Roopkund Trek

The trek to Roopkund, one of the Himalaya's most storied high-altitude destinations, begins at Lohajung, a small pass-top settlement in Chamoli district that serves as the traditional gateway to this entire Ali Bedni Bugyal and Roopkund trail system. From here, the route drops rather than climbs on its first day, descending through terraced barley and potato fields toward Didna, a village clinging to a sunlit slope above the Nandakini valley, its stone houses arranged in tiers that mirror the surrounding terrain. This gentle, downhill opening gives the group an easy introduction to the trek's rhythm while also serving a practical purpose, since the trail must first cross the Nandakini's tributary drainage before beginning the long climb toward the high bugyals that define the days ahead. Didna's setting is quietly beautiful, ringed by forested ridges and offering the first real look back toward Lohajung's own perch on the pass, and village life here continues much as it has for generations, with sheep and cattle grazing the terraces and children often trailing curiously alongside passing trek groups. Local legend around Roopkund runs deep in villages like this one, and guides, many from families with generations of experience leading trekkers and mountaineers into these mountains, often begin sharing the mystery of the lake's skeletal remains even on this first easy day, setting a tone of genuine intrigue that will deepen considerably as the trek gains altitude. Camping on the edge of the village, with terraced fields catching the day's last light, offers a relaxed, low-altitude start before the trek's more demanding stretches begin the following morning.

Today's climb is long and steady, gaining over three thousand feet as the trail leaves Didna's terraces behind and enters a thick forest of oak and rhododendron that shelters the route for much of the morning. The gradient is sustained rather than gentle, and the switchbacks, while never technically difficult, demand a consistent effort that makes this one of the more physically testing days of the entire trek, particularly given the altitude already being gained. Streams cross the trail at several points, offering welcome pauses to refill water and rest legs, and as the forest cover thins in the day's later stages, the first hints of the open meadow ahead begin to appear through gaps in the canopy. Breaking finally out of the trees onto Ali Bugyal delivers one of the trek's most celebrated moments, a vast, rolling grassland unfurling across the ridge with views opening simultaneously toward Trishul, Nanda Ghunti, and a long arc of lesser Garhwal peaks, the sheer scale of open sky after hours of forest feeling almost disorienting. Ali Bugyal's grass, kept short by generations of grazing sheep and cattle, has an almost manicured quality despite being entirely natural, and the meadow's gentle undulations make for easy, joyful walking after the morning's steep forest slog. Camp is pitched on a flat shelf with unobstructed views in every direction, and the evening is typically spent simply absorbing the scale of the meadow and the mountains beyond it, a fitting reward for what has been, to this point, the trek's hardest single day.