Srinagar, Sept. 26 -- By Muhammed Omer

The first walks were modest.

After returning home from abroad in 2018, I began exploring the meadows and lower mountains around Sonawari.

I walked around Manasbal, Mohand Marg, Marchoi, Dumail and Trag. I was not thinking about alpine lakes or long expeditions, but I had no idea that those early walks would eventually take me into some of the most remote mountain landscapes of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The real change came a year later.

In 2019, I joined the seven-day Kashmir Great Lakes trek with Cliffhangers India. Somewhere along that trail, I saw my first alpine lake.

Something changed that day.

The silence of the mountains, the colours of the lakes and the feeling of being far away fr...