Every trek in India, one guide.

Sunrise from the roof of Maharashtra.

Iron ladders up to the Kalsubai Devi temple at 1,646 m, and a sea of cloud below the summit at dawn.

Coorg’s highest peak, in a single day.

Through coffee estates and shola forest to open grassland ridges at 1,748 m, with the Western Ghats all around.

Winter sunrise over the Gangotri peaks.

A short walk from Tapovan to the Kunjapuri Devi Shakti Peeth, with Swargarohini, Bandarpoonch and Chaukhamba at dawn.

The classic first snow trek.

Forest camps at Gui and Chilapada below a 3.4 sq km meadow that lies under snow from December to March.

Thousands of tridents on a Satpura summit.

Climb to the Shiva temple at 1,330 m above Pachmarhi, where pilgrims have stacked their trishuls in the courtyard.

A 6th-century temple and the Konkan Kada.

Daily worship still goes on at Harishchandreshwar; at the Konkan Kada cliff, clouds rise straight up the wall.

The world’s highest Shiva temple, then the Moon Rock.

Darshan at Tungnath, then sunrise from Chandrashila on Nanda Devi, Trishul, Chaukhamba and Kedarnath.

Kangchenjunga at close range, from 4,200 m.

Through the rhododendron forest of Khangchendzonga National Park to sunrise on Kabru, Pandim and Kangchenjunga.

A Shakti Peeth with the Himalaya to the north.

A short forest path to Maa Surkanda Devi at 2,756 m, with snow peaks one way and the Doon valley the other.

Walk right up to a glacier.

Through Khati, the last village of the Pindar valley, to Zero Point facing the glacier below Nanda Kot and Changuch.

A forest lake where Ganesha was born.

A clear lake at about 3,024 m in the Assi Ganga valley, its forest red with rhododendron in April.

A quiet summit near Uttarkashi.

Camp by Mukta Tal, then a 360° view of Bandarpunch, Black Peak, Draupadi ka Danda and the Gangotri peaks.

Darshan at the first of the Panch Kedar.

Shri Kedarnath Dham at 3,583 m, one of the twelve Jyotirlingas, with Adi Shankaracharya’s samadhi behind the temple.

The first of the Char Dham.

A gorge walk beside the young Yamuna to Yamunotri Dham at 3,293 m, and rice cooked in the Surya Kund hot spring.

The lake where the Beas begins.

Above Solang through deodar forest to Bakarthach and Lohali, below Hanuman Tibba and the Seven Sisters.

Shepherds’ meadows, then a snow pass.

Flocks graze Dayara Thach in summer; the 4,572 m pass drops into Kinnaur’s apple villages near Sangla.

To the source of Maa Ganga.

Up the Bhagirathi from Gangotri to Gaumukh, the glacier’s snout, and on to Tapovan at the foot of Shivling.

A way into the Nanda Devi sanctuary.

From the Nanda Devi temple at Lata to meadows above 4,000 m, facing Dunagiri, Bethartoli and Hathi-Ghoda.

A ridge walk between three ranges.

Above Rumsu village to the 3,660 m pass: the Dhauladhar on one side, Pir Panjal and Parvati on the other, wildflowers in July and August.

A turquoise lake above Spiti, in a morning.

Climb from the cliff-top Dhankar Monastery to the lake at about 4,140 m, facing Manirang.

Twin Maratha forts in the monsoon green.

Overnight at Udhewadi below Shrivardhan and Manaranjan, with monsoon waterfalls over the Ulhas valley.

Himachal’s greenest meadows, in the monsoon.

Grassland within an hour of Gulaba, covered in wildflowers from July to September, up to the lake at 4,270 m.

A quiet lake from the Kathopanishad.

A forest lake at about 2,450 m, ringed by oak, deodar and rhododendron, named after Nachiketa, with a Nag Devta temple on its shore.

Pachmarhi’s hardest, quietest waterfall walk.

A sal-forest trail to a 100 m fall that splits into three cascades, away from the Bee Fall crowds.

All five Kedars in one journey.

Kedarnath, Madhyamaheshwar, Tungnath, Rudranath and Kalpeshwar over twelve days, in the order that avoids backtracking.

Past Gaumukh, onto the glacier.

Across the Gangotri Glacier from Tapovan to Vasuki Tal at about 4,880 m, below the Vasuki and Satopanth peaks.

The Milkman’s Trail to Balbhadra’s temple.

Through oak forest past Dudhli village to the hilltop temple of Lord Balram, with Bandarpoonch and the Doon valley below.

Kangchenjunga’s face at sunrise.

Past the still blue Samiti Lake below Pandim to View Point 1, facing the world’s third-highest mountain.

A lake in a wide glacial meadow.

Through the wooden villages of Gangaad and Osla to Ruinsara Tal at about 3,600 m, below Black Peak and Bandarpunch.

Gangotri to Badrinath, over 5,947 m.

Fifteen days past Gaumukh, Tapovan and Vasuki Tal, along the Chaturangi Glacier and over a glaciated pass.

A lake with a floating island.

The pagoda-style temple of Maharishi Parashar beside the lake at about 2,730 m, with the Dhauladhar on the skyline.

Three treks in one crossing.

The Kedarkantha forest, the open crest of Phulara Ridge, and a pass by Saru Tal into the Yamunotri valley.

Sunset over the Yamuna valley, from Mussoorie.

Oak and rhododendron forest from Cloud End to an open grassy summit, short enough for a day hike or a night out on top.

A British-era horse track through the Khasi hills.

16 km from Sohra, over the Umiam suspension bridge to clear streams and natural pools below Wahtham.

A plunge pool at the head of a gorge.

An easy, almost flat walk along the Kundalika from Bhira to white water falling into a deep green pool.

The closest railway trek to Bengaluru.

Walk from Makalidurga station to a granite fort, a Shiva temple still in worship, and a view over Gundamagere Lake.