Chadar Trek – a week-long walkthrough over a thick veneer of snow and ice covering the Zanskar River in Ladakh – is one of the most celebrated Himalayan trekking experiences. And for good reason! After all, this over 1,000-year-old trail offers an unparalleled adventure to the extreme. The adrenaline rush and the excitement aside, fitness and preparedness play an important role in successfully completing the Chadar Trek. Walking at an altitude of 3,500 metres, in the thick of winter, braving the bone-chilling cold, a paucity of oxygen and navigating the jigsaw of continually shifting ice patterns isn’t something you can just get up and do one day. Your body and mind must be attuned to the challenge to be able to fully live up the experience.
Raju Kumar, a 42-year-old Chartered Accountant in Gurgaon, who did the Chadar Trek with AntHill Adventures in 2019, shares how his fitness journey enabled him for the experience and how the trek helped him push the boundaries of his fitness goals…
The Confidence to Embark on Chadar Trek
The Chadar Trek is a unique experience in every sense. The weather conditions, the raw beauty of the landscape, the mental and physical pressures of getting by one day after the other – everything about this trek is all-consuming. My fitness journey played a huge role in giving me the confidence to embark on this trek in the first place.
It was in 2017 that I started training with Boot Camp Yellow, and long runs and extensive strength training became a part of my every day. In a span of two years, I went from being a heavy 100-plus kilos person to a fitter, stronger version of myself. By the time the idea of Chadar Trek was floated among our small-knit community of fitness enthusiasts, I had already completely about 12 half-marathons and a few 15-km runs. This gave me the confidence to sign on for the trek being led by Anthill Adventures.
My fitness journey played a huge role in giving me the confidence to embark on Chadar Trek.
Preparing for the Trek
Quite honestly, nothing you do can really prepare you for what awaits you on Chadar Trek because it is impossible to recreate that kind of setting in our urban environs. That said, I, along with fellow group members, started tweaking our regular fitness regime with this trek in mind two months ahead of our scheduled departure.
During this time, our focus was on small trail walks with weights and backpacks to get accustomed to walking at high altitudes. Besides this, breathing exercises and extensive weight training was incorporated into our training regimes.
Chadar is more a test of one’s mental strength than physical abilities.
Fitness and Chadar Trek
I had been a runner and an athlete for over two years at the time I did the Chadar Trek, but as I said before, nothing quite really prepares you for that pushing of your abilities till you get there. I carried my own backpack throughout the course of the trek and walked with a single-minded focus to make it to the end.
Looking back, I feel Chadar is more a test of one’s mental strength than physical abilities. Getting used to the experience of walking on ice, bracing yourself for detours wherever the chadar is broken, staying alert and focused every step of the way to avoid falls, and braving extremely cold temperatures – all of it pushes your mental fitness to the limits.
To be able to cope with that kind of pressure and not let the physical discomfort you are feeling take a toll on your mind is the real magic. It brings you an inimitable sense of exaltation, the taste of which lingers on forever.
It was because of Chadar Trek that I decided to participate in the Ironman Half-Triathlon held in Goa in Oct 2019.
Pushing the Boundaries beyond Chadar
Completing this trek brought me the realisation that the human body is capable of anything. It can withstand unimaginable extremes, with the right preparation, of course. This experience also worked wonders for my mental toughness and stirred in me a desire to keep moving the needle in my fitness journey.
It was because of Chadar Trek that I decided to participate in the Ironman Half-Triathlon held in Goa in Oct 2019, which I successfully completed.
I’d also like to give a shout out to Aman and Vivasvath and the entire crew they had put together for this trek for making this extremely challenging adventure a fun, memorable experience for each one of us.