Har Ki Dun Valley trek is a trek in Garhwal Himalayas that doesn't need too much introduction now. Almost everyone who has done just 1 or 2 treks anywhere in the Indian Himalayas would've heard about the Har Ki Dun trek. Trekkers have been doing Har Ki Dun trek and they have been enjoying its experience for at least last 50 years. Har Ki Dun valley has seen thousands of trekkers and mountaineers walking on its beautiful trails each year. Still, it remains a popular choice among all the trekkers for a moderate level of trek in the Himalayas. This speaks a lot about the experience Har Ki Dun trek offers to all the trekkers in terms of the grand views of Himalayas peaks, the flora & fauna, the local culture of its villages and the people and just the sheer beauty of nature lying everywhere.
Har Ki Dun valley with a cloudy sky
View of Kalanag and Bandarpunch peaks from Har Ki Dun trail
It is a well known fact that there are many trek organizers available who are happy to organize any trek for you and specially a popular trek like Har Ki Dun. Moreover, Himalayan High is also a reputed and well recognized trek organizing company. We too have well planned and highly rated itineraries to organize Har Ki Dun trek for anyone. In fact, if you are looking to participate in a fully organized trek to Har Ki Dun by Himalayan High, you can check our well-crafted itineraries for Har Ki Dun Trek and Har Ki Dun with Ruinsara Valley Trek.
So why are we telling trekkers how to self-organize treks, how to do multi-day Himalayan treks in the DIY style? For two simple reasons; first is for our pure love for the mountains and for the sport of trekking and second, because organizing Himalayan treks yourself may bring out the best leadership and management skills in you and it eventually helps in growing our trekking community.
Going for an organized trekking trip with a professional organizer can be a very relaxed, comfortable and enjoyable experience. There is absolutely nothing wrong with it. But trying to organize a trek for yourself and your group of friends or family just adds that extra challenge and the element of unknown which the Himalayas most certainly stand for. Till around 20 years ago, there were hardly any professional trek organizers available on the scene. Trekking was known to be an activity that was supposed to be organized by the trekkers themselves. People only had contacts of experienced local guides and some other resources. Dates and the trekking itinerary were communicated mostly by letters sent through postal service and all other supplies were brought in by the trekking teams. So this was the most raw and unsupported form of the sport of trekking.
Now things have changed for good. Technology has made things simpler and even organizing your own trek is not so complex. So this must be practiced by us sometimes to keep the raw adventure alive and to hone our own leadership and management skills by overcoming challenges thrown at us by the mighty Himalayas themselves!
Although enough details are available on Har Ki Dun Trek everywhere on the Internet already. There are Har Ki Dun Trek itineraries organized by Himalayan High too which maybe referred to for much more detailed and insightful information on day by day schedule, campsites and other natural resources available in the valley. We will still discuss a few basic details about the Har Ki Dun trek itinerary here because it will form a basis for us to make a comprehensive plan to do Har Ki Dun trek in the self-organized manner.
- Starts From: Sankri village (Uttarkashi district, Garhwal, Uttarakhand)
- Ends At: Sankri village
- Duration: 4-7 days (Sankri to Sankri), 6-9 days (Dehradun to Dehradun)
- Difficulty Level: Moderate
- Best Season: March - June, Mid-September - Mid-December
- Highest Altitude: 3600 meters
- Trek Type: Valley with same entry & exit point. Camping by the river or over small plateau in the valley.
In a 4 days trek from Sankri to Sankri, Har Ki Dun valley with an excursion to Maninda Tal or Jaundhar glacier view point can be managed. But this itinerary is a little hardcore version of this trek and recommended to regular trekkers. The same places can be visited in a little more relaxed manner in 5 days too. There is another alternate itinerary which takes 7 days from Sankri to Sankri and covers the adjacent Ruinsara valley and Ruinsara Tal too along with the whole Har Ki Dun valley. This is a highly recommended itinerary by Himalayan High to all the trekkers and you can read more about Why Shouldn't You Miss Ruinsara Tal With Har Ki Dun Trek.
So, overall we propose 3 different itineraries to complete the Har Ki Dun Trek. You can choose any one of these as per your convenience and availability of time.
There can be several different versions of Har Ki Dun trek itinerary. Take a look below at different possibilities then proceed to plan your trek accordingly.
