RAW files alongside JPEG copies. Organise by year and then by date and place, and add a caption naming the people and the location while you still remember. A phone that syncs to the cloud is not a backup if deleting a picture on the phone deletes it everywhere.

Follow the 3-2-1 rule: three copies of everything that matters, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy kept somewhere else, such as a relative's home or a separate cloud service. Once a year, restore a few files from each copy to prove they still open. Replace ageing external drives before they fail.

Inventory and disaster planning

Keep a spreadsheet of your gear: item, maker, date bought, date of manufacture for ropes and harnesses, serial number, price and a photograph, with receipts scanned. It tells you when soft safety gear is due for retirement and supports an insurance claim after theft, fire or flood; many household policies limit cover for sports equipment and cameras, so check yours. In flood-prone ground-floor homes, keep gear and the archive on upper shelves, and store fuel away from exits. If you can grab only one thing, take the drive holding your archive.

The Indian climate

Monsoon damp. In coastal cities and the Western Ghats, relative humidity sits high for months, and anything stored damp will grow mould. Dry every item completely first. Keep small valuables such as optics, electronics, maps and the first-aid kit in airtight plastic boxes with silica gel. Keep bulky soft gear loose in breathable sacks in the driest interior cupboard. A dehumidifier helps, but power cuts switch it off; sealed boxes and silica gel keep working.

Silica gel. Indicating gel changes colour as it absorbs moisture. Recharge it in an oven at the temperature its maker gives, let it cool in a closed jar, and reuse it. Silica gel that has not been recharged all monsoon is doing nothing.

A hygrometer. A small digital hygrometer, roughly ₹300–800 (2026), tells you whether a cupboard or box is actually dry. Put one in each storage place.

Heat. Lofts, terrace rooms, top floors under a concrete roof, metal trunks and car boots are the worst places in a north Indian summer. The best is a lower cupboard in an interior room.

Salt, dust and pests. In Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and other coastal cities, rinse metal gear in fresh water and dry it. Cover shelves against dust. Keep gear on steel or plastic shelving raised off the floor, away from outside walls, bathrooms and kitchens, never in a wooden trunk on the floor where termites can reach it.

These are ranges, honestly approximate, and few Indian homes hold them all year. Stability matters more than the exact number: a steady 60 per cent does less harm than a swing between 40 and 90.

The yearly routine

"Off-season" depends on where you walk: a Sahyadri hiker's quiet months are April and May, and a Himalayan trekker's are the monsoon and deep winter. Fit the routine to your own calendar.

Stage 17India on Foot: Surveyors, Pundits and Mountaineers

India has more high mountains, more pilgrim paths and more varied walking country than almost anywhere on earth: the Himalaya along its northern rim, the Western Ghats along its west coast, and the old hill ranges of the centre, south and north-east in between. People walked these hills for millennia before anyone called it hiking. This part tells the Indian story, region by region, and ends with the rules, institutes and people that shape walking in India today.

Measuring the mountains

The first systematic walking in the modern sense was done by surveyors. The Great Trigonometrical Survey, begun in 1802 under William Lambton, set out to measure the subcontinent with a chain of precise triangles, carrying heavy instruments up hills and towers across plains and jungles. It continued for decades under George Everest and his successors, and in the 1850s its computations showed that a Himalayan summit catalogued as Peak XV was the highest in the world. The Bengali mathematician Radhanath Sikdar, who worked for the Survey, is often credited with the calculation. The peak was later named after Everest, who had retired by then.

The pundits

Tibet and much of Central Asia were closed to Europeans in the mid-nineteenth century, so the Survey of India trained men from Himalayan communities to travel there in disguise, often as pilgrims or traders. These explorers became known as pundits. The best known, Nain Singh Rawat of Kumaon, walked to Lhasa in the 1860s and fixed its position; his cousin Kishen Singh made long journeys in the following years. Their route surveys filled in large blank spaces on the map.

The mountaineering era

In the early twentieth century Himalayan climbing grew, largely led by British expeditions, with Sherpa and other Himalayan porters carrying loads and, increasingly, climbing. Darjeeling became a hub. The Himalayan Club was founded in 1928 and still publishes the Himalayan Journal.

On 29 May 1953 Tenzing Norgay, who lived in Darjeeling, and Edmund Hillary of New Zealand became the first people known to reach the summit of Everest. The next year the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute was founded in Darjeeling, with Tenzing as its first director of field training. Other institutes followed, described in Stage 24. In 1965 an Indian expedition led by M. S. Kohli put nine climbers on the summit of Everest, and in 1984 Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to reach the top.

