Collections · The high country
Passes and villages over 4,000 m
Every route in the library whose highest point clears 4,000 metres — motorable passes, plateau villages and the roadheads of high treks. These are cold, thin-air, self-reliant rides: acclimatise properly, carry spare fuel, and ride the passes only in the dry morning.
16 routes in this collection · the full library
Delhi to Spiti Valley Circuit
The full loop, ridden anticlockwise: in through Kinnaur along the Sutlej, up into the cold desert of Spiti to Kaza, over Kunzum La at about 4,550 m to…
Best mid-Jun–mid-Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Lahaul & Sissu
The Atal Tunnel under the Rohtang ridge turned Lahaul from a five-month summer cul-de-sac into a valley you can reach in an afternoon from Manali.
Best Jun–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Sangla & Kalpa
Kinnaur is the valley the Sutlej cuts on its way out of Tibet, and the old Hindustan-Tibet road is carved into its cliffs.
Best Apr–Jun, Sep–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Chanshal Pass
The Chanshal Pass, at roughly 4,520 m, is the highest motorable point in Shimla district and one of the least-travelled high passes within a two-day ride of Delhi.
Best mid-Jun to Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Bhabha Valley
The Bhabha Valley runs north off the Sutlej at Wangtu, deep in Kinnaur — a green, forested side-valley that most riders on the Kinnaur road never see.
Best Jun–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Spiti's High Villages
Above Kaza, a loop of rough roads climbs the Spiti plateau to the villages that top every list: Langza with its giant hillside Buddha and its fossil beds; Komic,…
Best Jun–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Pin Valley & Mud
The Pin Valley branches south off the Spiti river below Kaza — a dead-end valley protected as the Pin Valley National Park, home to ibex, blue sheep and a…
Best Jun–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Darma Valley
The Darma Valley runs north from Dharchula in far-east Kumaon, parallel to the Byans valley, along the Dhauli Ganga.
Best Jun–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Adi Kailash & Om Parvat
The Byans Valley runs to the tri-junction of India, Nepal and Tibet.
Best Jun–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to the Pangi Valley
Pangi is a valley of the Chandra-Bhaga (Chenab) walled off between the Pir Panjal and the Zanskar range, reached from Chamba only over the rough Sach Pass at…
Best Jul–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Dodra Kwar
Dodra Kwar is the most isolated tehsil in Himachal — two high villages, Dodra and Kwar, in valleys walled off from the rest of the state.
Best Jun–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Bhaderwah & Padri Pass
Bhaderwah, in Jammu's Doda district at about 1,600 m, is a pine-ringed town in the Chenab valley that people call ‘mini Kashmir’ and then never visit.
Best May–Oct
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Churdhar Peak
Churdhar (Chur Chandni), at about 3,647 m, is the highest peak of the outer Himalaya — a bald rock dome south of the main range, topped by the Shirgul…
Best Apr–Jun, Sep–Nov
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Leh via Kinnaur & Spiti
The back door to Ladakh. Instead of the fast, brutal Manali sprint, this route climbs the Sutlej through Kinnaur, crosses Spiti and Kunzum La (4,590 m) into…
Best Jun–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Hanle & the Changthang
Hanle, in the far south-east of Ladakh's Changthang, sits at about 4,300 m in a broad valley of the upper Indus tributaries.
Best Jun–Sep
See the route → OutstationDelhi to Turtuk & the Nubra-Shyok Villages
Turtuk, at the far end of the Nubra valley near the line with Pakistan, is a Balti village — stone-and-timber lanes, water channels, apricot and walnut…
Best Jun–Sep
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