About the KHC

The Kashmir Himalayan Circuit (KHC) offers an opportunity to re-establish Kashmir on the trekking map in the position it held until the outbreak of political instability in 1989. Compared to Nepal, Kashmir attracts only a handful of trekkers each year – mostly domestic adventurers heading to the popular Lidder Valley and Great Lake treks. Currently the travel advisories preclude most international trekkers from England, Europe, America and Australia from visiting Kashmir.

KHC is comparable to Nepal’s Great Himalaya Trek (GHT). However, the KHC can be completed in a month to five weeks. Sections of the trek can be completed in five days to ten days which will appeal to both domestic and foreign tourists.  

The KHC will take the pressure off the more overcrowded trails in Kashmir. It will set the benchmark for environmental and eco-friendly adventures. It also offers  a timely opportunity to revisit the raft of regulations currently in place for trekking in Kashmir

The KHC will incorporate snapshots of Kashmir’s rich cultural history including:

• Pir Panjal pass crossed by the Moghul Emperor Akbar in May 1589

• Banihal Pass was crossed by pilgrims, traders & armies over the centuries

• Migration routes of the Bakharval on route to their summer pastures 

• The Wadvan valley that the Dogra army led by General Zorawar Singh followed en route to invading Ladakh in 1834

• The ancient pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave revered by thousands of Hindu devotees

• The flanks of Harimukh – where the Gt Himalayan Survey first viewed the Karakoram and identified K2 in September 1856

• Mohand Marg – the serene campsite favoured by Aurel Stein when translating the Rajatarangini between 1895 and 1900

• Erstwhile watch towers that were used to keep an eye on invaders