High in the Indian Himalayas, Roopkund sits like a shallow bowl pressed into the rock, half the year locked under snow and ice, the rest briefly exposed to air that barely feels breathable. It lies far above the tree line in Uttarakhand, reached only after long climbs through broken slopes and weather that turns quickly without warning.

Roopkund Lake, nestled in the Himalayas, holds a chilling secret: hundreds of ancient skeletons. Once thought to be victims of a single epidemic or a lost military expedition,…

High in the Indian Himalayas, Roopkund sits like a shallow bowl pressed into the rock, half the year locked under snow and ice, the rest briefly exposed to air that barely feels…