4 days from Sankri to Sankri and 6 days from Dehradun to Dehradun. We highly recommend this itinerary but this is a slightly hardcore version of this trek so we recommend this only to either regular trekkers or people with some above-average fitness level.
- Day 1: Drive from Dehradun to Sankri. Arrival in Sankri
- Day 2: Drive Sankri to Taluka, Trek from Taluka to Chillur Gad, camp at Chillur Gad
- Day 3: Trek from Chillur Gad to Kalkati Dhar via Seema, camp at Kalkati Dhar
- Day 4: Trek from Kalkati Dhar to visit Har Ki Dun valley with a quick excursion to Maninda Tal and trek back to Halche to camp and stay there.
- Day 5: Trek from Halche to Taluka via Osla and Gangad, drive Taluka to Sankri
- Day 6: Travel from Sankri to return to Dehradun and the journey beyond.
5 days from Sankri to Sankri and 7 days from Dehradun to Dehradun. This is a more relaxed and easy itinerary with 1 extra day for the same trek. This is recommended to beginner trekkers or group of families etc.
- Day 1: Drive from Dehradun to Sankri. Arrival in Sankri
- Day 2: Drive Sankri to Taluka, Trek from Taluka to Chillur Gad, camp at Chillur Gad
- Day 3: Trek from Chillur Gad to Kalkati Dhar via Seema, camp at Kalkati Dhar
- Day 4: Trek from Kalkati Dhar to visit Har Ki Dun valley with excursion to Maninda Tal and a quick excursion to view Jaundhar glacier. Trek back to Kalkati Dhar camp and stay there.
- Day 5: Trek from Kalkati Dhar to Chillur Gad via Osla, camp at Chillur Gad
- Day 6: Trek from Chillur Gad to Taluka, drive Taluka to Sankri
- Day 7: Travel from Sankri to return to Dehradun and the journey beyond.
7 days from Sankri to Sankri and 9 days from Dehradun to Dehradun. Highly recommended by Himalayan High to all trekkers.
- Day 1: Drive from Dehradun to Sankri. Arrival in Sankri
- Day 2: Drive Sankri to Taluka, Trek from Taluka to Chillur Gad, camp at Chillur Gad.
- Day 3: Trek from Chillur Gad to Kalkati Dhar via Seema, camp at Kalkati Dhar
- Day 4: Trek from Kalkati Dhar to Har Ki Dun valley with excursion to Maninda Tal and Jaundhar glacier viewpoint and return to camp at Boslo
- Day 5: Trek from Boslo to Ruinsara valley and camp at Rain Basera.
- Day 6: Trek from Rain Basera to Ruinsara Lake and camp at the lake.
- Day 7: Trek from Ruinsara Lake to Chillur Gad via Devsu Bugyal and camp at Chillur Gad
- Day 8: Trek from Chillur Gad to Taluka, drive Taluka to Sankri
- Day 9: Travel from Sankri to return to Dehradun and the journey beyond.
Planning and self-organizing a multi-day trek in a remote disconnected Himalayan region involving many aspects of logistics, human resources,coordination, supplies, equipment, safety, risk management and contingency planning etc may seem like a very complex multi-layered problem to encounter. But the key to self organizing such a trek successfully is breaking down the whole problem in smaller parts and then work to solve them one by one to complete the whole picture. Himalayan High can of course help you at every step of this process.
So here's how we break it down into different parts.
- Travel and transfer from Dehradun to base village Sankri
- Accommodation in Sankri before and after the trek
- Local trek guide and other local human resources
- Essential personal gear for every trekker
- Camping equipment and food supplies
- Weight management and load ferry of everything
- Miscellaneous requirements
Now, let's discuss all these points in more detail.
Nearest Airport: Jolly Grant airport, Dehradun
Nearest Railway Station: Dehradun Railway Station
We assume that you will take care of your journey from your own city to Dehradun first. Dehradun is well connected to all major cities in the country by rail, flight and road routes. With this, you also need to plan your night stay in Dehradun city before you start your travel from Dehradun to Sankri early morning.
For the journey from Dehradun to Sankri, there are options of both public and private transport. For public transport, there are 3 direct buses from Dehradun to Sankri leaving everyday early in the morning from 5 am to 8 am. All these buses leave from a bus stand right outside the Dehradun railway station. You can just show up there for any bus around 30 mins prior to departure time and get yourself a ticket to Sankri village.
