Three off-beat treks in Sikkim beneath Kangchenjunga: a gentle rhododendron-and-lake circuit, the Goecha La classic with a tarn almost nobody visits, and the restricted-zone Green Lake expedition.
Moderate · 4 days · ₹18,500 per person · from NJP / Pelling
The gentle water-and-forest trek — a revered lake, powerful waterfalls, orange-garden river valleys and a blaze of spring rhododendron.
Waypoints: NJP / Pelling → Khecheopalri village → Hilley → Barsey / Varsey hut → Phoktey Dara ridge → Okhrey / Dentam → Rimbi valley → Pelling
A sacred 'wish-fulfilling' lake ringed by prayer flags, where birds are said to lift every fallen leaf from the mirror surface.
Powerful multi-tier cascades in the Pelling–Rimbi valley, thunderous after the melt.
A gentle river valley of citrus terraces and pools on the descent.
Hidden gem: Phoktey Dara ridge (3,100 m) — A ridge-top viewpoint inside Barsey Rhododendron Sanctuary on the Singalila fringe, two hours beyond the Barsey hut, with Kangchenjunga across the valley.
Skills you'll learn: Altitude self-monitoring, cold-camp craft, stream crossings and reading glaciers and high lakes — Level 2 of the Skills Passport.
Difficult · 9 days · ₹41,700 per person · from NJP / Pelling
West Sikkim's flagship high trek — a glacial river, a sacred alpine lake and a face-to-face view of the world's third-highest peak.
Waypoints: NJP / Pelling → Yuksom → Sachen → Tshoka → Dzongri → Laxmi Pokhari → Thansing → Samiti Lake → Goecha La View Point 1 → Kokchurang → Yuksom
The glacial river you follow and cross from Yuksom up the valley — its roar is the trek's constant companion.
A sacred emerald glacial lake, mirror-still at dawn, reflecting the fluted ice of Mount Pandim — the trek's soul.
Braided snowmelt channels thread the high meadows of Thansing and Lamuney.
Hidden gem: Laxmi Pokhari (above Dzongri) — A small sacred tarn two hours above the Dzongri meadow, used as the acclimatisation walk on day 5; most Goecha La groups never see it.
Skills you'll learn: Altitude self-monitoring, cold-camp craft, stream crossings and reading glaciers and high lakes — Level 2 of the Skills Passport.
Expedition · 10 days · ₹68,100 per person · from Gangtok / Lachen
The wildest of them all — a remote, permit-heavy expedition up a glacial river to a fabled lake beneath the world's third-highest peak.
Waypoints: Gangtok / Lachen → Lachen → Talem → Jakthang → Yabuk → Rabuk → Green Lake → Yabuk → Lachen
The glacial river born of the Zemu Glacier, followed the entire way into the wilderness — braided, milky and roaring.
A fabled high meadow-and-tarn at the glacier snout — one of the Himalaya's most remote and revered water places.
One of the largest glaciers in the eastern Himalaya, tumbling from Kanchenjunga's north-east flank.
Hidden gem: Green Lake (4,900 m) & the Zemu Glacier — The base camp of the 1930s Kangchenjunga expeditions, inside the Kangchenjunga National Park's restricted zone; an expedition permit and a liaison officer keep it to a few parties a year.
Skills you'll learn: Altitude self-monitoring, cold-camp craft, stream crossings and reading glaciers and high lakes — Level 2 of the Skills Passport.
Choose your adventure across North and West Sikkim — from a moderate forest and lake circuit to a full glacial expedition beneath the world's third-highest peak.
Every route in this collection follows glacial rivers upward to sacred high-altitude lakes — these are trails that end not at the sea, but at the roof of the world, beneath the eternal snows of Kanchenjunga.
Finish the Sikkim circuit with the skills to return to the high country on your own terms.
North & West Sikkim — Himalayan rivers to sacred glacial lakes