The trekking boom

Walking for its own sake grew through the second half of the twentieth century. City clubs in Mumbai and Pune made fort and monsoon walks in the Sahyadri a weekend habit. The Youth Hostels Association of India ran national trekking programmes in the Himalaya that introduced many young Indians to the mountains. Ladakh opened to foreign visitors in the mid-1970s and became one of the world's great trekking regions. Since the 2010s, commercial trek operators and social media have brought hundreds of thousands of new walkers to the hills, with benefits for mountain economies and serious pressure on the most popular trails.

Stage 18The Sahyadri and the Western Ghats: Monsoon Treks and Forts

The Western Ghats run for more than a thousand kilometres parallel to India's west coast, from Gujarat through Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala to Tamil Nadu. They are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the world's great centres of biodiversity. In Maharashtra they are called the Sahyadri, and they have the most distinctive hiking culture in India.

The ground

The northern Sahyadri are built of basalt, layers of ancient lava called the Deccan Traps. Erosion has carved them into flat-topped plateaus, sheer cliffs, pinnacles and deep valleys dropping to the coastal plain, the Konkan. The highest point in Maharashtra, Kalsubai, is only about 1,650 metres high, but the relief is dramatic, and trails are steep, rocky and, in the rain, very slippery.

The forts

Hundreds of hill forts crown the Sahyadri, many of them associated with the Maratha kingdom founded by Shivaji in the seventeenth century. Walking to them is the region's great tradition. Rajgad, Torna and Sinhagad near Pune; Raigad, where Shivaji was crowned in 1674; Harishchandragad with its vast overhanging cliff, Konkan Kada; Lohagad, Visapur, Rajmachi and Ratangad: each is a hike through history, with rock-cut water cisterns, gateways and steps. Many are protected monuments. Treat them as such (see Stage 11).

The monsoon season

Elsewhere in India the monsoon ends the hiking season. In the Sahyadri it is the season. From June to September the brown hills turn green, hundreds of waterfalls appear and clouds pour over the ridges. City groups from Mumbai and Pune fill the trails every weekend. Just before the rains, in late May and early June, some forests glow with fireflies, and villages near popular sites have built a small tourism season around them.

The monsoon also makes the Sahyadri dangerous. Rock steps turn to glass, narrow ridges become exposed in cloud and wind, streams rise in minutes and waterfalls pull people off their feet. Popular spots can be dangerously crowded, with queues on narrow steps. District administrations and forest departments have in some years closed particular forts, waterfalls and trails during heavy rain. Check before you go, and obey closures.

South along the Ghats

South of Maharashtra the Ghats rise higher and wetter. In Karnataka, Kudremukh National Park protects rolling grasslands and forest, and Kumara Parvatha, in Pushpagiri Wildlife Sanctuary, is a long, demanding climb. Mullayanagiri, Karnataka's highest peak, is a popular day hike. In Goa, the trail to Dudhsagar Falls has a long history of hikers walking along the railway line, which is prohibited and dangerous; use permitted routes only. Much of this country is protected forest where trekking needs permission, a guide or an online booking, and rules have changed often in recent years. The southern hills of Kerala and Tamil Nadu follow in Stage 21.

Stage 19The Himalaya: Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh

The Indian Himalaya is not one range but several, rising in steps from the plains. The low Shivalik foothills give way to the forested middle ranges, then to the snow peaks of the Greater Himalaya, and beyond them, in Ladakh and Spiti, to the dry trans-Himalaya. Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh, closest to Delhi and the northern plains, hold most of India's popular Himalayan treks.

Seasons

The main trekking windows are before the monsoon, roughly May and June, and after it, from mid-September into October or November, when the air is clearest. The monsoon brings landslides that block roads for days, swollen rivers and cloud, and most high treks close. Winter snow treks on the lower ranges run from about December to March, and bring cold, short days and avalanche-prone slopes on some routes.

Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand divides into Garhwal in the west and Kumaon in the east. Its trails pass oak and rhododendron forest, shepherds' meadows called bugyals, and villages where the old houses are built of stone and carved wood.

