Tso Moriri to Spiti via Parang La Details

sbballer33

Since I found it hard finding info about doing this trek independently before I thought I put some details down to help others in the future.

This trek is much more easliy done from Ladakh rather than Spiti both for logistics and easy of the trek. From the Kibber side the pass is much steeper and there is no water at any of the campsites close to the top of the pass. The nearest one with a steady is probably at least 5-6 hours hiking to the top assuming you are already well acclimatized.

Getting to Tso Moriri: If you are flexable there is a bus that goes on (or about) 10th, 20th, and 30th of each month, best and cheapest option for trekking.

If you want pack animals they are available in Tso Moriri, karzok, we ended having to pay 250 per day per animal for what was supposed to be 2 donkeys and a horse and ended up being 3 donkeys. But our options were limited since the Karmapa was visiting a nearby village and Karzok was nearly deserted as a result of everyone going to see him.

Water is in short supply along the banks of Tso Moriri with a stream at the end of the lake the first water source after the stream about an hour outside Karzok.

You will have to cross this stream and continue up the valley at the far southern end of the lake. Before the valley comes to a T-juncion there is a nice camping spot and a spring about 2 hours from the end of the lake, reachable on the first day if you start early otherwise you will have to camp at the end of the lake, stay to the right of the marshy area. Once you get to the T-junction of the valley head to the right, you will have to cross the river at some point look for a good place. The trail continues on the south side of the valley heading southwest. Its basically a straight shot continuing down the main valley eventually vearing to the left (south). There is a fork in the valley before the pass after you have veared to the left take the right fork you can see the glacier of the pass. Head up on to the glacier it climbs at first then there is a large flat area the pass is to the right (southwest). At the top of the pass the hour climb to the peak to the East of the pass is worthwhile for a great 360 view.

From the top of the pass it is about 3 hours down to the first campsite with a steady water source at the bottom of a gorge and there is no fodder there for animals. It is a further two hours to the next campsite with grass up a side valley near the top of where the trail climbes out of the gorge and goes over the hillside to the east of the river which coninues all the way to Kibber. The trail loops around and recrosses the gorge just before Kibber.

We did it in 5 days fairly comfortably starting around 8am and hiking untill 3:30 or 4pm, except for the day over the pass which was long arrived about 5:30pm at the camp site at the river. 6 would be even more leasurly. First day to the end of the lake. Secound day midway down the valley, third day to the "base camp" if possible we stayed 2 hours from the base camp. 4th day over the pass. 5th day to Kibber.

The campsites on the Ladakh side of the pass all are very exposed and very windy and in September were very cold. I didn't have a real tent but was doing it local style make shift tent with a plastic tarp (280 rupees leh market) which worked fine but I did have a good sleeping bag. There were rock wall shelters I could use at most of the campsites to block some of the wind. Obviously you need to bring all you food because there is nothing in the way of villages along this route. Hope this helps anyone who is thinking about doing the trek.

VSK Sharma

Hi,
Good writeup. Should help future trekkers on the route. How about sharing photos of the trek.

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sbballer33

Thanks, hope so. I'll get pics up eventually on my site http://www.micahimages.com when I replace my stolen laptop. Right now there is just stuff up there Himalayawise from Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim, and a small amount from Ladakh.

sbballer33

pics from the Parang La trek are now up here:

http://www.micahimages.com/to%20spiti/to%20spiti.htm

Per

Thanks, really enjoyed your photos, brought fond memories back.

We hiked from Tso Moriri to Spiti ten years ago, but took a different route. As we had horse that could not cross Parang La without risking its legs, we crossed the Takling La further west, and came down to Kiato.

Turned out the horse had problems in the snow on Takling La, so rather than risk its legs and life we asked the horse driver to return to Karzok and carried ourselves down to Kiato. Had some epics on the way down. We camped five nights between Karzok and Kiato. It would have been four without the epics. Some photos here http://www.lowdin.nu/Treks/Tsomoriri/TaklingLa98.html

Bhaswaran

Excellent information. This is going to help a lot to others. Thumbs up to you.

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Per

One thing should be strongly emphasized: doing it in five days is only possible for fit and well acclimatized parties. Micah had spent several weeks hiking in Zanskar and Ladakh before he set off from Karzok. We had hiked across the Ladakh Range back and forth to Nubra.

Anyone going rapidly up to Leh and Karzok to hike down to Spiti in five days is likely to get AMS. Then, things could turn ugly as there is no simple way down. Most of Rupshu is over 4000 m, to get under 4000 one would have to hike back and ride by jeep over the 5000+ m Kiagar La to Mahe.

sbballer33

True, I was in Ladakh for two months, Everest region in Nepal for a month before that, and trekking in Sikkim for a couple weeks before that. Basically I most of my time between April and September when I did the trek above 3500 m, and several nights spent above 5000 m.

Especially dangerous for AMS coming from the Spiti direction steep ascent and once over the pass there is no where to go down to, coming from Ladakh If you stay in Karzok for a few days and can easily hike up the ridge behind Karzok, you should be fine on the trek, since it is very gradual (but high) from Karzok until the base of the Parang La. A hike up the ridge behind Karzok gives great views and would be a good test to see if you are ready.