Walk to the Tajiwas Glacier

Sonamarg is located around the main road, but a short distance away are beautiful meadows with horses and views of almost five thousand mountains, which feed the Tajiwas Glacier.

The surroundings of Sonamarg are such a small paradise for horses. In fact, you don't even have to have a big tourist destination here. Even wandering around is worth it.

The local pastoralists still live in extremely simple dwellings. But beware, things are changing fast around Sonamamar. There are camps being built for excursionists from India and local meadows and the original buildings are getting a tailcoat.

The glacier lies in a side valley, but the path from Sonamango to it is easy to navigate. Just head south up through the meadows, below the level of the forest, and in a moment you are on the official road to the glacier.

If I arrive in the afternoon, then you will probably be dismayed by the crowds of Indian hunters touching the snow for the first time in their lives. However, few people want to walk the few hundred meters, so there are herds of horses.

So it's better to turn around and leave early in the morning when there's no foot. The only enemy may be the highly variable Kashmiri weather.

The truth of the glacier is not much left, it is mostly snow fields

It definitely wants better shoes than tennis players for this trip, but we really liked the more meadows around than this snowy valley.

The main attraction for locals, sledding. Well, because stones stick out of the snow everywhere, not a completely safe sport

In better weather, the views from here would not be so bad.

Where you go depends only on you, but there is no jumper. The valley ends with steep walls that still exceed you by 1–2km

There are more accommodation options in Sonamarg, but don't count on any luxury