Well-known treks include Kedarkantha, a popular winter summit; Har Ki Dun, a valley in Govind Wildlife Sanctuary; Dayara Bugyal and Brahmatal; the Kuari Pass with its long views of Nanda Devi; the Pindari Glacier trail in Kumaon; and Roopkund, a high glacial lake famous for the ancient human skeletons found around it, which has been affected by the restrictions on camping in the meadows (see Stage 11).

The Valley of Flowers National Park, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Nanda Devi National Park, opens for a few months, roughly June to October. Its meadows are fullest in the monsoon, so a visit usually means walking in rain on a well-made path.

Himachal Pradesh

Himachal's trekking stretches from the forested Kangra and Kullu valleys to the high desert of Lahaul and Spiti. Triund, a ridge above McLeod Ganj near Dharamshala, is one of the most walked short treks in India. From the Manali side, the Hampta Pass crossing leads from green Kullu into barren Lahaul in a few days, and Bhrigu Lake and Beas Kund are shorter high walks. The Parvati Valley holds the hot springs of Kheerganga and, for experienced trekkers only, the long and serious Pin Parvati Pass. The Great Himalayan National Park in Kullu district, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is best explored with local guides. Spiti, in the rain shadow, can be walked in the monsoon months when the rest of the state is wet.

Stage 20Ladakh, Sikkim and the Northeast

Ladakh

Ladakh is a high, cold desert behind the main Himalayan range, largely shielded from the monsoon. Its trekking season runs roughly from June to September, when much of India is wet. Everything here starts high: Leh, where most visitors arrive by air, is at around 3,500 metres. Rest completely for the first days, drink water, and follow the acclimatisation rules in Stage 13 before any trek.

The Markha Valley in Hemis National Park is Ladakh's classic trek, with village homestays, river crossings and a high pass. The Sham Valley is a lower, gentler walk between villages. Longer routes cross the mountains of Zanskar. In deep winter, the Chadar trek follows the frozen Zanskar River; in recent seasons it has been regulated by the local administration with registration, medical checks and a set acclimatisation period in Leh. Some trekking peaks near Leh have been closed to climbing in recent years. Sun, wind, dehydration and cold nights are constant. Rules for visiting areas such as Nubra and Pangong have changed several times, so check current requirements (see Stage 23).

Sikkim and the Darjeeling hills

Sikkim's great trek goes from Yuksom through the forests and yak pastures of Dzongri towards the Goecha La, facing the Kanchenjunga massif. It lies in Khangchendzonga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and trekkers generally need permits and must go with a registered guide or operator. Weather on the eastern Himalaya is wetter than in the west, and the best views come in the post-monsoon and spring seasons.

Just across the border in West Bengal, the ridge walk to Sandakphu, the highest point in the state, offers views of Kanchenjunga and, on clear days, Everest.

The Northeast

Several north-eastern states, including Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram, require Indian visitors from other states to obtain an Inner Line Permit, and foreign nationals need special permits for many areas (see Stage 23).

In Nagaland and Manipur, the Dzukou Valley on the border between the two states is a rolling bowl of bamboo-grass hills, reached by a steep climb from the Nagaland side, and known for the Dzukou lily that flowers in summer. Meghalaya is one of the wettest places on earth, and its Khasi and Jaintia Hills are laced with trails and staircases linking villages. Arunachal Pradesh has high passes and monasteries around Tawang and the lowland rainforest of Namdapha National Park.

Much land in the Northeast is owned by communities and clans rather than the state. Ask the village council or headman before walking or camping, pay community fees where they are charged, hire local guides, and respect local customs about sacred groves and hunting grounds.

Stage 21The Nilgiris and the Southern Hills

At their southern end the Western Ghats rise highest. Anamudi, in Kerala's Eravikulam National Park, is the highest peak in India south of the Himalaya, at about 2,700 metres. Around it, in the Nilgiris, the Anamalai, the Palani Hills and the ranges of Kerala and southern Karnataka, lies some of the loveliest and most tightly protected walking country in India.

Shola and grassland

The signature landscape of the high southern hills is the shola-grassland mosaic: rolling montane grassland, with dense, stunted evergreen forest, the shola, tucked into the folds of the valleys. It is ancient, fragile and rich in species found nowhere else, including the Nilgiri tahr, a wild mountain goat that is readily seen in Eravikulam. The Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve was the first biosphere reserve declared in India. Much of this country lies inside national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and tiger reserves.

