• Difficulty: Strenuous

• Max Elevation: 5,580 metres

• Duration: Seven days

• Start/end point: Chicham village in Spiti, and Korzok in Ladakh at the exit.

• Accommodation: Camping with home stays available at entry and exit points.

I’d call this one more of a mini expedition than a trek, as it involves crossing a 6,000 metre snowbound pass that saddles the Spiti and Ladakh valleys. The ancient trading route that connected the erstwhile Tibet section, which is a part of Ladakh today, and Spiti in Himachal Pradesh, Parang La is the pass that bridges the two valleys.

While it can be done from either end, it’s wiser to start from the Spiti side and cross the pass early on, after which you hit the Changthang plateau laid out like a boundless desert. The vast plateau has occasional pockets of wildflowers that pop up in a surprising riot of colours in the monochromatic canvas, and herds of kiang or the Tibetan wild ass galloping through hundreds of miles of their long and wide playground.

Need to know

Getting to the trailhead itself is a long journey (a minimum of three days from New Delhi) by road, and a couple of days are recommended for acclimatisation in Tabo or Kaza once you reach the high-altitude Spiti valley. It’s best to do this if you have additional time so you can turn it into a Spiti exploration trip as well; a couple of days in Leh are also great once you finish (or more, to explore Ladakh better), and the added bonus is that you can fly back from Leh to New Delhi.