Stories from the road & the ridge
Field notes, route guides and hard-won advice — written by people who have actually walked it, edited by our team in the mountains they cover.
Latest stories
9 stories
The 9 kg packing list for a six-day Himalayan trek
Everything you need, nothing you don't, and the four items people carry every single time that they never once use.
The backwaters beyond Alleppey, where the houseboats don't go
Kuttanad, Munroe Island and the canals too narrow for a 40-foot boat. Kerala's water country is still quiet — you just have to change vessel.
Altitude sickness: what actually works, and what is folklore
Garlic soup, camphor, Diamox and the one rule that matters more than all of them put together.
Spiti in winter is a different country
Minus thirty, one open road, and the best chance in the world of seeing a snow leopard. What a February in the cold desert actually asks of you.
You are probably wearing the wrong trekking shoe
Ankle support is oversold, waterproofing is situational, and the single biggest fit mistake happens in a shop with your foot at the wrong temperature.
Twelve monsoon treks in the Sahyadris you can do on a weekend
Fort ruins, waterfalls falling upward and visibility of about nine metres. The Western Ghats between June and September are the best cheap adventure in the country.
Meghalaya's living root bridges are not a viewpoint. They're infrastructure.
In the villages below Cherrapunji, bridges are grown, not built — over fifteen to twenty years, by people who will not be the ones to cross them.
How to tell a good trekking agency from a dangerous one
Eight questions that separate operators who run safe expeditions from the ones selling you a cheap seat and hoping the weather holds.
The Kashmir Great Lakes trek, honestly: what nobody tells first-timers
Seven lakes, six days and roughly four river crossings that will soak you to the knee. A realistic look at India's most photographed trek — and whether it deserves the hype.
The ones we keep sending people
Pieces our team links to most often when travellers write in with questions.
01The 9 kg packing list for a six-day Himalayan trek
02The backwaters beyond Alleppey, where the houseboats don't go
03Altitude sickness: what actually works, and what is folklore
04Spiti in winter is a different country
New routes, open seasons and the odd honest warning
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