Trip Report - Kinnaur Spiti Lahaul - June 2010

Thanks ptikky for your kind words.

The new allignment of Manali-Leh highway is in the making and not yet completed. Even from Ladakh you can see a place called Nimu where Zanskar river meets Indus, there you would see a new road goes inside Zanskar Valley after crossing a bridge. That's the other end of same road from Ladakh side. When completed, yes you can go to Zanskar directly from here without touching Leh. The road is being built to bypass high passes like Barlacha la, Lachung La and Tanglang La and most likely be an all weather road considering the strategic importance of these locations. But you have to wait for a direct Zanskar drive until road completes.

After Kaza you need not come to Manali for your onward journey towards Leh. From Kaza proceed through Kunzum Pass - Batal - Chotadhara - Chatru to reach a place called Gramphoo where you would meet Manali - Leh highway and move towards Keylong. Due to flood in Ladakh the part of original road is abandoned and you can take an alternate route there. I am sure you are aware that drive through your planned route is purely seasonal and recommended time is between July to September that can be extended for one month in either side based on weather condition.

Cheers!!

Good Write-up kshil >>everything is quite precise with your report.
Hope you enjoyed the wonderland of Spiti and Kinnaur.

Brother, I acknowledge that many of these information should be actually copyrighted with you .

Instead of the ultra long PM/Chats we had, I put the synopsis here but I am really thankful to the great IMers like you without whom this trip would never been possible.

If you have seen one IMer thanked me for spotting the Reo Purygal from Khab Bridge and I got that input from you here, so all credit goes to IM.

Enjoyed thoroughly and indeed one of my best trip ever. Would return next year for Chandratal and Sach Pass.

How was your Kinnaur trips? If you have uploaded the snaps, please post the link. How the SLR has performed and how you got the weather this year?

Cheers!!

Glad you enjoyed your trip !
I just got back from the mountains yesterday ! 5 months of bliss.
Covered. Sach pass, Pangi valley, Pattan Valley, Miyar Valley, Bhabha Valley, Lahaul, Banjar valley, Jalori pass. Will put the pics soon.

Oh My God!! 5 months and 5 valleys, I would surely keen on reading more about Pangi / Pattan / Miyar valley and ofcourse Sach Pass. Good to know you enjoyed thoroughly. Would wait for the pics and really eager to know the exact route you took. Was it completely a trek through Bhaba - Spiti - Lahaul and then towards Pattan, Miyar and Pangi?

This time I guess you are with your new Canon DSLR.. isn't it?

Just back from a wonderful trip of Lahul - Spiti- Kinnaur. Will post the trip report and snaps in few days. Thanks to all Imikers for their help ( Especially Kshil)

Great Ani!! So after Shveta, Jay, Arnab, now it's you who is back after this dream trip successfully The real credit goes to Almighty and the Weather God for their kindness. Your clockwise trip paid off hugely it seems as you are by now aware how people got stuck in High Passes due to one weak WD. I wrote about this WD earlier and at this time one is sufficient enough to close the pass. I am sure you have crossed it nicely before the WD.

Would wait eagerly for your experience, trip report and snaps.

Cheers!!

Precisely so. We had wonderful weather and crossed both Rohtang and Kunzum without any hindrances whatsoever. Will illustrate in the trip report.

Ohh!! That's great, Himalayan weather is really difficult to predcit, you would be surprised to see the snowed out Rohtang and Kunzum 2 days back, when you compare that with what you seen just a week back.

Anyway has vinkle drove the car? How was your experience with him?

Looking eagerly for the snaps and report.

Cheers!!

Well this is one part where I got a bit disappointed. Vinkle could not come by himself , he sent the vehicle with driver ( A Scorpio). The running condition of the vehicle was good however the driver ...........hmmmmm!! Not exactly someone whom you would like to take on such a trip.

I gave some feedback to Vinkle about him when I was in Kaza. Couldn't speak to him afterwards as my cell was giving some trouble and I didn't wanted to aggravate the situation while on the move.

I don't blame Vinkle entirely for this as from his end he has tried to get a good driver , I believe, but it is difficult to judge a driver unless you have travelled with him. And in my case I got a bit of rough luck in this case ..

Really feeling bad about this and it's absolutely disgusting if the driver is not upto the mark in a long tour and specially a tour of this kind.

Shveta's experience was good with Vinkle and Jaybec too was happy with the driver he got even though I know that driver was working permanently with Vinkle. Not sure about how is the experience of Arnab in this regard. But it seems from your experience, the lessons we learnt here is, we should take car from Vinkle only if he himself can drive. I too would communicate this to Vinkle. Was it the same scorpio, I took, HP-01A-2200? How the driver was? Was he temparamental? was he unreliable or lacks driving skill altogether?

Thank God, atleast the weather didn't disappoint you. Waiting for your snaps and reports

Cheers!!

No. The Number of the Scorpio was HP 01K 1881 and Driver was Ramesh. He was quite a young fellow, perhaps about 26-28 yrs, but too slow for everything for his age.

I have been through mountains in different parts of the country, J & K, Sikkim , WB ,Assam and Meghalaya. I completely understand the necessity for being cautious while driving on high terrains. A good driver is him who knows which streches are to be driven cautiously and which streches to accelarate.

But he seem to have completely no idea of this, as a result we were slow at the start of the day, when there is excellent weather and proper roads and ended up hurrying in the evenings and late evenings

But the biggest issue with him was that he was unbelievably slow to get ready whenever we have given him a time. Every time we would reach to the vehicle and wait for an avarage of 15 minutes before he is ready to start

Anyways, will put the details and snaps soon

Surprising and yes to some extent little annoying.

It seems the person is slow by nature also may not be having the confidence of a good driver in that terrain. We all know confidence is the most important element of driving anywhere in world, may be this guy lacks there. Vinkle was an extremely confident guy and could assess any situation spot on. But I would surely bring this topic with Vinkle when next time he would be calling me. Getting 15 min delayed everyday during start is something which can't be accepted.

Yes would wait for the snaps and reports

Hi everyone...

Here's my write up and snaps of Bhabha Pass Trek which I managed to complete on the month of August.

My Blog
http://bhabhapass.blogspot.com/

Photos
http://picasaweb.google.com/samya.indya/BHABHAPASS2010#

Cheers,,,,,,,

Samya,

Awesome snaps and even better a blog. I couldn's stop reading from start to end at one go. Brilliant journey and nicely written, I was scared to see 2 of your friends stayed a night under open sky at that height!!

Thanks again for sharing the memorable journey with us here.

Cheers!!