Adventure journeys across India

Adventure in India is a calendar problem before it is a fitness problem. Ladakh opens in stages, the Srinagar road usually clearing in May and the Manali highway around June, and the drive to Nubra crosses Khardung La at roughly 5,360 metres before dropping to Bactrian camels on the Hunder dunes; Umling La out in Changthang, at 5,798 metres, is the highest motorable pass on earth. In deep winter the Zanskar freezes and the Chadar trek walks the ice between Chilling and Nerak past a frozen waterfall, with nights near minus twenty-five. Rishikesh runs grade three and four rapids from Shivpuri down to Ram Jhula between late September and June, and the water is cold enough to wake anyone. Auli holds snow from January to March with the Nanda Devi massif in view. Bir Billing launches paragliders from about 2,400 metres for a long glide down to the landing field at Bir, best in October and November. In Nagaland the Dzukou trek climbs from Viswema into a bamboo-carpeted valley, and in the Andamans the dive sites off Havelock are clearest from November to April. We gain altitude slowly, carry oxygen where it matters, and never treat a summit as the point.