Khardung La Pass

Khardung La pass is the gateway to the Nubra Valley in Ladakh. It is the highest motorable road in the world, taking you to a dizzying height of 18,380 feet or 5,578m! The view from the top of the pass is amazing. One can see all the way south over the Indus valley to the seemingly endless peaks and ridges of the Zanskar range, and north to the giants of the Saser massif.

The fouth day, we got up a bit cramped, after having spent our first night in the tent. Sun was already up on the mountain-face, and we spent some time taking in the magnificent view of the Indus valley below us. Behind us was the hill that hid the Hemis monastery. We had a quiet night - no rains and ghosts (from the nearby chorten) had disturbed us. Though there were some clouds, the sky still looked very promising. We packed the tent and drove down to Karu.

We straightaway went to the Karu TCP, to inquire the condition of road to Pangong Tso. It was an agonizing wait for two hours, as the phone line to Zingral (from where we had returned yesterday) was not working. The military police officer at the TCP was very helpful, and he tried to get the information from Leh also. Finally, the phone line was repaired and the dreaded news came from Zingral - there was fresh snow and avalanches - the road was still closed. To top it, Leh reported that even the road to Khardung La was closed. Crestfallen, we decided to go back to our transit camp at Leh. On reaching the transit camp, we debated the next move. We had three options - head out to Lamayuru (towards Kargil) which had some old monasteries, or trek out 15kms to Phyang a small village (supposedly a tough trek), or take a risk and head out to Khardung La. Needless to say, we decided to take a chance with Khardung La (even though the morning reports said that the road was closed).

Khardung La is only 3-4 hours journey from Leh. We already had the permit from DM's office to visit Khardung La. The road to Khardung La climbs steadily from 11,500 feet at Leh to 18,380 feet at the top. On the way we had a nice view of the entire Leh valley and the Zanskar range peaks facing it. We reached the TCP about 8kms before the pass in about two-and-half hours, and were greeted by a 2km long line of trucks and other vehicles. This told us in advance that the road was obviously closed. We reached the head of the line, and for a change, good news was awaiting us. The road was being cleared, and it would be cleared in 2 hrs. Boy! Didn't we all hop around like mad at that time! To kill the two hours, we started laboring through the snow up the hill. That turned out to be a very tough exercise as the atmosphere was further rarified at that altitude (17,000 feet). The road was cleared in less than two hours as promised, and we moved on. The road covered with snow was rough, and the jeep slipped a lot, but we finally made it to the top of the highest motorable road in the world!