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In field! Follow the Himalayan adventure on the Yak Yak Board.

Amid the breathtaking mountains of North India’s Zanskar, Ladakh and Great Himalaya ranges, students on this physically engaging program will enjoy unparalleled scenery and exceptional immersion.  Our Himalayan Adventure offers strong, well-conditioned students a remarkable opportunity to explore remote, rugged valleys and high passes amidst the most phenomenal mountain ranges in the world.  Adding to the remarkable setting for the program is a cultural backdrop of the Ladakhis and the Tibetans—nomads, herders, farmers, and hardened religious followers.   

Staging the program out of Leh, the capital of Ladakh, we offer students immediate and intimate engagement in a town that is a crucible of NGOs.  Collaborating with a number of internationally supported aid and development groups such as the Tibetan Nuns Project and the International Society for Ecology, we actively contribute to constructive development while also critiquing the work of the NGO community.  Furthering our focus on environmental and naturalist studies, we visit with experts who run snow leopard conservancy projects and sustainability projects that promote cultural integration of renewable energy development, innovative land-use, and the use of traditional medicinal plants.  We visit the prominent monasteries of Hemis and Thikse, and have the chance to explore in greater depth the cultural heritage and religious traditions of the local population by living with families in a selection of nearby mountain communities.

When eager to head into the deep mountains—and once safely acclimatized to our average 12,000-foot elevation—we journey onwards and upwards into the surrounding Zanskar region.  Here, jagged peaks and windswept drainages compose a raw, arid landscape that cradles small and seldom visited communities that are seldom seen by outsiders.  Alongside thunderous rivers and in the shadow of the earth’s highest mountains, these villages run as they have for centuries, sustained by limited farming, yak and sheep husbandry, trade, and the patronage of monasteries.  With many of these villages cut off from the rest of the world by high passes and nine months of heavy snow fall, few of the world’s inhabited places are so isolated.  And due to their isolation, the valley systems of the region have provided a cultural barrier of sorts, ensuring that traditional culture and Buddhist heritage have been well preserved. 

During our time in the mountains, we begin to shift our focus from the region’s social and historical landscape to expedition planning, high-altitude travel, and minimum-impact camping.  For a minimum of three weeks, we experience first-hand the ecology of the Himalayas—on trail through the remote backcountry with a pony caravan of 20 or more.  Trekking through the cloud-stripped mountains, we encounter monasteries draped in ghostly prayer flags, snowbound passes, and welcoming shepherds who lead their flocks to feed in the lush alpine valleys.  Up here, we enjoy only the sounds of sheep, hawks and the wind, and we sleep beneath night skies that are milky with stars.          

Gradually, we weave our way down to the lower climes to the south, ending our trek amidst the pine forests near Manali in Himachal Pradesh.  Here, we enjoy the comforts of our local guesthouse—resting, relaxing, and cleaning up after our extended sojourn in the mountains.  After visiting a number of historic sites in the area, we pack up for the last week of the program and head towards Dharamsala, where we spend a few days exploring the seat of the Tibetan government in exile.  Providing a colorful end to the program, we meet for private audiences with high religious figures and translate our natural ecology and environmental impact focus into a study of human ecology and the effects of tourism on culture.  For the final days of the program we return to Delhi, where we have the option to visit India’s largest mosque, Jami Masjid, one of the largest and most colorful bazaars in the world, Chadni Chowk, or if time allows, Agra’s magnificent Taj Mahal.