For the private transport option, there are many taxi service providers. You can easily book a taxi from Dehradun to Sankri for your team. Taking any method of transport, Dehradun to Sankri is a 9 hours journey on an average with 1-2 small breaks.
Please read more about this here - How to reach Sankri in Uttarakhand, India.
After reaching Sankri, the base village for Har Ki Dun trek, the next part of the process is staying at a good accommodation in Sankri. There are several local homestays, lodges and few hotels available in Sankri but it is a small place with limited number of accommodations available. Many times, almost all hotels and homestays get full during the busy trekking season. So its always good to pre-book the accommodation for you and your team. Booking in advance gives you a guaranteed availability of accommodation when you arrive. There are not many places in Sankri which accept online bookings from trekkers. But we have our own Himalayan High Trekkers' Lodge in the middle of the village and it can be booked online in advance. It is a cosy, comfortable local homestay serving local cuisine and it has great views of the surrounding mountains, the village and also of the Swargarohini peaks.
View of Himalayan High Trekkers Lodge and its rooms in Sankri
For booking our Trekkers' Lodge in Sankri village, you may visit Himalayan Eco Homes too. Please do note that Sankri doesn't have any bank or ATM facility so you need to bring all the cash for your requirement in advance. It is also good to limit your cash expenditure there so its very convenient to book your accommodation online.
This whole area of Sankri village and Har Ki Dun valley falls under the Govind Pashu Vihar National Park. It is a reserved national park area managed by the Forest Department of the Government of Uttarakhand. To go on any trek in Govind Pashu Vihar, you need a written permission letter from the Forest Department and they issue a permission only if you are going with a local registered guide. So it becomes mandatory to hire a local guide. Apart from showing you the way on the trek, a local experienced guide also becomes your primary source of all the information on local customs, culture, food, tales of the villages and the mountains around. In no time, your guide becomes your friend and he helps you with everything on the trek.
Hiring a local guide in advance before reaching Sankri is also very important and necessary. Good, experienced and trustworthy guides are few and most of them get hired in advance by trekking groups or trek organizers. So to keep your plans on track, you must hire a local guide in advance. Locals working for the trekking groups have a short window each year to get some income from this job, hence they also want to ensure that they get hired for maximum number of days. So online and advanced booking works well for everyone and it also reduces your cash expenditure there.
But hiring of a local trek guide in this remote area online in advance is not commonly available. To solve this problem for the whole trekking community, Himalayan High has an option of online hiring of trek guides too. Not just local trek guide, other local human resources like cook, porters, mules etc can also be hired online in advance. This option definitely gives predictability of all the arrangements for your self-organized trek and Himalayan High also ensures the quality of all the resources that are made available. You may visit and Hire Local Guide and Other Local Trek Resources In Sankri.
We are also giving a price chart for hiring of all local resources below for your reference:
Please note that below prices are inclusive of GST and a small Himalayan High service charge. Local resources will get their own sleeping bags and mattresses to sleep. You need to take care of their food and accommodation during the trek. If you are hiring a kitchen tent, they can mange to sleep in the same.
| Products |
Wages Per Day |
Security Amount |
| Cook On Treks |
1000.00 |
0.00 |
| Porter |
800.00 |
0.00 |
| Local Guide |
1000.00 |
0.00 |
| Technical Guide |
2000.00 |
0.00 |
| Mules |
700 |
0.00 |
When you go for a multi-day Himalayan trek like Har Ki Dun Trek, you need to walk in rough terrain for many days in changing weather conditions. So to make the trek safe and successful for the whole team, you need some good quality personal trek gear during the trek like a good pair of trek shoes, a down jacket, waterproof and windproof top layers, rucksack, gaiters, micro spikes for shoes for better grip on snow, headlamp etc. Below is a list of all the required items for almost any multi-day Himalayan trek. This includes both the personal clothing items and specific trekking gear for your reference.
