The trek starts from Manali, which is a very popular tourist destination and hence extremely accessible. If you need guidance on how to get to this high-altitude backpacking center, this article (How to Reach Manali: All You Need to Know) might come handy.

Day one is reserved for the participants to make their way into Manali and get settled into their accommodation in a Manali hotel. First half of the day is to get comfortable with the mountain air and each other. While the body acclimatizes, we take this time to get together with the group and delve into the happenings of the next few days - schedule, what to expect, basic do's and don'ts in the mountains, how to maintain the sanctity of the environment and such matters of importance. Since we are a learning-based organisation, we take some time on the first day to talk a little about how best to pack your backpacks in order for a successful climb. This is accompanied by a demo of the same which then follows getting all the equipment required, in place. It is a relatively easy day but very very essential for what's to come next!

Duration: 1 hour drive + 3 hour trek

Post breakfast we will drive to Jagatsukh which is our trail head for the climb. We should get to this village close to Manali within an hour from when we begin. We start our trek towards the meadows of Chikka from here, which should take close to 3 hours. It is not a heavy day and is perfect to get acclimatized to this new height that you arrived to just a day before. The trail is very pleasant and refreshing too. It ascends gradually through thick pine forests along narrow valley. The campsite is on the open pastoral land of Chikka, next to the noisy Jagatsukh Nala.

Duration: 5 hour trek

We leave after an early breakfast today, latest by 9 AM. We continue alongside the Jagatsukh Nala. The day’s trek starts with a gradual ascent under the canopy of a thick forested land for the first one hour. After an hour, the forests start to thin out to give way to Birch trees and finally some bushes and high altitude grasslands. You will be welcomed into the grasslands carpeted with the brightest wildflowers you will see! With a few patches of old snow and a few patches of boulders, the ascent up from 3,175M to 3,700M is gradual. The trail gets tougher and the views get better. Walking alongside the Nala, we pass a freshwater spring at Panduropa and Dudu Patthar until we reach the expansive grasslands at Seri with the Tainta cliffs towering to the left and the waterfalls crashing on the rocks below. We cross the zigzagging river to get to our campsite for the day. We camp on the flatlands for the night with a massive waterfall right opposite the campsite. This beautiful campsite doubles up as our base camp for this expedition.

We go for an acclimatization walk in the early evening.

Duration: 6 hours

Expeditions usually employ the method of making rotational rounds for better acclimatization. This means that we climb to the next campsite and come back down to spend the night. The next day we go up again, this time to occupy the next campsite, thereby living the golden tenet in climbing - ‘climb high, sleep low’. We undertake load ferry from Base Camp to Summit camp on Day 4 to finally go and occupy Summit Camp on Day 5.

Like all expeditions, we start our summit attempt in the dark of the night when the snow is most stable. The summit attempt involves a fair bit of altitude gain. Expect the day to be 8-9 hours long which involves starting from the summit camp to get to the top of the mountain and trace your way back to the base camp. The climb involves navigating moraine fields which eventually gives way to glaciers. The climb and the summit provide for some magnificent views of the peaks around. We will spend tonight at base camp before we head back down to Manali.

On day 7, we head back down from our base camp at Seri to trek to Chikka and drive back to Manali. Expect to reach by early evening. We would recommend you account for a buffer day or two to book your travel back since the weather in Himalayas tends to be unpredictable.

In case of bad weather or other difficulties, Day 8 is reserved for a second summit attempt. This will only get used if unexpected and unforeseeable conditions present themselves at the last minute preventing the first summit push.