The bus from Leh climbs so fast that my ears pop twice before we clear the first ridge. By the time we reach Chilling, the trailhead, the poplars have given way to bare rock the color of dried apricots, and the Zanskar River is running the milky green of glacial melt.

Markha Valley is not a hard trek by Himalayan standards — most days top out under six hours — but altitude does its own math. At 3,900 meters, a gentle rise feels like a staircase with no landing. I stop counting switchbacks and start counting breaths instead: four in, four out, repeat until the ridge stops spinning.

The reward arrives on the second afternoon. Rounding a bend above Skiu, the valley opens into a wide amphitheater of scree and juniper, with the monastery at Hankar perched on an outcrop like it grew there. A woman selling butter tea from a tin kettle waves me toward a bench with a view clear across to the Kang Yatse massif, its summit lit gold while the valley floor is already blue with evening.

Dinner in the homestay kitchen is dal, rice, and a startling amount of chili, eaten cross-legged around a dung-fired stove while our host's grandmother spins a prayer wheel and mutters something that makes everyone laugh except me. Nobody translates it. I decide that's fine — some jokes are better left as texture.

By the final pass, Gongmaru La at 5,200 meters, the cold has a physical weight to it, pressing against your chest before your body catches up with the thin oxygen. But the view from the top — the entire Markha drainage behind, the Indus valley and the road to Leh ahead — is the kind that makes you forget your fingers are numb, at least for a minute.

Getting there: Fly into Leh (allow two full rest days before any trek — altitude sickness here is not a suggestion). Guides and homestays can be arranged in Leh's main bazaar; expect to pay in cash.

Best months: June through September, once the high passes are clear of snow.