Having hiked through the Kashmir Valley guided by Shabir, Javed and Habib, I would recommend Cliffhangers India to anyone. The whole crew, including Anand, who is a brilliant cook and his assistant Mahinder are completely professional, lovely young men who not only did their jobs exceptionally well but were a pleasure to be around. I was lucky to be invited along on the trek by my partner who was invited by a friend of his who was in turn, invited by some old friends, one of whom is Kashmiri.
My desire to see Kashmir and to go trekking was tempered by concerns about the effect of a recent flair-up of an old back problem; I did not want to be a burden to the group. On the trek I was alright most of the time but when I did have tricky moments to do with balance, and one quite tricky day, Javid, Shabir, and Habib could not have been kinder about helping me along. I was the only woman on our trek and when the guides helped me they did so in such a sympathetic and practical way, without ever being condescending, which would have made me feel worse. I do not mean to suggest that someone in poor health should take on this trek. For the pleasure and safety of all involved I would not recommend going unless you are reasonably fit and used to long walks.
We ran into some unexpected bad weather on our second-to-last night and, once again, the crew could not have been better in calculating and executing the best plan to deal with the situation.
The scenery was stunning. The food was delicious; much more like eating in a good restaurant than the sort of on the trail, make-do grub which I had associate with trekking.