“The Lake of Bones and the Sky”
Quick facts: Roopkund (the “skeleton lake”) sits at roughly 5,000–5,200 m; trek usually 7–10 days from Lohajung/Ghuttu; best season May–October (peak: June–Sept).
The lake’s human remains sparked genomic and radiocarbon studies showing multiple migratory events/periods.
Roopkund has one of those travel headlines that makes your pulse quicken: skeletons beneath blue ice. But the trek is so much more than a macabre curiosity. The approach climbs through oak and rhododendron forests that give way to stark, wind-carved ridgelines.
The last day, when the trail opens above the moraine, you first glimpse the glacier-margined tarn — and sometimes, the white outlines of bones glinting on the shore.
That sight is haunting and humbling; the 2019 scientific work revealed that those remains are not a single incident but multiple groups across time, making the lake an anthropological puzzle as well as a dramatic landscape.
🤩 Wow factors: the eerie contrast of human history and pure mountain beauty; alpine meadows and remote high camps; dramatic weather flips — sun to snow in hours.
💁♂️ Practical tips: high-altitude fitness is essential; weather changes quickly — carry crampons during shoulder seasons; respect the site’s sensitivity (local authorities monitor access).