The Ice Does Not Care About Your Fitness Level
The Chadar, the word means blanket in Hindi, is the sheet of ice that forms over the Zanskar River each January and February, when temperatures in the gorge drop to minus 15 or minus 25 degrees Celsius at night. For centuries, this was the only winter route connecting the villages of Zanskar to Leh. Zanskari villagers walked it with yaks and children and sacks of grain. They did not call it a trek. They called it going home.