Where people walk

• Kerala. Chembra Peak in Wayanad, with its small heart-shaped lake; the grassland ridges around Munnar; and Agasthyarkoodam in the far south, a sacred peak reached by a permitted trek that opens only for a short season each year.
• Tamil Nadu. The Nilgiris around Udhagamandalam and Doddabetta, the Palani Hills around Kodaikanal, and the Anamalai hills.
• Karnataka. Tadiandamol and Brahmagiri in Kodagu, and Kodachadri to the north.

In most of these ranges, trekking is permitted only on designated routes, with forest-department permission and often a forest guide or a trek run by a local eco-development committee. Booking is increasingly online, and routes, fees and seasons change. The main season is roughly from the end of the monsoon to the start of the hot, dry months, and many routes close in the monsoon and during the fire season.

Wildlife and safety

These hills hold elephants, gaur, sloth bears, leopards and tigers. Walk only on permitted routes with a guide where one is required, never at dawn, dusk or night in elephant country, and back away quietly from any large animal. Leeches abound in the wet months. On the Tamil Nadu side, the north-east monsoon brings heavy rain from about October to December, so a trek that is dry on the Kerala side of a ridge may be wet on the other.

Stage 22Pilgrimage Walking Traditions

The largest walking movements in India are not treks at all. Every year, vast numbers of pilgrims walk to mountain shrines, along river routes and up temple hills. Any hiker in India will share trails with them, and much of the country's trail infrastructure, from stone steps to rest houses, exists because of them.

Himalayan pilgrimages

In Uttarakhand, the Char Dham circuit visits Yamunotri, Gangotri, Kedarnath and Badrinath. Kedarnath is reached by a long uphill path of well over a dozen kilometres from Gaurikund. Hemkund Sahib, a Sikh shrine beside a high lake at more than 4,000 metres, is reached by a steep path that shares its lower trail with the Valley of Flowers. In Kashmir, the Amarnath cave shrine is approached on foot from Pahalgam or Baltal during a short summer season, and pilgrims have been required to register and carry a health certificate. The Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu is reached by a paved path of roughly a dozen kilometres from Katra. The Kailash Mansarovar Yatra, organised by India's Ministry of External Affairs, takes selected pilgrims into Tibet after medical tests; it has been suspended in some years.

Altitude does not respect devotion. Many pilgrims travel by road or helicopter straight to great heights, some of them elderly or unwell, and each season brings reports of pilgrims falling seriously ill. The rules in Stage 13 apply to everyone. Anyone planning a high pilgrimage should see a doctor first, ascend as gradually as the route allows, and descend at once if symptoms appear.

The Deccan and the south

The Pandharpur Wari of Maharashtra is one of the great walking traditions of the world. Each monsoon, Warkari pilgrims accompany palanquins, palkhis, carrying the sandals of the poet-saints Dnyaneshwar from Alandi and Tukaram from Dehu, walking for about three weeks to reach Pandharpur for Ashadhi Ekadashi. They sing as they go, and villages along the route feed and shelter them.

In Kerala, pilgrims to Sabarimala observe a period of vows before climbing to the hill shrine through forest in the Periyar Tiger Reserve, some by a long traditional forest route.

In Gujarat, the Jain temple hill of Shatrunjaya at Palitana and the sacred mountain of Girnar near Junagadh are climbed by thousands of stone steps. In Jharkhand, Jain pilgrims walk a long circuit of the shrines on Parasnath hill, known as Sammed Shikharji.

Stage 23Permits, Protected Areas and the Rules of the Ground

Permits in India can seem bewildering, because different authorities control different things. A single trek may cross reserved forest, a wildlife sanctuary and a border district, each with its own rules. This stage explains the kinds of permission you are likely to meet. The specifics change often: fees, forms, online portals, which areas are restricted and who needs what. Always check the current rules with the issuing authority before you travel, and treat anything here as a map of the territory, not the law itself.

The kinds of permission

Protected areas

National parks and wildlife sanctuaries are governed by the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and managed by state forest departments. Within them, entering without permission, camping or walking off permitted routes, lighting fires, disturbing animals, and removing plants, animals or even stones can be offences. The core zones of tiger reserves are generally closed to trekking. Many parks close in the monsoon, and some close in the fire season. Entry often ends by early afternoon and overnight stays are frequently forbidden.

