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Lamkhaga Pass Trek 2023
May 23, 2023 @ 8:00 am – May 31, 2023 @ 5:00 pm IST
The Lamkhaga pass forms the drainage divide between Baspa river basin and Jalandhari Gad river basin. Baspa is left side tributary of Satluj and Jalandhari Gad is right side tributary of Bhagirathi river.
The trek is doable from both Chitkul / Sangla (Himachal Pradesh) or Harsil / Gangotri (Uttarakhand) side. Trekking this pass (creating the border between Uttarakhand and Himachal) is an opportunity to experience a range of contrasting but beautiful landscapes such as vast snowfields, mountain meadows, riverside slopes interspersed with boulders and scree, overhanging glaciers, alpine forests.
Before the construction of Hindustan-Tibet road by the Sutlej Valley, many travellers preferred to enter Kinnaur through Baspa Valley. The journey from plains could be accomplished over various passes in the Dhauladhar range.
History of exploration of mountain passes on Kinnaur-Garhwal ranges
- The earliest of the explorers were Gerard Brothers, who trekked over Buran & other passes from Pabbar valley in 1818.
- In 1860, Lady Canning (wife of Viceroy Charles Canning) of British Raj crossed Rupin Pass all the way to Chini(Kalpa).
- In 1933, Marco Pallis, the explorer & mountaineer, travelled to Kinnaur, took this difficult route over Chotkhaga or Nela Pass (a pass located nearby Lamkhaga ridge). He entered Baspa valley and finally summitted Leo Pargyal peak (6791 m)
In his book Ladakh : The Peaks and The Lamas Marco has written
The pass itself is long and monotonous. For the ignorant it is merely a snow grind, but for the geographer, who knows that here is the parting of the two of the great river systems of the world, there is a romance in the thought that standing on the crest, the waters on his right—go down to swell the sacred Ganga and bring life to the whole north Indian plains, before the river discharges its flood in the Bay of Bengal ; while the melting caused by his left boot will be carried first into the Baspa, and then via Satluj and the Indus into the Arabian Sea.
Lamkhaga Pass 2023 Itinerary
- Day 0: (May 22) Shimla to Chitkul (3435 m) — By Bus or car
- Day 1: Chitkul (3435 m) to Nagasthi — Rani Kanda (3700 m) 10 km distance and about 5 hr trek
- Day 2: Rani Kanda to Dumti (4050 m) — 9 km distance / about 5 hr trek
- Day 3: Dumti to Gundar (4450 m) — 15 km distance / about 7 hr trek
- Day 4: Gundar (4400 m) to Lamkhaga Pass Base Camp 1 (4400 m)
- Day 5: Lamkhaga Pass, base camp 1 to Base Camp 2 (Kinnaur)
- Day 6: Lamkhaga Pass base camp 2 (Kinnaur side) to Lamkhaga Pass base camp 3 (14.4k feet / 4,395 m) on Gangotri Side via Lamkhaga Pass (5300 m) — 11 km distance and 6–7 hr trek
- Day 7: Lamkhaga Pass Base Camp 3 to Kyarkoti (3820 m) — 16 km distance / 7–8 hr trek
- Day 8: Kyarkoti to Harsil (2400 m) — 14 km/6–7 hr trek
- Kinnaur Bus Timetable (New Timings) – June 4, 2022
- Spotting Snow Leopards Of Kibber (in Spiti Valley) – February 21, 2022
- Guest Post Guidelines | Write For Raacho Trekkers – November 21, 2020