Green Lake

Eight days beyond the last road, through rhododendron forest and glacial moraine, to the foot of the world’s third-highest mountain.

Long before the Himalaya became a destination, Sikkim was a hidden land. Sikkimese Buddhists call it a beyul, a sacred refuge concealed among the peaks, and far in its north, beyond the last villages, lies one of the range’s most secluded trekking routes. The Green Lake Trek follows the Zemu Valley into the sanctuary of Kanchendzonga, a journey few ever make.

The adventure begins in Gangtok with a day’s drive north through terraced farms, cardamom valleys and Lepcha and Bhutia villages, where prayer flags flutter above monasteries and the road narrows with every bend. At Lachen the road ends, and the journey continues on foot, with porters and ponies carrying your camp. The trail follows the Zemu river through ancient forest of rhododendron, magnolia, oak and silver fir, hung with wild orchids and drifting in mist. Day by day the forest thins into juniper, dwarf rhododendron and the yak pastures of Yabuk, where herders still graze their animals under open sky.

Then the landscape changes completely. You enter the moraine of the Zemu Glacier, one of the great rivers of ice in the Eastern Himalaya, a vast world of boulders, ice and silence at around 15,500 ft. Rising above it is Siniolchu, over 22,000 ft high and regarded as one of the most beautiful mountains on earth. German expeditions of the 1930s rested here on their way to the great peaks, and local legend even says that Marco Polo once halted at the same camp.

Beyond it all stands Kanchendzonga, “the Five Treasures of the Snow,” only a few kilometres away. To the Sikkimese it is a guardian deity, and when climbers first reached the summit in 1955 they stopped just short of the top out of respect for that belief. Standing at its foot, at 16,195 ft, you will understand why. Green Lake itself is a modest pond today, but the prize is everything around it: blue-white ice, rock and a sky as clear as glass.

The valley is also a sanctuary for some of the Himalaya’s most elusive animals. Snow leopards roam the high slopes, herds of bharal (blue sheep) graze on the cliffs above, and red pandas, black bears, Himalayan monal and blood pheasants live in the forests below. Sightings are never guaranteed, but the tracks, calls and signs are part of the thrill.

This is a demanding trek, with about 100 km of walking over eight days and a high point above 16,000 ft, including a rest day for acclimatisation. It rewards those who want something truly remote, with a guide, cook, porters, tents and every meal arranged, and nothing between you and the mountains but the next step.