Heritage, borders and the sky

Many forts and ancient sites are protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India or state archaeology departments; damaging them is an offence. Near borders and military installations, photography can be prohibited and routes closed without notice. Flying a drone generally needs permission, and is banned outright in many protected, border and pilgrimage areas. Satellite phones and many satellite messengers need government permission (see Stage 6).

Plastic and waste

Several hill states and many protected areas ban single-use plastics. Some checkposts record the plastic items you carry in and check them on the way out, with deposits or fines. Carry reusable bottles and pack out everything.

Stage 24Institutes, Guides and Porters

Learning properly

India has a set of government-backed mountaineering institutes whose courses have trained generations of climbers, trek leaders and soldiers.

Their standard ladder runs from adventure courses for young people to a basic mountaineering course lasting several weeks, covering rock, snow and ice craft, navigation, first aid and a high camp, then an advanced course, and specialist courses in search and rescue and in instruction. Applicants usually need a medical fitness certificate and must meet age limits, and popular courses fill months ahead. A basic course is the best single investment a serious trekker can make, even one with no intention of climbing.

Other bodies. The Indian Mountaineering Foundation in New Delhi is the national body for mountaineering, and handles permission for expeditions to many peaks. The Himalayan Club publishes the Himalayan Journal and has sections in several cities. The Youth Hostels Association of India runs national trekking programmes. Many cities have long-established hiking clubs, college clubs and state mountaineering associations, which are the cheapest and friendliest way to begin.

Hiring guides and porters fairly

Indian trekking depends on local guides, porters, horsemen and cooks, who work harder than anyone on the trip, in the same weather, often with worse equipment. Hiring them well is part of trekking ethically. (Sherpa is the name of a people, not a job title.)

• Agree pay up front, per day, including the days they need to walk home, plus food and shelter. Tip at the end.
• Agree a maximum load, and do not exceed it. Ask what limit the operator uses.
• Check their equipment. Porters need proper footwear, warm clothing, rain gear, sunglasses and shelter for the highest camp, not only the clients.
• Treat their health as your own. Porters get altitude illness and hypothermia too. The rule in Stage 13 applies: a sick porter descends, accompanied, and is included in any evacuation.
• Hire locally. Guides, porters and homestays from villages along the route keep the money in the mountains.
• Learn names, share the plan, and include local staff in decisions about weather and turning back. They usually know best.

Glossary

A

Acclimatisation — the body's slow adaptation to the lower oxygen of high altitude. [Stage 13]

Acute mountain sickness (AMS) — the common form of altitude illness: headache after ascent with nausea, fatigue or poor sleep. [Stage 13]

Aiming off — deliberately navigating to one side of a target on a linear feature, so you know which way to turn. [Stage 5]

Attack point — an obvious feature near a hard-to-find target, used as the start of a short, careful bearing. [Stage 5]

B

Base layer — the clothing layer next to the skin, which moves sweat away. [Stage 7]

Bearing — a direction measured in degrees from north, set and followed with a compass. [Stage 5]

Bugyal — a high alpine meadow in Uttarakhand. [Stage 11]

C

Call-out time — the time at which someone holding your trip plan should raise the alarm. [Stage 4]

Catching feature — a feature beyond your target that tells you that you have overshot. [Stage 5]

Cloudburst — an extremely intense downpour over a small area, causing flash floods. [Stage 10]

Col — a low point on a ridge between two summits; also called a saddle. [Stage 5]

Contour line — a line on a map joining points of equal height. [Stage 5]

D

Datum — the mathematical model of the earth's shape to which coordinates refer. [Stage 6]

Declination — the angle between magnetic north and the map's grid north. [Stage 5]

Delamination — the separation of a waterproof membrane or a boot sole from the layer it is bonded to. [Stages 14–15]

Durable water repellent (DWR) — the finish that makes water bead on the outer fabric of a shell. [Stage 7]

G

GPX — an open file format for GPS tracks and routes, readable by almost all mapping software. [Stage 16]

Grid reference — a map position given by eastings and then northings. [Stage 5]

H

Handrail — a linear feature such as a stream or ridge, followed to navigate. [Stage 5]

High-altitude cerebral oedema (HACE) — life-threatening swelling of the brain at altitude; treated by immediate descent and medical help. [Stage 13]

High-altitude pulmonary oedema (HAPE) — life-threatening fluid in the lungs at altitude; treated by immediate descent and medical help. [Stage 13]

Hollow-fibre filter — a water filter of fine porous tubes that removes bacteria and protozoa but not viruses, and is ruined by freezing. [Stages 9, 15]

