The Great Lakes is one of the signature treks in Kashmir and has become extremely popular especially in the busy summer season of July and August. There have been reports that in late July this year there were more than four hundred trekkers on the trail at one time! However, our South Col Expeditions team went in second half of August 2021 and we did not encounter many groups - the rush had eased by then. This is very rewarding trek and more so if done in the shoulder seasons - last week of June and last week of August into mid September.
The trek is usually done in six days - some of the days are long and tedious - but we did the route in seven days breaking up the first day into two days for better acclimatisation as we were flying straight into Srinagar and then driving immediately to Sonamarg. This approach gave a gentle start to the walk and was appreciated by all our trekkers.
The timings for the walk was recorded on Strava by one of our trekkers Dr Rajesh Tope and these screenshots are included here for reference. It should be noted that the timings recorded by Strava are the actual walking timings so stops for rest, lunch, photographs etc. should be added.
Day 1 Srinagar to Sonamarg Altitude: 2670m Time taken: 3 hours drive -
We fly into Srinagar by noon and then after quick lunch we drive from Srinagar airport to the base camp at Sonamarg which is called Shitkadi.Night at Shitkadi campsite.
