Wed, Oct 28: Rohtang Pass

We had wonderful views of the mountains from our hotel.

First thing today we collected all of our warmest clothing and headed to Rohtang Pass.  The road through this pass leads from Manali to Kashmir.  

The high point of the pass is 13,050 feet.  We had a permit to only go as far as the pass, and would then have to turn around.  India issues only 1000 permits a day for access to the pass.  Some are issued for through traffic and others for just going to the pass and then back.

One stretch of road had a pretty good size ice falls.

It would normally have been a slow drive due to the winding, rough mountain roads.  

What made it almost impossible were two major traffic jams along the way.  It had snowed within the last couple of days and there seemed to be a minimum of snow plows in the area to clear the roads.  So the road was barely a lane wide.  Unfortunately many drivers used their usual India road rules which basically meant it was every person for themselves.  

One of the jams involved about a half mile of cars two and three abreast with one lane plowed.  This one took us about an hour to get through.  A part of the problem was the cars parked along the road so their occupants could play in the snow.

Shortly after making it through this massive traffic jam, and just before the summit, we hit another traffic jam with a broken down bus and a stand-off between another bus and a truck.  People were chipping away at the ice on the sides of the road, so the vehicles could pass each other.

Since we were close to bathrooms all of us but the driver piled out, walked through the snow and the very cold temperature to them, and then started trekking to the summit.  Fortunately, before we got there our driver finally managed to get free and took us to the top. 

It was really cold up there, as would be expected.  The views were magnificent and we were reluctant to leave but it was time to head back.  

More photos of Rohtang Pass

The second jam, closest to us, was still a mess but by the time we got through the other one had cleared up totally.  We think most of those folks just turned around and went back.   We stopped for a brief snack and a bathroom break at the one “settlement” along the road and made it all the way back down about nightfall. 

In town, we stopped at the Hadimba temple for a quick view,

And walked around the mall a bit.