Trekkingday 1: Meru -> Base Camp – quick mountainhappiness

27. June 2026

 

 

Between the Indus and Markha Valley lies a mountain range, which also includes several 6,000-meter peaks. A popular trek was always the Markha Trek, where you basically loop around this mountain massif including two passes. Since the road construction, this trek is not as attractive anymore. However, there should be paths in between, and I wanted to explore those. This gives you several combination options for a trek in this area. The plan was like this:

 

 

 

That means going from Meru to Rumbak in 6 days with 5 passes. It was nicely marked in Mapy, and I had also found some video material about it. However, the plan didn’t work out, and the tour turned out differently. This became clear right on day 1. But first things first!

 

Tandar, whom I have known for years, got me a horseman and drove me in the morning with my luggage to the starting point in Meru. This is a village not far from Upshi, where you branch off onto the Leh-Manali Highway.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, it was quite cloudy. In Meru we branched off, and soon after leaving the village, the horses were already standing there – and 2 horsemen! One spoke a bit of English and was supposed to leave after a few days (his sister had died and there were funeral rituals), the other one knew zero English.

 

 

Before we started, however, one horse had to be reshod first, and Tandar did that. He used to work as a horseman himself and is still an absolute horse expert.

 

 

 

Here are my two companions: Sidhar is Tibetan and a neighbor of Tandar, Chamba is Ladakhi and from a nomad family at Lake Tsomoriri. Both knew each other, smiled a lot, and also chatted well with each other. I could really feel comfortable with them.

 

 

While they took care of the horses and the loading, I already started heading up the valley.

 

 

And it was already interesting: until now, Ladakh had felt way too crowded and bustling to me – and barely had I taken a few steps into the landscape, the mountain solitude that I love so much was right there. Yet I was really just a short distance away from the road. But right away, I was in the middle of this great nature and felt happy.

 

 

 

 

The weather was mixed, but that also made for great light and shadow situations. So I kept trudging steadily uphill, and soon the horses arrived and overtook me. We had an agreement that the horsemen would check on me every now and then – and that was actually much more necessary than expected. Although there was a marked trail, we didn’t always follow it. And very few people walk this section, so sometimes there was no easy, clear route finding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So viel schöne Landschaft! Es war zwar auch viel blauer Himmel, aber gerade während meiner Mittagspause kamen einige Regentropfen runter und ich packte schneller wieder zusammen als geplant.

 

 

It kept going further and further up, and at one point, we branched off from the marked trail into a side valley. There was also a shepherd’s camp here, but nobody was around, and it didn’t look like anyone would be settling back in there anytime soon.

 

 

 

Above that was a beautifully located campsite. And so I slept the first night at 4,300 m instead of the planned 4,060 m.

 

 

The trekking setup was like this: I had a tent with 2 thick mats (the office people packed them for me, saying I needed to lie extra soft and warm). Actually, I wanted to set up the tent by myself, but it was a larger model than what I was used to and therefore not that easy to handle alone. Rolling it up was also always done by a horseman; my small, delicate hands just can’t squeeze it together that well.

 

Then I had bought vegetables, rice, etc., and requested that dinner be cooked for me. And an afternoon tea. In the mornings I had muesli and only needed some hot water, and I had taken care of the packed lunch myself. So meals were always eaten in the horsemen’s tent.

 

 

My tent was the usual tourist luxury, but the rest was rather simple, and I like it so much better that way. That way, there isn’t so much distance between me and ‘the staff’. Though they often hesitated to really eat together with me, I managed to convince them that this is absolutely common in Germany, and so some distance was reduced here as well. But nevertheless, I am still a Westerner who needs certain comforts. And I could never master those terrible kerosene stoves and pressure cookers. But I think it works out quite well for both sides with closeness and distance. Only the fact that I just don’t like drinking huge amounts of salted tea caused some confusion, and it was constantly offered to me again and again. The two of them didn’t really drink anything during the day but then drank massive amounts in camp, while I carried 2 liters of water with me every day and finished it.

 

I took a short walk further up the valley, enjoyed the little flowers and nature, and got used to having no phone reception anymore but lots of silence instead.

 

 

 

I was happy to finally have the trekking life back again, which was one of the reasons why I came here!