Kinnaur Kailash

• Rail: Take a train from New Delhi to Kalka Railway station. It will take you about 5 hours to reach Kalka. There are frequent buses to Shimla from Kalka. Take a bus to Rampur from Shimla and change for a bus to Reckong Peo. You can get a bus for Kalpa from Reckong Peo. From Kalpa, you need to hire a taxi to Thangi.

• Road: Thangi is 608 Km from Delhi. You can reach there by following NH 1 and NH 22.

Approx trekking distance (Both sides): 60 Km

Base Camp: Thangi

Difficulty: Difficult

Highest point of trek: 17,194 ft

Nearest Airport: Simla Airport

Nearest Railhead: 337 km

Region: Kinnaur

Snow: Summer and Autumn are the best time for the trek.

Starting point of trek: Thangi

Day 1: Thangi to Lambar

Drive through some beautiful alpine scenery to Lambar (2890m). Parts of the trail pass through a grand gorge.

Day 2: Lambar to Charang

Distance: 12 Km, Duration: 6 Hrs

The trek from Lambar to Charang is moderate even though it is a long one. We reached Charang by evening and stayed at the PWD guesthouse for another day to acclimatize and to visit Charang village and Rangrik Shungma or Charang monastery, which is a 2-hour trek from Charang village and is considered the most holy monastery in Kinnaur. A few landscapes from the trek through Charang village to the beautiful Rangrik Monastery.

Day 3: Charang to Lalanti

Distance: 11 Km, Duration: 4 Hrs

After a nice and peaceful day in Charang, we started next morning to Lalan Ti and had no clue about the ordeal that lay ahead of us. The trek from here is in complete isolation. We didnÕt have a guide or a compass and almost got lost just after crossing Lalan Ti pass the first day! The mountain air with less oxygen made us dizzy and we had to rest often. We re-filled our water reserves when we found a stream. After hours of trekking through the treacherous landscape we couldnÕt see any hut next to the river, as mentioned in the resources weÕd collected. With limited information about the trek and not a soul around to ask for directions, we didnÕt have anything else other than the pile of stones to follow and it was getting dark. We pitched the tent and were worried all night if we were going the right way! According to our map we were going right Ð parallel to the river. So we headed in the same direction next morning following the pile of stones Ð our only hope. Climbing through massive boulder-like stones, by noon we saw finally the hut, but it was on the other side of the river! Which left us wondering again if we were supposed to be on the opposite side! Despite the doubts, we kept following the river and reached Lalan Ti Ð the beautiful emerald lake.

Day 4: Lalanti to Charang La to Chitkul

Distance: 20 Km, Duration: 8 Hrs

After we reached Charang La base camp, we decided to trek up to the foot of the ascent to the pass, so we were closer to the most difficult part and could start the climb straight away in the morning. But after we trekked up we realized that there is no place to pitch a tent! There was just a frozen patch of land with different sizes of loose stones around Ð gravel size to huge ones. We managed to spend the night somehow on a huge slanting rock, the largest we could find. The hard part of climbing the pass was still ahead of us! We woke up to the view of the pass and the tiny prayer flags fluttering at the pass. This was a real test Ð the climb up the pass and the descent down to Chitkul village. ItÕs a really steep ascent with not much to hold other than gravel-like loose stones. ItÕs tricky and dangerous but we reached on top of the pass by noon and that didnÕt seem difficult after what we had already endured. The pass is like a ridge, no more than a few feet in width, on the other side of which is an even steeper fall! The descent to Chitkul was a never-ending walk through huge sharp stones and boulders, with no stream of water till Chitkul. WeÕd finished our water and the village was nowhere in sight. The sun had set and it was a matter of minutes before it became completely dark, and we had no idea how much further we had to trek. Soon our torches were out and we followed the same pile of stones that got us till here. After a long scary trek through that terrain in the light from our torches, we reached Chitkul around 11 pm that night. I couldnÕt believe that weÕd finally reached and it was all over! The next morning was the most beautiful morning IÕd seen ever! It felt divine to have reached Chitkul after the rigorous trek: like entering the gates to Heaven!

Day 7: Chitkul to Shimla

Drive back to Shimla by road.