The EST Mapping Expedition
The fieldwork behind India's first fully mapped long-distance hiking trail — the Epic Sahyadri Trail (EST).
Distance walked
2,033 km
Every kilometre on foot.
Elevation gained
93,288 m
About 10.5 Everests from sea level.
Days
70
68 active, 2 rest.
Avg per hiking day
29.9 km
1½ half-marathons through wilderness, with a mountain to climb.
Avg climb per day
1,372 m
Most Himalayan guided treks max out around 600 m per day gain.
Avg moving per day
~11 hrs
Not counting documentation, recording and recovery.
Dates
21 Dec 2025 – 28 Feb 2026
Style
Semi-supported · mostly solo
Safety
No injuries
Proof
Public Strava logs, a daily audio log, and video footage every day
See the Expedition Diary below for all links.
Please note the two distances: the final EST is 1,724 km (40 stages), but the mapping expedition covered 2,033 km over 70 days. The extra distance reflects the work of designing the trail: exploring alternate routes, removing sections that were unsafe or in poor condition, and refining the alignment to keep road walking as close as possible to the 10% target.
See the 1,724 km trail, stage by stage →A body of work
The EST Guidebook
A stage-by-stage guide to walking the trail.
70 daily field notes
A written record from the trail, every single day.
70 GPS traces
Cleaned and published to OpenStreetMap.
70-episode audio journal
An end-of-day log, recorded from the trail.
1,500 hours of footage
Filmed daily for a documentary in production.
Near-live dispatches
Daily reels and posts, as it happened.
4,000+ member expedition group
Thousands of comments, tracking every day.
First-aid kits in the field
Left in remote shepherd hamlets with no medical access.
Most of this is already public; the rest is in production.
Four founders who backed the vision.
Anirban Sen, Reccy
Official Apparel Partner
A mountaineer and co-founder of Reccy. I wore his white dry-fit shirt almost every day — 1,900+ km of heat, dust and washes, still going.
Kshitij Rihal, The Stack Club
Official Sleep & Recovery Partner
A trail runner building honest, science-led supplements. His Sleep Stack got me deep sleep and back-to-back long days on a new bed every night.
Sahil Samra, Sensibiotics
Official Travel Gut Health Partner
On EST I ate local every day — spice, water and hygiene changing constantly. His travel probiotic kept my gut steady the whole way.
Niyati Sethia, GreenmorMail
Official Technology Partner
Building a real alternative for professional email — my own manav@hikex.in runs on their servers.
All 70 days
Tap any day for the field note & links
| Day | Date | Note | km | Gain | Hrs | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | 21 Dec 2025 | Taking the 1st step | 24.18 | 1,063 | 11:42 | › |
| 02 | 22 Dec 2025 | Bigger than planned | 37.75 | 1,670 | 13:39 | › |
| 03 | 23 Dec 2025 | Body pushes back | 25.17 | 1,535 | 10:30 | › |
| 04 | 24 Dec 2025 | Lost but never alone | 38.23 | 1,346 | 10:58 | › |
| 05 | 25 Dec 2025 | Recovery vs ego | 27.98 | 755 | 6:53 | › |
| 06 | 26 Dec 2025 | Discovering my new baseline | 33.31 | 1,775 | 11:13 | › |
| 07 | 27 Dec 2025 | Crossing the first Everest | 34 | 1,561 | 11:16 | › |
| 08 | 28 Dec 2025 | Letting the plan break | 23.8 | 997 | 8:24 | › |
| 09 | 29 Dec 2025 | Choosing the riskier line | 30.82 | 1,550 | 10:51 | › |
| 10 | 30 Dec 2025 | Why I'm really here | 30.01 | 1,079 | 10:27 | › |
| 11 | 31 Dec 2025 | Loops and ladders combined | 25.17 | 1,358 | 9:09 | › |
| 12 | 1 Jan 2026 | This trail keep growing | 28.38 | 1,414 | 10:17 | › |
| 13 | 2 Jan 2026 | When the Ghatwats turn serious | 37.84 | 1,132 | 12:12 | › |
| 14 | 3 Jan 2026 | Going down a ghat & up another | 22.66 | 1,118 | 10:46 | › |
| 15 | 4 Jan 2026 | Strangers, home & rain | 16.11 | 1,211 | 7:39 | › |
| 16 | 5 Jan 2026 | Claiming Vethaldhar | 29.43 | 1,333 | 9:58 | › |
