Chadar Trek Tales - Falling into frozen Zanskar River in Ladakh and escaping death

Chadar Trek Tales - Falling into frozen Zanskar River in Ladakh and escaping death

Chadar trek, Ladakh is one of the most popular winter treks in India and one of the most glamorous treks in the world. This trek is considered to be highly difficult as it requires to trek on the frozen Zanskar river in extreme temperatures ranging between -15°C and -30°C. The word "Chadar" means a blanket, referring to the white ice sheets of the frozen river. Zanskar river flows through a steep canyon between Chilling and Zanskar Valley. The locals have been traditionally using this route for trade in winters as the road to Zanskar Valley is blocked due to snowfall. Over the years, the adventurers started walking on the frozen river, making it one of the most beautiful winters treks in India.

Chadar Frozen River Trek - Ladakh, India

​Chadar Trek Route

The Chadar trek starts from a point where the current road ends, somewhere between Chilling and Tilad Sumdo. The 7-days trekking route (with a buffer day) goes upto a village called Nerak and back.
Tilat Sumdo - Shingra Koma - Tibb - Nerak - Shingra Koma - Tilat Sumdo.
The longer village Lingshed and back takea round 11 days of trekking from Tilat Sumdo.

Confluence of Zanskar & Indus rivers in Ladakh, India

​Chadar Trek Difficulty

The trekking distance for Chadar trek from Chilling to Nerak and back is around 105 kms, requiring 15-16 kms of walk per day. This trek is almost a flat walk starting an altitude of 3170m and reaching the higher camp at Nerak at 3400m. However, it is considered to be a difficult trek due to the harsh weather conditions. Thorough physical as well as mental preparation for Chadar Trek is highly recommended.
Climate Crisis is a reality and it is affecting our natural resources. Melting of the frozen Zanskar river in Ladakh in winters is posing a serious threat to trekkers each year, making it extremely difficult to complete the Chadar Trek.

Chadar Frozen River Trek, Ladakh, India

Chadar trek is a unique experience

Unlike other treks, Chadar trek is an entirely unique experience of walking on a frozen river along the flowing turquoise river in unbearable weather conditions. Each day on the frozen river was a surprise as we crossed frozen ice slides, waterfalls and caves on the way. Someday I was left thirsty on the entire route as my water bottle wasn’t sealed properly, leaving only frozen ice in the bottle. Someday I woke up in the morning to find my lenses frozen in the lens case. Every morning, I had to dip the case in hot water from the kitchen tent before wearing the lenses. Things like toothpaste, sunscreen, moisturiser and wet wipes remained frozen throughout the trek. I started wrapping important things in my warm clothes to keep them from getting frozen, but there’s a limit to everyone’s imaginations.

Frozen waterfall Chadar trek ladakh

​Local Ladakhi sledges on the Chadar Trek

Locals of Ladakh are accustomed to use wooden sledges to transport stuff on the frozen river. Our porters and support staff carried camping equipment on these sledges.

Local sledges on chadar trek ladakh

Alternate routes for broken Chadar

The ice on the river forms and breaks without any notice and in the worst case scenarios an alternate route through the snow-covered steep rocks has to be trailed through. It can snow at any time and leave the trekker guessing if there is ice or water beneath the snow cover.

Broken chadar on chadar trek, Ladakh

​Camping on Chadar Trek

The trekking day ends by afternoon, and camp is setup. Thankfully, nature has left some flat surfaces on the gorge around the river for us to camp!

Chadar Trek campsite

Falling in the frozen river and coming out alive!

On one of the days we had the news that the chadar was broken ahead and was very difficult to cross the waters or the steep rocks on the side-walls. I was walking down the frozen river very cheerfully, with my backpack on my shoulders and camera hanging down my neck. I observed a distinctly marked trail and found it worth clicking. And this happened to be the last picture I clicked on my brand new camera - Panasonic Lumix FZ-200.

I took a few steps on the trail and this time the micro spikes on my gumboots made a different kind of crackling sound on the ice. Before I could even sense, my leg had already broken the thin layer of ice and made its way through to the water flowing beneath. The feel of ice cold water numbed my leg and my brain together. I controlled the panic inside me and tried to lift up my leg. But the thin sheets of ice couldn’t handle the weight of my body and the backpack and my other leg sunk in too. I was inside the flowing river chest-deep and my hands above the chadar. It was this moment when everything around me became blur and I sensed rare possibility of my survival. I somehow gathered my senses and waved my trekking pole and called for help. There were locals on the trek carrying food items and other necessary camping equipments on the sledges. They saw me and ran towards me, it needed 2 of them to pull me out. Yes, I was pulled out alive and was taken away from that trail, made to rest on the sledges to catch my breath. The helpers advised me to change into fresh clothes soon, but I felt shy doing it on an open trail, so I insisted them to let me walk to a comfortable hidden place to change. I took 5 steps ahead realized that every part of my body has gone numb, I couldn’t move. The helpers then brought me back to the sledge and helped me change into fresh clothes. My boots had a considerable amount of ice in it. Socks, double layer of pants, down jacket, gloves, camera, everything was frozen, rock hard. Luckily I had clothes waterproofed in my backpack. And the only way to warm myself again was to start hiking again. I remember how happy I was to have experienced this “FORCED DIP” in chadar and survived too!

I had removed the batteries from the camera and allowed the camera to naturally dry in the normal temperature for atleast a week after my trek before trying to switch it on, and thankfully the camera had survived too!
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I don’t have any picture of me sinking in the chadar, but this is how my frozen pants looked like!

Frozen pants after falling into frozen river

​Continue reading my Chadar Trek Tales (part2) - How I managed to complete the trek.

Related Posts :

Chadar Trek Tales - How climate crisis and broken chadar makes it difficult to complete the trek

How to prepare for Chadar Frozen River Trek - Zanskar, Ladakh

Markha Valley Trek - Ladakh

Check out Leh Ladakh Tourism for more information on itineraries and tours in Ladakh.