Manali-Rothang landslide

News talks about a landslide at Gulaba , blocking the road near Rothang La today. Tourists are .. perturbed , lovely word.

Manali-Leh buses running

..in spite of what ever you may have heard recently at the Manali Bus stand . Poster arijitchaki on IndiaMike became the first this year to report in arriving Leh with the HTRC Manali-Leh bus this year.

No word on the HPTDC buses (which don´t require a kidney belt ) yet, the official word

is that they start running July.

Sleepless in Sarchu : Tweaking the Manali-Leh Highway

Sleepless in Sarchu : Tweaking the Manali-Leh Highway

The Manali-Leh is only one of four land routes to Leh. It is also the road you love to hate , if you recognise the early signs of hypoxia and altitude sickness.

Doing this rod you have two main options : basic risk reduction (which probably will spare you from anything more dramatic than headaches and mild nausea ) and tweaking the itinerary so that you are closer to full working order , every day.

BASIC RISK REDUCTION :

* Get a night in Keylong
* Don´t sleep in Sarchu , aka The Vomit Hilton

That´s all there is to it , really : with a night in Manali (2050) and the next in Keylong (just under 3100 ) , you´ll certainly feel better the night in Keylong than anyone flying in to Leh, from three reasons : Manali is higher than 1500 meters , Keylong is some 400 meters lower than Leh , and the Rothang La is 900 meters higher than Keylong. The second leg of the road is the real challenge , moving for a major part between the altitudes of Mont Blanc and Everest Base Camp but most people scrape by even when doing the the all night Manali-Leh run if they don´t get any lengthy delays at max altitude . This is an important caveat , I have experienced being snagged around five thousand meters twice , and the first time it involved dealing with an unconscious fellow passenger.

TWEAKS :

TWEAK # 1 : THIRD NIGHT RULE

The first major change that adaption to altitude brings about is the ability to hyperventilate , a change that you obviously want to be on the right side of before hitting the 5000+ passes . This shift occurs somewhere around the third night at altitude, 2000 to 3000 meters, for the large majority. The more time you´ve spent around 3000 , the better : always chose a night in Keylong over a night in Manali. After your three nights , safe ascent guide lines still apply : if you want to do Sarchu , do it on the return leg.

TWEAK # 2 : STARTING POINTS

The plane :
Acclimatization starts , very slowly , at 1500 meters altitude. A marginal tweak that comes in to play here is the time before Delhi : a long intercontinental flight can be a slight advantage , if you don´t faff about in Delhi. If you don´t have a clear goal with staying in Delhi, arrange your next leg of the trip beforehand : trains from the IIndia Rail site , buses via Redbus
SHIMLA

Shimla is at 2200 meters , and easily reached from Delhi : take the night train (22-ish) to Kalka , and the connecting toy train 5.30 , arriving in Shimla , lunch time. Overnight buses connect with Manali.

DHARAMSALA

Dhasa is at … well , to start with it´s spread out along a series of ridges . The highest sections are around 1800 meters , just over the threshold for acclimatization response. Don´t expect any substantial acclimatization effects from a short stay. On the other hand there are some treks starting here which will give you a definitive edge , like going to and staying overnight at Triund (2800-ish).

MANALI

Manali is at 2050 meters , a working but not ideal altitude to start acclimatization. The first tweak is to go on past Manali to Solang, some twenty klicks north , which lands you at 2500 meters.

Secondly you have Vashisht on the east side of the river : a lot lower than Solang , but still higher than Manali , and within backpacker budget.
The third possible tweak here is to take a day trip up to the Rothang . HPTDC buses makes daily runs in season.

Manali-Leh : OPEN !

The official road  marker changed within the last hour : finally open,  no reservations.

Pstt ! The Manali-Leh road status is ..

.. disputed , in a new , fascinating way . Until now , it´s been fairly easy to describe the status of the Rothang La crossing in four stages :

1. Really , really closed

2. A path being cut over the worst stuff , crossable on foot ( as from March 18th )

3. First clearing of the road , crossable with light vehicles ( as reports over the last week) . Still flagged as closed , until deemed worthy of supporting heavy vehicles.

