What we are?

We, HIMALAYA TREKKERS (HT), are a professional tour operator focusing on trekking to the Indian Himalayas. Simply put, you can think of us as a registered tour travel operator that runs treks with its own logistics, equipment, and staff from different bases in the Himalayas.

Although we are a small tour operator in terms of numbers, we cover a considerable length of the Indian Himalayas, spanning its breadth. We take more or less one thousand people per year on the mountains and have never competed for being the largest, biggest, or perhaps greatest! To cater to the wide Himalayas from east to west and run it efficiently, we have some staff employees, longtime freelancers, and a few trusted partners in the Himalayas. All are professional people and fairly experienced in their jobs. Regarding the term “partners”, they are not like just our vendors, and neither are things being outsourced. As a matter of fact, we are friends who share logistics and expertise to form Team HT.

We pitch in:

• Suggesting the trek(s) as per your preferred time, season, or dates while considering your experience or any other preferences, important trek route information that you are looking for, planning and preparation required for your trek, and helping in travel arrangements prior to the trek. Then,
• Arrange your trek safely with our top-notch support team.

Today, with the experience of 12 years running as a Tour Operator, HIMALAYA TREKKERS (HT) operates on more than 50 different routes, covering the major regions of the Indian Himalayas (it is almost 2500 Km in length). We thrive on:

Conducting environmentally cleaner treks – We call them ‘Green’.
Using quality equipment that is perfectly suited for the trek.
Best in class support staff across the Himalayas accompanying you on your journey
Providing equal care and attention to all members – Proportionate support staff
Having nutritious food and meals along the way.
Most importantly, enjoying the rendezvous with the ‘big guys’ (read Himalayas) 🙂

The core and heart of our team are our Trek Guides (often people recognise them as Trek Leaders although we don’t call them so) and the ground support staff. Quite naturally, they are locals and were raised in the remote parts of the Himalayas. We have selectively chosen our support team over the years to make your journey enjoyable and safe.

Sikkim, Darjeeling and Kalimpong:

Uttarakhand (Garhwal & Kumaon):

Himachal Pradesh:

Kashmir Valley:

Trek Planning & Support (Office Team):

We have an equally experienced and small team back in Kolkata, the front-facing, or rather, the backend team. These are the people with whom you will talk and exchange emails to learn about your adventure. Our backend team has also covered almost all the treks that are published on the website. On many popular trails in different seasons, time and again over the years. This helps us assess a route over time or an area in general and enables us to inform you accordingly.

From the founder on the background and incubation of HT

Since the early years of this millennium, since our college days, we have started trekking with friends and amateur clubs. Our early forays into the mighty Himalayas started with Sandakphu, Dzongri-Goecha La, and other places in the eastern Himalayas. As the enthusiasm picked up and our love for the Himalayas started growing out of proportion, we also began venturing into Himachal Pradesh, Kumaon, Garhwal, and Ladakh. After visiting some difficult-to-arrange treks, the first seed of desire to take this up as a profession was planted, especially because it started getting more and more difficult to come back to the mountains with the increased hassle of logistics to work it out independently. At the same time, working in a formal corporate environment was also getting harder. Finally, the moment came when I was confident enough to take on this challenge and was happy to give up a career in the software industry and get into this realm by starting HT in June 2010.

During our days as amateur trekkers, the thing that struck us the most was that, on the one hand, treks were either done by a bunch of enthusiastic individuals (like us) or organised by local clubs and led by what we called ‘hardcore’ trekkers. In both cases, it invariably meant using worn-out tents and sleeping bags, having meagre and bland meals, and finding guides who were often incompetent. These trips were treated more as accomplishments than as realising the sense of adventure, awe, and togetherness that the mountains evoke.

For us, it was always about soaking in the mind-numbing beauty and enjoying the sheer grandness of the abode of the gods, and the success of the trek lay in completing the trek as a team.

On the other hand, there were agencies that offered fantastic facilities at equally fantastic prices and took herds of people as part of their package deals. Over 30 people and a disproportionate number of support staff would mean much less attention to individual needs and near zero flexibility during the trek.

What we also found appalling was the scant respect that seemed to exist for the mountains—any camping ground or trail would be strewn with plastic wrappers, packets, bottles, and containers, including tin cans and glass bottles and jars.

There was also this aura built around ‘trekking’, as if it were the hallowed turf of a few and not the much larger population of nature lovers. We felt differently. For us, this brief escape from civilization and mobile networks was an addiction that was difficult to shake off. We felt that it must be the same for countless others too. Trekking is not the same as mountaineering expeditions or rock climbing, which indeed require a lot of technical skills; at the end of the day, you need to walk. So, it all began…