| 17 | 6 Jan 2026 | Rewarded with a Deer | 30.73 | 1,462 | 10:10 | › |
| 18 | 7 Jan 2026 | Small Choices, Long Consequences | 28.49 | 1,410 | 9:55 | › |
| 19 | 8 Jan 2026 | People over places | 17.13 | 1,195 | 10:08 | › |
| 20 | 9 Jan 2026 | Momentum returns | 31.71 | 1,862 | 11:53 | › |
| 21 | 10 Jan 2026 | Bulls and horns | 22.91 | 1,473 | 10:35 | › |
| 22 | 11 Jan 2026 | Body said no | — | — | 0:00 | › |
| 23 | 12 Jan 2026 | Stacked day | 26.37 | 1,471 | 12:51 | › |
| 24 | 13 Jan 2026 | Out of time | 37.81 | 1,391 | 11:09 | › |
| 25 | 14 Jan 2026 | Uninvited co-hiker combined | 19.68 | 1,779 | 10:52 | › |
| 26 | 15 Jan 2026 | Padlās tar samplās | 13.77 | 618 | 9:12 | › |
| 27 | 16 Jan 2026 | The weight of distance audio log | 17.7 | 1,083 | 5:19 | › |
| 28 | 17 Jan 2026 | Good problems to solve audio log | 29.31 | 1,538 | 11:29 | › |
| 29 | 18 Jan 2026 | Why trails exist audio log | 20.34 | 1,281 | 8:59 | › |
| 30 | 19 Jan 2026 | The fourth ghatwat audio log | 29.03 | 1,938 | 12:28 | › |
| 31 | 20 Jan 2026 | Temple run audio log | 49.31 | 1,512 | 13:29 | › |
| 32 | 21 Jan 2026 | Ridge of thirst audio log | 41.82 | 1,339 | 10:40 | › |
| 33 | 22 Jan 2026 | Engineering EST | 34.64 | 1,521 | 12:06 | › |
| 34 | 23 Jan 2026 | Markings in the wild | 42.26 | 946 | 10:55 | › |
| 35 | 24 Jan 2026 | Seven years later | 23.4 | 706 | 9:49 | › |
| 36 | 25 Jan 2026 | Wat maudli | 37.95 | 1,381 | 13:26 | › |
| 37 | 26 Jan 2026 | Catch slides | 38.09 | 1,245 | 12:41 | › |
| 38 | 27 Jan 2026 | Boring day | 24.11 | 476 | 6:25 | › |
| 39 | 28 Jan 2026 | Snake's tail | 24.13 | 1,455 | 10:47 | › |
| 40 | 29 Jan 2026 | This is my planet | 7.91 | 556 | 5:16 | › |
| 41 | 30 Jan 2026 | Comeback walk | 19.95 | 887 | 8:39 | › |
| 42 | 31 Jan 2026 | Eliminating road | 21.68 | 1,295 | 10:07 | › |
| 43 | 1 Feb 2026 | Matheran unlocked | 25.08 | 1,674 | 10:52 | › |
| 44 | 2 Feb 2026 | Fire & memory | 34.59 | 1,805 | 12:05 | › |
| 45 | 3 Feb 2026 | Road runner | 38.21 | 942 | 7:49 | › |
| 46 | 4 Feb 2026 | Ladder of logs | 32.46 | 1,600 | 12:12 | › |
| 47 | 5 Feb 2026 | Lathi | 35.48 | 1,880 | 12:04 | › |
| 48 | 6 Feb 2026 | Dog bite | 33.48 | 1,115 | 11:24 | › |
| 49 | 7 Feb 2026 | Puzzles | 34.37 | 1,373 | 11:52 | › |
| 50 | 8 Feb 2026 | Value of a box | 26.29 | 1,131 | 9:10 | › |
| 51 | 9 Feb 2026 | Wadi ya wasti? combined | 39.05 | 1,971 | 11:13 | › |
| 52 | 10 Feb 2026 | I can't find the trail! combined | 26.1 | 787 | 7:58 | › |
| 53 | 11 Feb 2026 | Rest day | — | — | 0:00 | › |
| 54-55 | 12-13 Feb 2026 | 2 Sunrises & 2 sunsets | 106.3 | 4,674 | 34:58 | › |
| 56 | 14 Feb 2026 | It's about the people | 25.33 | 782 | 8:26 | › |
| 57 | 15 Feb 2026 | World tour | 30.86 | 1,483 | 11:24 | › |
| 58 | 16 Feb 2026 | Unnamed combined | 32.61 | 1,429 | 11:20 | › |
| 59 | 17 Feb 2026 | I wish | 24.15 | 926 | 7:56 | › |
| 60 | 18 Feb 2026 | Countdown begins | 28.18 | 1,761 | 13:29 | › |
| 61 | 19 Feb 2026 | Second home combined | 25.93 | 1,427 | 13:16 | › |
| 62 | 20 Feb 2026 | Abandoned homes | 37.81 | 1,683 | 12:10 | › |
| 63 | 21 Feb 2026 | Company | 29.51 | 1,540 | 12:07 | › |
| 64 | 22 Feb 2026 | Dam(n) construction! | 44.74 | 2,205 | 14:45 | › |
| 65 | 23 Feb 2026 | Nirmala Tai | 28.11 | 1,360 | 10:47 | › |
| 66 | 24 Feb 2026 | Leopard scats | 37.16 | 1,530 | 11:50 | › |
| 67 | 25 Feb 2026 | Last 3 days! | 37.26 | 1,576 | 12:41 | › |
| 68 | 26 Feb 2026 | 100 years old | 22.08 | 1,278 | 10:45 | › |
| 69 | 27 Feb 2026 | 2000km combined | 23.25 | 1,694 | 10:03 | › |
| 70 | 28 Feb 2026 | The work begins now | 19.73 | 945 | 7:11 | › |
Longest single push: 106.3 km in ~34 hours — two sunrises, no sleep (Day 54-55).
Are you a hiker?
Get routes, maps, the guidebook and everything you need to plan your own Epic Sahyadri Trail.
Explore the EST trail →Are you a journalist?
The story, the numbers, official quotes, images and contacts — all in one place.
Media centre →