4. Buses start to run , and the road is flagged as officially open.

This year brings a new twist , though : the BRO and the HRTC arguing over the status of the road , as the first buses start running to Keylong :

“Kullu, May 10
The HRTC has started its bus operation from Keylong to Manali yesterday on trial basis though a few points on the 13,050-feet high Rohtang Pass were not good. This was stated by Devender Narang, regional manager, HRTC, Kullu, who also looks after the Keylong region here yesterday. The bus brought passengers from Keylong and reached Manali, he added.

The Border Road Organisation (BRO), the defence body looking after the Manali-Leh road, however, denied official opening of the Rohtang Pass for heavy vehicles.”

(And yes , the official road marker is still flagged as “closed” )

Source : The Tribune

A new life at “The Plain of Corpses”, road partially open

Several papers carry the story today of a Nepali couple who got a ride from Manali , started to walk across … and had to stop at the Rothang La when the woman went in to labor. Locals helped Vishnu Maya in delivering her baby , and the family later found a temporary refuge in the Koksar rescue post.

According to the same news stories the pas was opened for light traffic hours later. BRO officials quoted in a PTI story talks of the road being “open for inspection ” , and a full opening within ten days.

The official road status marker on the web will continue to show “closed” until the road is fit for bus traffic, as usual.

Manali-Leh road work in progress

The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) is now engaged in clearing snow and reopening the 474-km-long Manali-Leh highway— one of the highest roads in the world.

The highway, which runs north of Manali has now been opened to vehicular traffic up to Gulaba about 23 km from here.

–

According to Lt-Colonel Jaswant Sinha, OC, 70 RCC, Border Roads Organisation, efforts are being made to open the Rohtang pass, gateway to tribal district of Lahaul-Spiti by the last week of April this year.

He said the snow-clearance operation on the Manali-Leh highway this year began on February 18. At present the snow clearing equipment has reached the Beas nullah, the 32-km point of the Manali-Leh highway.

He stated that snow clearance was fast this year as three independent teams were deployed for opening the 222- km Manali- Sarchu section of the Manali-Leh road with the help of snow cutter, as well as other modern machines.

The team from Manali is just short of Marhi, while the second team is clearing snow near Khoksar. The third team is moving towards the 4,883-meter high Baralacha Pass.

Full story

March 18th : Footing it across the Rohtang

The snowbound Rohtang Pass in Himachal Pradesh has been cleared partially, allowing only pedestrians to pass, officials said Monday.

Fifteen people were allowed to cross the 13,050 ft-high pass in Kullu district Monday. Most of the pass, located around 55 km from here, remains under heavy snow.

The pedestrian path has been cut through the snow by the Border Roads Organisation, which looks after the road.

“The state government has set up rescue posts on both sides of the pass with the help of the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute to help pedestrians cross it,” said Abhishek Jain, Kullu district magistrate.

“Expert climbers will be on standby at these posts to help travellers cross the snow-laden pass safely,” he said.

Rothang opens , 07

Manali, May 16
The 475-km Manali-Ladakh road, closed since December last due to snow, has opened to vehicular traffic, official sources said today.

After clearing the snow and necessary repair work, the road via Rohtang Pass was opened to tourists vehicles yesterday, Naresh Mittal, commander of 38 Border Reserve Task Force of General Reserve Engineering Force (GREF), said.

Manali-Leh : Rothang cleared

The Tribune reports that the first first supplies and skor-jangspas have been sent in , and that the road should be fully open by the end of next week :

“

Dharamsala, May 3
Rohtang Pass will be cleared of snow by tomorrow evening. However, the normal traffic will be allowed by Thursday next week.

Naresh Mittal, superintendent engineer of the Border Roads Organisation (BRO), who is in charge of the 38-BRTF at Manali, said the Keylong-Leh road had already been cleared of snow and access to the landlocked snowbound Lahaul valley from Leh had been permitted for the tourists.

However, only a small portion remained to be cut through major glaciers on way to Rohtang Pass from Manali. He said the repair work was going on the high-altitude road and emergency supply of gas, food grains and other essential commodities would be allowed from Saturday morning.”