This time of year, when most of India is either soaking wet or obscenely hot, scores of travelers head to the high altitude region of Ladakh in the extreme North of India. In addition to being famous for its trekking and for its barren natural landscape, Ladakh is renowned for being drier and sunnier than the Sahara desert. In a typical year less than 2 inches of rain fall in Leh, and the region can go months without seeing any precipitation. In fact, Ladakh is so dry that trekking operators here advise that hikers bring only a fleece to keep warm - rain gear is not normally recommended and few treks bring along adequate gear for wet weather. It was with this in mind that I set out on an 8 day trek across Ladakh from
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