Required Personal Trek Equipment
- Waterproof High Ankle Trekking Shoes
- Gaiters (only for more than 6 inches of fresh snow)
- Micro spikes or mini ice crampons (only for hard snow)
- Waterproof trek trousers
- Waterproof Jacket
- Down Jacket (for -10 to -15 degrees celsius )
- Trek Poles
- Waterproof outer gloves
- Fleece inner gloves
- Headlamp
- Neck warmer
- Skull Cap
- Sunglasses (Cat 3 or Cat 4 lens, anti UV, Polarized)
- 2 pairs of thermal inners
- 4 pairs of socks ( 2 cotton, 2 woolen )
- T-Shirts ( 2 - 3, full sleeves )
- Lightweight Trek Trousers or pants ( 2)
- Inner wear
Any average or beginner trekker would possibly not have all this gear on him and it may prove to be quite expensive to buy all the necessary equipment for just one trek. That's why it makes perfect sense to rent all the required equipment before your trek apart from personal clothing. You should always rent the necessary gear in advance to ensure the availability of trek equipment for you when you arrive in Sankri.
There are not many online equipment rental services available in this area. Himalayan High has an online equipment rental booking service which provides quality trekking gear with assurance to help you plan without any worry of equipment and local resources. You may visit this link to fulfill all your equipment renting needs - Rent All Trek Gears In Sankri
Using this service, you can book your equipment rentals for you and your group in advance through safe online payments. This will guarantee the availability of equipment to you in Sankri. All the equipment is top quality and in good condition.
Below is a price chart for renting all personal trek gear for your reference. (do note that there can be generous discounts on more items and more number of days.)
| Products |
Rent Per Day |
Security Per Item |
| Gaiters |
60.00 |
300.00 |
| Waterproof Gloves |
35.00 |
300.00 |
| Microspikes / Trekking Crampons |
85.00 |
800.00 |
| Rucksack 60L With Cover |
50.00 |
1000.00 |
| Fleece Inner Gloves |
15.00 |
100.00 |
| Balaclava / Neck warmer |
20.00 |
150.00 |
| Rain Ponchos |
35.00 |
300.00 |
| Headlamps |
40.00 |
300.00 |
| Trekking Pole |
35.00 |
300.00 |
High Ankle Waterproof Shoes
EU 36-1 |
200.00 |
2000.00 |
Down Jackets
L-1 |
200.00 |
2500.00 |
Windproof Waterproof Jacket
L-1 |
100.00 |
1000.00 |
Waterproof Windproof Trousers
L-1 |
100.00 |
1000.00 |
This is the most important and tricky part of planning and organizing your own trek but not a difficult one to take care of. All the equipment required for a good, comfortable and safe camping experience like sleeping tents, sleeping bags, mattresses, kitchen tent, dining tent, toilet tent etc can be rented online. Be a little careful with the dates when you are making an online booking for these things. So first part of the problem is solved.
Now the next thing is taking care of food. It is obviously very important to keep yourself well-fed and hydrated during your trek. A multi-day trek like Har Ki Dun Trek spanning at least 5 days can not be done with only ready to eat food like noodles or soup etc. However these food items are also good sometimes for a change of taste or when you need something to eat really quick. If the team size is only 2-3, you can still manage to do the whole trek with some light food like dal rice, upma supplemented by some read to eat food. You can carry these food items yourself. To cook these things in your camp, it is possible to hire a butane gas stove and camping utensils online. You can also supplement your food by some chocolates, energy bars, boiled eggs etc. During the trekking season, you also find just a few small shops selling tea, noodles etc but they don't provide full meals.
If you don't prefer to carry these food items and camping equipment yourself, you are suggested to hire porters to carry this stuff for you. Service of a porter can also be booked online in advance. One porter will carry a maximum load of 20 Kilos for you. The equipment and stuff to be carried by a porter should be properly packed in an easy to carry bag. It will be your responsibility to arrange the camping accommodation and food for any local resources you are hiring like guide and porters. Please note that these local people are not used to surviving on ready to eat food like maggi, soup etc and they've to do heavy work every day. So, they need basic but full meal in their diet like dal and rice. So you can either carry these food items separately for them and they will cook food for themselves or you can provide them some extra food allowance so they can manage it on their own.
