Hampta pass is considered the easiest and convenient of all treks in Himachal Pradesh. It offers you a soulful experience from the lush green beauty of Kullu to the deserts of Lahaul. A complete contrast of mother nature’s beauty and an incredible twist in the landscape will leave you awestruck. But this mesmerizing experience comes with a price, it will make you little tired and exhausted during the pass crossing day (so.. make sure you have glucose to pump your energy levels up 😜) If the weather permits then you can visit Chandra Tal lake (looks like Pangong lake in Ladhak) also at the end of your trek. As a first-timer, you can go for this trek but you should have some level of fitness (Fitness criteria).
It’s an interesting story that how my life into trekking, choosing my first trek as Hampta pass and going for a first solo trip collectively commenced. After my final year’s college results in July’2016 me and my friends thought of celebrating our graduation by going on a trip in a pocket-friendly manner. So we searched and while doing a little research about it, I got to know about the trekking organization Youth hostel association of India (YHAI). First thing when I heard about them was to check out their prices (well… we were a bunch of college graduates and prices mattered a lot…things had to be light on our pockets for us to be free of any regrets 😜) the prices were pretty much pocket friendly and within our budget. While going through their website (YHAI WEBSITE) I found out about this dramatic crossover trek ‘The Hampta pass’ trek.
It clicked in my sanity. With my least knowledge about trekking back then all I knew was I was supposed to climb mountains that’s all. So after reading about the Hampta pass trek, I realised I should read more and collect some useful information before stepping into it, thanks to my reading and researching habit before stepping into things. I even watched some videos and articles about the trek and with all the knowledge I gathered I packed up the stuff that I believed will help me out during my trek. When all my background research was going on…one by one my whole bunch of friends cancelled on me and my trek and left me all alone excited to go on..though I already made up my mind and was already halfway in the trek in my dreams every day I wanted to make it real and go for it even though it meant to go for it all alone. At that time I had a craze in my mind to go on a solo trip. So right there the crazy part of me seduced to book the tickets and I did it for the batch on 5th September 2016.
DAY – 1 Reaching base camp
YHAI base camp was located at 15 mile, around 24 km ahead of Kullu and around 14 km before Manali. Any bus going towards Manali will pass through 15 mile and the bus drops you just in front of YHAI base camp. I took a bus from Delhi towards Manali (on 4th of September at night around 10 p.m.)and I reached there around at 1 pm in the afternoon.
After verifying my admit card, medical certificate and my YHAI membership card, I got my tent number from my camp leader. I met my tentmates there who were also my fellow trekkers. After all these activities my body needed fuel so I had lunch and took some rest to charge myself up for the upcoming adventure. In the evening we all went for exploring the nearby places.
After roaming we came back to the camps where we had our orientation about the trek and got further details about the trek and about other challenges like altitude sickness. After orientation, we had our dinner, collected our sleeping bags from the respective camp leaders and zipped up ourselves in those cosy bags in our respective tents and dozed off to our dreamlands.
Day – 2 Training & acclimatization walk
At around 5 am, we woke up to the camp leader’s wake-up whistle, so after finishing our morning duties we went for training, near the base camp at around 6 am. We had a training session for an hour, where we got to know about some exercises which we should do before and after our trek to relax our muscles. Training made us hungry, so as soon as the training came to an end we rushed to our base camp to fill our empty hungry stomach with delicious food made by YHAI’s cooking team and just before munching on that tasty breakfast we sent off a batch trekkers in a typical YHAI style who were moving towards the next camp. After fuelling ourselves with food and energy, we met our guide and trek leader who were about to accompany us on our whole trek.
We all sat under a big tree, where our trek leader enlightened us about the difficulty level of the trek and how to pack our backpack, how to climb, how to descend, every single thing we needed to know. As a first-timer, it was very useful. Then we all went for an acclimatization walk with a backpack weighing 2-3kgs, which went for around 2hours.
After having lunch we went back to the base camp.
In the evening we had a campfire with the amazing performance of our teams doing some skits, singing and dancing. We also got feedback of the trek from the trekkers who came back after successfully completing their trek and got some precautions too. Then we went to sleep followed by the dinner. I was excited about the upcoming days as we will be approaching the higher camps.
Day -3 Trek to Sethan (9184 ft.) 8 kms
So after having breakfast we were all ready to move with our backpacks and packed lunch. We boarded the bus to prini village from where we were supposed to start our trek.
It was steep trail till sethan. We were climbing all the way eating chocolates, biscuits to maintain our energy levels.
We started around 8 in the morning and reached sethan at around 2:30 pm.
