Saturday 18 July 2015

Hampta Pass, Part1: Trek Preps & Brief Info

Trek Preps

The trek to Hampta Pass was long awaited on my list. It was, after all, the logical followup to the partial Hampta Circle trek completed last year in May. The plan was set in motion by Mask around March 2015 and the near-final list was setup by the start of April.

The First Group Pic @ Mumbai Central
L-R: Devendra, Sonal, Aditya, Charuta, me, Gauri, Mayank, Pritam, Sarita, Shivani, Shakeel
Front L-R: Tejal, Sandhya, Arpit

The idea of preparing - physically - for the trek did cross my mind, and I nearly acted on it. However, my procrastinating self got the better of me and come June I was not in a decent shape for such a trek. My last trek of any consequence was the multi-day range trek from Ratangad-Katrabai-Ajoba-Kaladgad-Sadhale Ghat in the first weekend of March. The daily 65km commute from Mira-Road to Airoli also was an energy sapper.

In the one month before the big trek, I managed three treks - Raigad (hot and dry), Harishchandragad (first monsoon) and Raigad again (waterfall deluge). This meant my body was a bit used to the workload expected by the big trek.

The week preceding the trek was spent in some major last-minute shopping: Trek poles and shoes! The woollens would have to be purchased at Manali. Much of the packing was haphazard too, complicated by the formal attire for a training session at Bengaluru that immediately followed the trek.

The stupidest thing was that for the first time I was going to trek in an unused pair of shoes. Well, would have to deal with that there.

 New shoes!!!

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Brief Information about Hampta Pass

Hampta Pass - Trek Map

The Hampta Pass trek begins at Jobri (barrage) near Manali. The trek route passes along the banks of the Allain Nalla which downstream from Jobri empties into the mighty and playful Beas. The trek ascends to about 14000ft. from the Kullu/Manali Valley before plunging steeply to the Spiti Valley to the other side. The stream on the Spiti side empties into the ferocious Chandra River that originates from Chandertaal. The trek ends at Chattru checkpost on the Spiti Highway.

Hampta Pass - Distances and Elevation Profile

The total trek distance is approximately 26kms. The trek has a substantial height gain of almost 4700ft. The major trek days are day two - from Cheeka to Balu Ka Gera - and day three - from Balu Ka Gera over Hampta Pass to Sheagoru. The third day involves almost 7-8 hours of snow walk.

- Kapil Pilankar

2 comments:

  1. Your blog is nice blog and it gives us more information. Thanks for sharing it with us.

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  2. Hey keep posting such good and meaningful articles.

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