If your group size is 4 or more, it is better to keep a little more elaborate arrangement for food. In this case, you should also hire a cook for your team. For cooking, you can rent a kerosene stove online and buy kerosene/diesel on the way. Keep the food menu basic and filling for all members of your team. You can buy all ration and vegetables either from Dehradun or in Sankri too. Up to 4 members, one cook will do all the work of cooking and cleaning but for a bigger group, the cook will need kitchen helpers with him for fetching water, washing vegetables, cutting, cleaning utensils, serving food, etc. From 5 to 8 members, one helper will be sufficient and for 9 to 15 members, two helpers will be needed with one cook. With this increasing group size, porters will not be able to carry all the food items and equipment for you. So it will be better to hire the service of mules to carry all the stuff for you. Mules can also be hired online in advance. You can calculate the number of required mules by considering that one mule will carry a maximum load of 40 Kilos.
Required Camping Gears:
Sleeping:
- 3 or 2 Person Tents ( 1 tent for up to 3 persons)
- Waterproof foam mattress ( 1 for each member )
- Sleeping Bags ( 1 for each member )
- Sleeping Bag Inners ( 1 for each member )
Kitchen and Dining ( Basic ):
- Kitchen Tent
- Stove and Utensil Kit for cooking and eating
- Fuel
- Ration ( Rice, Dal, Wheat, Cooking Oil, Eggs, Vegetables, spices etc )
Kitchen and Dining ( Luxury):
- Camping Table
- Camping Stools
- Dining Tent ( For 6 or more people )
With this, you must use Toilet Tent and pit Style Toilets in Camps. Dig a pit, pitch toilet tent over the pit, use it. Cover it with mud thereafter.
Cooking Plan for Small Team (up to 4 members):
- Alpine Stove ( can be rented from Himalayan High Rentals )
- Butane gas cylinders ( Can be bought in Sankri from Himalayan High )
- Ready to eat food which requires just boiling water.
- Camping utensils can be managed with just a big Steel Mug and a small bowl
Cooking Plan for bigger Team (up to 10-12 members):
- Kerosene stove ( can be rented from Himalayan High Rentals )
- Kerosene/Diesel ( Must be bought before reaching Sankri )
- All food supplies for a basic food menu (can be bought from Dehradun or Sankri)
- Camping utensils and cooking utensils (can be rented from Himalayan High)
Below is the Rate Chart For Camping And Cooking Equipment In Sankri. All required camping gears can be rented online using Rent All Trek Gears In Sankri.
| Products |
Rent Per Day |
Security Per Item |
| Dome Tent ( 3 Man) |
300.00 |
2500.00 |
| Sleeping Bags (2.5 Kg, 0 Deg) |
150.00 |
1200.00 |
| Light Weight Alpine Stove |
60.00 |
500.00 |
| Waterproof Foam Mattress |
30.00 |
500.00 |
| Camping Utensils ( Below 5 pax ) |
380.00 |
1300.00 |
| Camping Utensils ( 5 - 10 pax ) |
470.00 |
1600.00 |
| Camping Utensils ( 10 - 15 pax ) |
700.00 |
2500.00 |
| Camping Stools |
30.00 |
300.00 |
| Camping Table |
150.00 |
2000.00 |
| Dining Tents |
800.00 |
4000.00 |
| Kitchen Tents |
600.00 |
3000.00 |
| Sleeping Bag Fleece Inner |
20.00 |
100.00 |
| Toilet Tent |
100.00 |
1500.00 |
Finally it comes down to total weight once everything is finalized. Depending upon the estimated weight of the camping gear, food and fuel, you need to determine whether you would be hiring mules or porters to get the job done. Remember, porter can carry up to 20 Kilos of weight, whereas mules can carry up to 40-45 kilos. Porters will eat food whereas mules will eat grass. However, porters can also give some extra help on the route and camp or for emergencies during the trek.
As already discussed above, you need a permission from forest department which you can easily get from the forest checkpoint right there in Sankri village but you need to go there with your local guide and one photocopy of any ID card of each trekker. All other required equipment and resources can be hired online.
Once again, we would tell you that this whole process of organizing a trek in the Himalayas seems quite difficult and complex. But as a community, we must ensure that we don't forget the pure and raw form of this sport of trekking and mountaineering in the Himalayas. We must not make it a mere entertainment or tourism activity. Responsible trekkers like us will tell the future generations about the many joys of venturing into the mighty Himalayas on our own. The leaders in us must come forth and take up these challenges to organize a Himalayan trek safely and successfully and hone their leadership and management skills in such a challenging remote environment. What can be a better testimony of one's 'Never Give Up' attitude after all !