(Image source from: The Skeleton Lake of Roopkund)

Some 16,000 feet above sea level, at the bottom of a small valley, was a frozen lake absolutely full of skeletons. That summer, the ice melting revealed even more skeletal remains, floating in the water and lying haphazardly around the lake's edges.

This extremely frightening area of Himalayan Mountains is known for the hundreds of corpses between 300-600 skeletons, which date back to the 15th century AD. The trail for the trek that leads to the frozen Roopkund Lake also overlaps with the religious pilgrimage of Nanda Devi thus making this experience of trekking in Uttarakhand, an overall mix of culture and adventure.

The DNA tests proved that the skeletons belonged to several groups of people, including a group of probably local porters and a taller group who were closely related - with DNA mutations characteristic for Chitpavans - The Brahmins from Maharashtra.

When ice melts in the glacial tarn of Roopkund, located 5,000 metres above sea level in Chamoli district, Uttaranchal, hundreds of corpses can be seen floating. Thus gets exposed a mystery that dates back to more than 60 years and has begun to be understood only recently.

As per the legends, ‘Mystery Lake’ is circled by hundreds of skeletons which is the major attraction of this trek. The skeletons may belong to pilgrims who fell to their deaths due to the unexpected calamities.