Hindustan Tibet Road to Shipki La

Dear friend,
I made the trip upto Kaza in my Ritz car in June, 2011. There are some tricky stretches in between, but if you are a skillful driver you can negotiate the same. But the feedback I have from I'MERs and other travelers is that it is difficult for smaller vehicles to negotiate beyond Losar upto Manali (including Rohtang).
Have a nice journey.
Regards,

S. Roy Biswas

Thank you Sir for your response, much appreciated,

can you please share your itinerary, I am planning to move out of Delhi on 7th Sep, Stay in Shimla overnight & commence the onward journey.

I have time till 12th Sep, can extend for a day if required, I think it should be sufficient.

Regards
AW

Dear Ajay,
I had planned as follows -
Day 1 - Delhi to Shimla - rest for night;
Day 2 - If you have not been to Shimla earlier - stay for a day explore Naldehra, Kufri etc.;
Day 3 - Shimla to Narkanda - explore Hatu Peak and night stay at Narkanda - Hotel Hatu, HPTDC;
Day 4 - Narkanda to Sangla - two nights in Sangla - day one after reaching Sangla explore Kamru fort (panoramic view of Sangla Valley) and on second day explore Chitkul and around. No Govt. Hotels but I stayed at Hotel Prakash, basic but neat & clean - Tel. Nos.09816283268(M) & 01786-242611(L);
Day 5 - Sangla to Nako - night stay - after reaching explore places around Nako (Note - pack some dry food from Sangla itself as there are no eateries en-route) - to check out my travelogues google my name, I post in sulekha;
Day 6 - Nako to Kaza - enroute visit Gue (after Sumdoh) on side road for the 'living mummy', Tabo Monastery, Dhankar Monastery and reach late in the evening in Kaza. I stayed at Hotel 'The Spiti' run by HPTDC;
Day 7 - Kaza - visit Kye Monastery, Kibber & Komic villages in monrning and Langza village in afternoon - get some lunch packed from the Hotel. Night at Kaza;
Day 8 - Visit Pin Valley National Park but drive only upto where you feel safe to drive, some very stupendous vistas. Night in Kaza;
Day 9 - Kaza to Kalpa (start early morning, break for B'fast at Nako). Explore Kalpa and temple & Monastery in village below, for night stay many hotels. I stayed at Hotel Apple Pie, basic but very neat & clean;
Day 10 - Kalpa to Sarahan - Night stay at Hotel Srikhand, HPTDC - visit the famous Bhimkali temple nearby;
Day 11 - Sarahan to Chail - explore places around Chail like the Kali Mata Temple on top of a hill and can stay in Chail like Hotel Chail Inn, Hotel Monal which are situated right in Chail apart from Palace Hotel - HPTDC. Other hotels are located nearby. I stayed at Hotel Grand Sunset View - nice accommodation;
Day 12 - Chail to Delhi.
Check out my videos at - http://www.youtube.com/user/absrb2112
Have a nice journey,

S. Roy Biswas

Thank you very Much Sir , that helps a Lot ,

I will also add that instead of going back to Kaza on Day 8 from Pin Valley either stay in Pin Valley which is a very good experience or head to Tabo to cut short the next day journey to Kalpa.

@Ajay when are you going? Pin Night stay would really a brilliant idea, I too would suggest that but if you try in Sep or begin of Oct (by 1st week) and can have a flexible itinerary, I would suggest if weather is ok (let's say if 2 weeks before your journey hasn't much of rain/snow) try for the Kaza - Losar - Batal - Gramphoo - Manali Drive. You would get a feel of driving through Great Himalayan range. That's simply different and must do from drive between Shimla and Kaza or say Manali to Keylong. Wagon-R in Sep end/ Oct begin (if weather holds) should be able to manage the terrain. Rohtang is worst this year, still as you would descend in the tricky zone, I think it won't be that much of an issue. But whole equation stands on how weather would behave for these few weeks.

But if adventurenorth (an IMer whom you can connect) can do this circuit in June when roads are at their worst including Chandrataal, then why can't you if weather God be with you in relatively better time? Possible for sure but be careful and prepared.