Upon our arrival, we were welcomed by the welcome drink at the guest house. I wore a sports shoe and I still remember that my shoe’s sole was detaching, thankfully I had fevikwik which helped my shoe and sole remain intact. (Precaution: buy trekking shoes for your trek, don’t trek in sport’s shoes as it’s sole may tear off and you may have to walk barefoot if you don’t have fevikwik)
We halted there to catch up some rest and then we went for a small walk around Sethan.
After returning we had a fun-filled bonfire and then with eagerness to welcome the next day we packed ourselves in our sleeping bags followed by dinner.
Day – 4 Trek to Chikka (10,824 ft.) 8 kms
We left for Chikka at around 8 am, first 4 km was an easy walk along the road till we reached a point where we took the right turn and finally entered into the jungle which then opened into a beautiful meadow leaving the road behind.
This where the real trek starts, it took us around 4 hours to reach the lunch point.
It’s stunning in real many more times than it seems to be in the picture. We were heading towards that mountain in the above picture.
From here till Chikka it was a flat trail with some gradual ascent. It was a beautiful day to trek with perfect weather(advice: Do carry sunscreen with you to avoid tanning).
Finally, we reached Chikka at around 3 in the afternoon.
As you can see in the picture, that was our Chikka campsite. A beautiful campsite hidden in the mountains. This was my favourite campsites of all. Credit goes to the beautiful scenery. This was my first time into the mountains and I wanted to get lost there away from the noisy city into this peaceful place.
So we needed to cross this just before the camps. Little carelessness can throw you into the streams. We explored nearby to enjoy this place ( Tip: this is the best way to get acclimatize). Whenever you reach the above camp don’t go to sleep, explore the campsite and nearby places and enjoy, it will help you get acclimatized very soon. We climbed a huge rock near the campsite for better views.
We trekked from the opposite side towards Chikka. Just before dinner, we did some funny skits to entertain ourselves. Finally, we all fell asleep after dinner followed by the tent talks (We were a bunch of trekkers in one tent sharing each other about our life stories). Some had serious stories, some had a sad one while others had funny one, it was interesting to hear different stories. This was my first time sleeping in a sleeping bag and staying in a tent.
Day 5 – Trek to Balu ka Ghera (11,808 ft.) 10 kms
Today’s trek was a little longer than yesterday. So as usual after breakfast, we were ready to move at around 8 in the morning. Today’s trail was the same as yesterday, flat trail with a gradual ascent with one extra thing to do “stream crossing”. Yes, you heard me right we needed to cross a stream that too on foot and later I got to know that this was not the first (precaution: do carry slippers with you). While crossing stream shoe will get wet which is not preferred and crossing with the barefoot is also not advisable as some sharp rocks inside the stream may hurt your leg. So slippers are suggested here.
If your shoes get wet then it becomes uncomfortable to trek, your foot becomes wet and walking with wet shoes may make you fall ill because cold hits your head and also you may get Acute Mountain sickness (AMS). AMS DETAILS
Other than this, slippers are useful in the campsites where you need to move often inside and outside. Sadly I didn’t had my slippers with me, so I crossed it barefoot on my risk. Guide and trek leader we’re standing in the middle and was helping us to cross the stream. It took us around 30 to 40 minutes to cross. After taking some rest we finally went ahead and reached our lunch point.
We reached lunch point at around 12:30 pm. It was a good sunny day. We finally moved ahead after finishing our lunch. From here it took us around 3 hours to reach today’s destination.
Finally, we reached the campsite at around 3:45 pm. It was yet another beautiful campsite. When you reach the campsite it gives you an amazing feeling that I did it. I loved the campsite.
After reaching the camp, some took rest in the camp while me and others were playing ‘lagori’ (seven stones) game. It’s also called ‘pittu game’ in the Hindi language. It was fun and it really helped me a lot to get acclimatize. We also played cricket.
The one who is batting, he’s our trek leader (Tenzing). Amazing trek leader who guided us all throughout the trek by giving knowledge about how to walk on different terrain and sharing his experiences. After all, that playing, we were hungry and had a good dinner. I must say YHAI’S cooking staff made very tasty foods. Then we went inside the camps and slept with excitement as we were about to go for the final push tomorrow to the Hampta pass.
Day – 6 Trek to Siagouru (10,824 ft.) Via Hampta pass (14,100 ft.) 13 km.
This was the longest and difficult day of all. The pass crossing day. The ultimate day for which we came here, trek towards the final destination.
