Give yourself a break. Embrace complete isolation. Walk the seldom-trod paths, and for twelve days, live what's alive. I've led people into many remote corners of Kumaon, but the Johar Valley is a different kind of remote. This is where the old Bhotia traders once walked their goods over the Himalaya into Tibet, before the 1962 border closure shut the route down and left entire villages half-emptied. Jauhar isn't a single peak or a single pass — it's three of the valley's big

Let's witness a side of Kumaon almost nobody treks through I've walked a fair number of trails through Kumaon over the years — rhododendron forests, high meadows, glacier viewpoints crowded with photographers waiting for the light. Balchhi Dhurra isn't any of that. This is the trek you take when you want to give yourself a real break — from work, from noise, from other trekkers too. Embrace complete isolation, walk the paths seldom walked upon, and for seven days, live what's