Hydrolysis — the slow chemical breakdown of polyurethane by moisture, accelerated by heat. [Stage 14]

Hygrometer — an instrument that measures relative humidity. [Stage 16]

Hyponatraemia — dangerously low blood sodium, which can follow drinking large amounts of plain water during long exertion. [Stage 9]

I

Inner Line Permit — permission Indian citizens from other states need to enter certain north-eastern states. [Stage 23]

L

Leave No Trace — a set of seven principles for minimising the impact of outdoor visits. [Stage 11]

Loft — the thickness of insulation, and so its ability to trap warm air. [Stage 14]

M

Mid layer — the insulating clothing layer, such as fleece or a down jacket. [Stage 7]

Midsole — the cushioning layer of a boot between the upper and the outsole, often polyurethane or EVA. [Stage 15]

N

Naismith's rule — an estimate of walking time: 5 km an hour on the flat plus 10 minutes per 100 m of ascent. [Stage 4]

P

Pulse oximeter — a clip-on device that estimates blood oxygen saturation; a guide, never a diagnosis. [Stage 13]

Pundit — one of the Indian explorers trained by the Survey of India to map Tibet and Central Asia in secret. [Stage 17]

R

Re-entrant — a small valley or gully running into a hillside. [Stage 5]

Relative humidity (RH) — the moisture in the air as a percentage of the most it could hold at that temperature. [Stage 16]

Rest step — a brief pause on a straightened rear leg between steps on steep ground. [Stage 3]

S

Sahyadri — the name for the Western Ghats in Maharashtra. [Stage 18]

Shell — the outer windproof and waterproof layer. [Stage 7]

Shola — stunted montane evergreen forest in the valley folds of the southern Western Ghats. [Stage 21]

Silica gel — a reusable desiccant that absorbs moisture in a closed container. [Stage 16]

Spur — a ridge running down from higher ground. [Stage 5]

T

Ten Essentials — a list of systems carried on every hike to survive if the day goes wrong. [Stage 8]

Three-two-one rule — three copies of important data, on two kinds of storage, one kept elsewhere. [Stage 16]

Torso length — the back measurement by which a pack is sized. [Stage 8]

Turnaround time — a clock time, set in advance, at which you turn back wherever you are. [Stage 4]

W

Warkari — a pilgrim of the devotional tradition of Maharashtra whose members walk each year to Pandharpur. [Stage 22]

Further Reading and Organisations

Skills and technique

• Mountaineering: The Freedom of the Hills, The Mountaineers. The standard textbook of mountain travel, in many editions.
• Hillwalking, by Steve Long. The handbook of the Mountain Training walking schemes in Britain.
• Mountain Navigation, by Peter Cliff.
• Be Expert with Map and Compass, by Björn Kjellström.
• The Backpacker's Handbook, by Chris Townsend.
• The Complete Walker, by Colin Fletcher.

Medicine and safety

• Auerbach's Wilderness Medicine, edited by Paul S. Auerbach and colleagues.
• Medicine for Mountaineering and Other Wilderness Activities, edited by James A. Wilkerson.
• The Wilderness Medical Society's clinical practice guidelines on altitude illness, and the advice papers of the UIAA Medical Commission.

History and India

• Wanderlust: A History of Walking, by Rebecca Solnit.
• The Great Arc, by John Keay. The Great Trigonometrical Survey.
• Tiger of the Snows, the autobiography of Tenzing Norgay, written with James Ramsey Ullman.
• Tenzing: Hero of Everest, by Ed Douglas.
• Trekking in the Indian Himalaya, by Garry Weare.
• Harish Kapadia's books on exploring the Indian Himalaya, including High Himalaya Unknown Valleys.
• The Himalayan Journal, published by the Himalayan Club.
• The Open Series Maps of the Survey of India.

Organisations

• Indian Mountaineering Foundation, New Delhi
• Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling
• Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi
• Atal Bihari Vajpayee Institute of Mountaineering and Allied Sports, Manali
• Jawahar Institute of Mountaineering and Winter Sports, Pahalgam
• The Himalayan Club
• Youth Hostels Association of India
• Survey of India
• India Meteorological Department
• National Disaster Management Authority
• State forest and tourism departments
• Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics
• UIAA, the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation
• Wilderness Medical Society
• The Mountaineers, Seattle

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