So we started around at 7 in the morning followed by breakfast and packed lunch. Today we started early as it is suggested that on pass crossing day you should reach the pass as early as possible for the better views and weather. As the weather is unpredictable in the mountains especially at 14,100 ft. Height, same goes for the peak climbing also, the early you reach the better you will get the views and weather. It was a steep climb till Hampta and then steep descend till Siagouru.
The stream which is flowing in the pic it’s called ‘Hampta river’. It was a difficult terrain as we needed to walk on rocks, some were big and some were small loose rocks. It is advisable to use a trekking pole, especially on pass crossing day. It was a 1-hour gradual walk-in rockfall prone area till the starting point of climbing.
There is some point where you may get lost because you cannot see the trail. The trail vanishes so make sure you are with your team and not to get lost. Even we got the instructions from our trek leader that not to lose the sight of fellow trekker, always stay close otherwise you may get lost. The weather was perfect when we started but suddenly it changed as we were nearing Hampta pass. We wanted perfect weather but the mountain had the other plans, for every 5 minutes we got a fog wave, it was so dense you cannot even see the trekker in front of you (around 5 metres ahead of you). At one point even I also lost the trail, some trekkers were behind me and those ahead vanished. I was just stuck there for a while but finally, I got the way.
We had our lunch in the way. We reached Hampta at around 11 in the morning, approx 4 hours from Balu ka Ghera.
Sadly due to weather, I didn’t get clear views from Hampta, other mountains visible from the pass was covered by the fog.
So after spending some moment at Hampta pass we started our descend. As I mentioned earlier it was a steep descend till Siagouru camp. Descend is more difficult as compared to climbing.
As you can see in the picture due to fog nothing is clearly visible. It is always advisable that while descending your bag’s straps should be loose so it pulls you back, your bodyweight should be backwards. Our descent was also difficult due to the loose rocks, we were walking in rocky terrain and also it gives more pressure to your knee. Finally, after around 3 hours and 30 minutes, we reached Siagouru campsite safely.
As you can see in the picture we entered into a desert of Lahul Spiti valley after crossing Hampta from green land of Kullu. A complete drastic change in the views. This the speciality of Hampta pass. Its route is called circular because you ascend from one route and descend from another and then back to base camp. In some trek, you ascend and descent route remains the same.
It was the coldest night at Siagouru. The temperature was close to 0° and with the wind, it felt like the temperature gone to negative. The wind was blowing continuously and even with wearing 4 layers, I felt the cold. It is always advisable to pack extra layers if you are trekking in the months from September to March as compared to the summer treks in May and June.
Day – 7 Trek to Chatru (9,152 ft) 9 km and then to base camp by bus via Rohtang pass (13,120 ft.)
Today was the last day of our trek. We woke up around at 6 in the morning. After having breakfast, we were ready to move with our packed lunch and backpack.
Every trek group took their group photo here after completing the Hampta pass trek with their happy faces. You can say it as a tradition. Pic shows the happy faces of the trekkers who achieved their goal and it motivates other trekkers to do treks and it motivates them that they also can complete the trek.
As you can see in the picture, we needed to cross this stream (2nd one) before trekking towards Chatru that too 8 in the morning. It was very chilled, some crossed barefoot, and some crossed with wearing slippers. As I didn’t had my slippers so I borrowed slippers from my fellow trekker then I crossed it. I will share the video at the end of this blog. We took around 15 to 20 minutes rest after crossing the stream to warm up our feet as it was frozen.
Today’s trek was easy with the flat and down trail. We reached chatru in the afternoon around at 1 p.m. where we had our lunch. We were near to the roads, sadly at that time YHAI not included Chandratal lake with Hampta pass trek, so I couldn’t able to see it. While researching about Hampta pass trek I got to know about Chandratal lake so I expected to go there but unfortunately, it was not included in the itinerary. But now YHAI has included Chandratal in their itinerary.
After having lunch we had our group photo and we went further where the bus was waiting for us to take back to the base camp.
I am standing somewhere in the middle with wearing a red cap, by the way, if you guys want to know 😜
We were around 50 to 60 trekkers in one batch (I don’t remember it exactly) and while coming back in that bus it felt like it was a college trip. Every trekker from different states with different cultures becomes your family. As you need to trek as a team it teaches you teamwork and importance of people in your life. On the way back, it rained and we reached base camp in the evening. We had our dinner at around 8 pm followed by the certificate distribution. Some left for their further journey and some stayed there for the night. I stayed there and the next day morning after breakfast some people went for Naggar castle and me with some of my friends went for Mall road (Manali). In the evening I boarded the bus for Delhi from the base camp. My trip ends here.
TRAVEL DIARIES 