Rothang closes : ten dead

Workers and Lahaulis have continued to foot it over the Rothang La on the Manali-Leh highway while snow cover was manageable , until the last days weather hit. Manali Mountaineering Institute rescue workers found two more bodies yesterday , one unidentified, bringing it up to a total of ten . Fifteen workers were rescued in time and treated for frostbite. The pass is closed indefinitely , with harder weather to come.
Source : Tribune , Times of India

Manali-Leh : CLOSED

Leh had it´s first snow yesterday , lasting a few hours . Higher up the Khardung La was blocked – and today the Manali-Leh Highway is shown as closed. IANS talks of heavy snowfall over the Lachulung La & Tanglang La. Daytime temperatures still around + 10 , night time -10.

Sources : Tribune , leh.nic.in

“Manali-Leh Closing October 31st”

The Border Roads Organisation today said that the Rothang and Baralacha La were expected to be impassable from snow soon , and that they will not try to keep the Manali-Leh Highway open after October 31st : BRO “would not be in a position to carry out snow clearance operation for evacuation in case of any accident or physical casualty.”

Source : Tribune

Over the Rothang

Manali-Kaza , September 19th © Eva Forss

Roshni tweets from a single day cannonball run between Leh and Manali  on the 19th :

continuous snowfall that threatened to close all the passes, falling rocks etc

Twitter with it´s 142 character limit forces you to condense your language , the vikings would have liked it.

Swedish blogger Eva hit the Kaza-Manali road on the  19 th :

The beauty of all that snow …finally we realised all the work involved in removing all the snow , and the time needed for it . In several places avalanches had hit the road , towering high as houses..

Eva´s  blog   , with more photos , you´ll find at  Resedagboken (you can imagine my surprise finding someting in my mother tongue )

UPDATE: Posters on IndiaMike describe going over virtually snowfree Rothang & Kuzum La on the 26th and 30th.

Manali Today .. Not Too Promising

“view from Dharma guesthouse” from twitpic (looks more like lower end of Vashisht).
Weather report says mostly cloudy (doh ! ) , possible rain and thunderstorms tonight.

UPDATE : Better weather , same crossed the Rothang and is now sunning in Lahaul.
Swedish blogger crossed the Kunzum & Rothang La on the 19th.

Rothang , Baralacha La open

The sun has reappeared in Himachal after four days of continous rain and snowfall and ensuimg landslides and snowlocked passes. BRO has just announced that also the Baralacha La has been cleared for light vehicles , and should be open for trucks and buses soon. No word on the Kunzum La yet.

UPDATE, MONDAY : Baralacha La finally cleared from three feet of snow.

New Snowfall over Rothang , Baralacha La

Baralacha La September 9th – photo by vikramkyy , see his other photos on IndiaMike here

The Manali-Leh Highway has been cut by renewed snowfalls according to the Tribune today which quotes BRO: Baralacha La has received more than forty centimers of snow , while the Rothang La received around twenty. Traffic is at a standstill at Bharatpur and Koksar ,and at Gulaba which have heavy rains.  There is also snow over the Kunzum La on the  Manali-Kaza route to Spiti.

Manali-Leh , northward traffic has been stopped at Darcha.

Leh-Manali , southward traffic has been stopped at Sarchu.

Manali-Kaza traffic has been stopped at Gramphu.

Kaza-Manali traffic has been stopped at Losar.

UPDATE, THURSDAY : IANS quotes police source saying that 140 people  , among them 22 foreigners , has been rescued around Sarchu , and that the road has been cleared again , including the Baralacha La. Shimla received the seasons heaviest rain , 59 mms , on Thursday.

Picnic Crackdown : Rothang Closes Tuesdays

In a bid to eliminate the gridlocks to the Rothang La closes for tourist traffic on Tuesdays .. sort of .

“No tourist vehicle will  be allowed beyond Kothi on every Tuesday between 9 am to 6 pm ” – but HRTC buses will continue to roll.

What this amounts to is a lock out of the day trips crowd – the shared jeeps bound for Leh  will have already already have passed the Rothang in the early morning hours , and the returnees will arrive at Manali in the evening.When I crossed last time it took sx and a half hours (!)  up to the Rothang . The frustrations of the Lahaulis has problably not been the main reason , but the mounting critique of the slow pace in double laning the road.

This will create  a slot for buses ( interesting to see if the private buses will slip by )  and BRO transports only.

First snows close Manali-Leh road, Kunzum La

Heavy snows in the rest of Himachal has turned in to snow over the Rothang La and Lahaul , making the road impassable.

Tribune today talks of   ”hundreds “of vehicles stranded on both sides of the Rothang , and at Baralacha La on Thursday. BRO has set upp barriers in four places : Marhi ( before the Rothang at around 3300) , Koksar ( at the northern base of the Rothang , around 3100) , Darcha ( 3360 , the crossroads for the routes to Leh & Padum ) and  Sarchu ( “The Vomit Hilton”,  at 4253 ) .

HRTC  also confirmed that all buses and taxis had to turn back at Marhi today.

The route to Spiti from Manali has also been taken out by  heavy snowfall  over the Kunzum La pass.

UPDATE : By Friday afternoon Manali-Leh road was open again for light traffic , and the Kunzum  La was cleared again according to the Deputy Commissioner in Keylong. 282 travellers , including sixty foreigners , was evaced from Baralacha La on Thursday.

UPDATE , SATURDAY : Baralacha La cleared, forty vehicles moving towards Keylong from Bharatpur.

Slide

From a tweet : landslide at Marhi takes out the Manali-Leh road for the better part of the day.