You can see few snaps of the Wagon-R beside the lake here.

The Kaza - Manali drive is just an altogether super experience. Only piss off point of Rohtang Pass (ugliest I will say for me) rest is just one super journey, just like Manali - Leh is one.

I will be moving out of Delhi on the Morning of 7th Sep will stay overnight at Narkanda, I have to be back by 13th Night Or 14th Morning, Still trying to come up with a itinerary in which I can try to cram Up as much as I can , as I do not want to miss anything worth enroute.

Moving beyond Kaza towards Manali, I am still not sure that would depend on the weather/road conditions as many people have flagged that and there remains an Uncertainty weather It can be done without much risk.

Will keep you posted.

If you are uncertain about it then do not attempt it because in order to do it you will need some confidence. Hence, follow it upto what you can and have confidence of. For me 7 days are short for Spiti unless you plan to take up some long days.

Gentlemen - may I point out that this thread is specifically about the HTR, there are plenty of Kinnaur/Spiti threads around for posting itineraries.

^^ Point noted, apologies for polluting it with OTs. Will keep in mind

My apologies too Dilliwala, actually I intended to start replying the thread just to point out it's an OT but discussion is on such an interesting topic, I finally missed the point for which I started writing

This is a thread with precious information and at last became a sticky too, no one surely wants to dilute the thread with off topics but couldn't resist to draw your attention to respond on the post here with your vast experience regarding cars in Mountains. Sorry for another OT

Guys I am confused about HT road. it starts from Shimla and where does it end? Shipki La or Kaurik?
If Shipki La then why is Kaurik so much onto the markings?? I read somewhere few weeks back that Britishers build the road to Kaurik and I assume then why that is not called HT road. the route going from Kalpa-Roghi-Pangi-Namgia is original one? Also, is the original one the only one or there is new version of it as well which runs with NH-22? In the end, where does NH22 ends - Kaza??

lots of doubts and questions :cry: but please share your inputs to clear the doubts

Dheeraj, my understanding is Old HT road goes even beyond Shipkila into Tibet, Shipki la was a famous point to enter Tibet, I am not aware of any route that goes into Tibet via Kaurik. So Kaurik might not come under Old HT Road. Have you found marking of Kaurik in original HT Road or in current NH22? You may be aware that original HT road is not aligned to the current NH22 in many parts. Current NH22 goes till Sumdo and then goes towards Kaurik, a village which doesn't exist anymore.

From Sumdo, the road we take towards Tabo/Kaza is SH30, if I remember correctly.

Dilliwala is the man who could anwer this question the best, I am sure he would come back with some excellent info

Yes, by providing links to the info posted by someone who has researched this more than me
Road conditions - latest reports HP/Ladakh
kinnaur sangla chitkul in december first week

In fact I've very recently been going through Harish Kapadia's 'Trekking and Climbing in the Indian Himalaya' again - it has a para on the HTR, mentioning that the road started at Shimla. So going through various accounts we can take it that HTR started at Shimla.
As kshil has astutely pointed out, HTR and NH 22 are not aligned for most of the way (or ways). Dispensing with listing the alignment of both routes upto Rampur - beyond that the common sections are only Wangtu to Tapri, and Puh (turn-off) to Khab (turn-off). As mentioned, HTR ends at Shipki La and NH 22 at Kaurik.

HTR being built by the Brits, the name applies only to the section within India. No doubt, being a road, it can and does carry on into Tibet, but that was not built by the Brits.
Interestingly, there is a small park at Jyori which contains a memorial to those who perished while building the HTR so many decades ago, even though Jyori was not on the HTR.

And now let me confuse the issue (even more) - although indicators on ground (distance stones, sign-boards) show NH 22 as going upto Kaurik, the statutory notification, both for the 'old' NH 22 and the new NH 5, reads thus:
"The highway connecting ........... Narkanda, Rampur, Chini and proceeding to the border between India and Tibet near Shipki La" ........ !!!
This being part of the schedule attached to the National Highways Act, officially that is the 'correct' alignment of this particular NH.
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I'll stop now.