Zanskar Valley Travel Guide: The Indus Confluence and the Chadar Trek

The Zanskar Valley lies beyond the Indus-Zanskar confluence, one of the more remote extensions of a Ladakh trip. In deep winter it is also the setting for the frozen-river Chadar trek, which draws hardy travellers when the rest of Ladakh is cut off by snow.

• The Indus-Zanskar confluence
• The Zanskar river and its valley
• The frozen-river Chadar trek, in deep winter

Zanskar is a longer add-on rather than a quick stop; give it several extra days beyond the classic Leh-Nubra-Pangong week if travelling in summer.

May to September for the valley itself, when roads are open. The Chadar trek runs the opposite way, in the depths of winter, from November to March, when the rest of Ladakh is bitterly cold and mostly cut off by snow.

Zanskar is reached by road from Leh, a longer and more remote drive than the main Nubra-Pangong loop, so it suits travellers who are already acclimatised and have extra days built in.