Hampta Pass Trek is one the most sought after monsoon trek by mountain trekking lovers. It is an easy to moderate trek depending on the fitness of travellers. Best time to visit here is from June to September, after September complete trek is covered with deep snow which makes it difficult to travel. Trek stretches to 28 KM from Jobra to Chhatru. Jobra is the beginning point of this trek which can be reached by personal vehicles  or vehicles of trekking comapny. Chhatru is last point which is located near Spiti highway and well connected with the motorable tarmac road.

Manali is the starting point for hampta Pass Trek. So first you need to reach Manali. Manali can be easily reached by car, taxi, bus or flight. There is no train service to Manali, last train station is Chandigarh. Volvo buses ply from all major cities like Delhi, Chandigarh every night and reaches next morning. It takes around 12-14 hours from Delhi.

Before starting any high altitude trek, it is always recommended to acclimatize your since most travellers are from plain areas, who may face health issue due to thin air and altitude mountain sickness (AMS). So it is better to reach atleast one day in advance. Otherwise most trek begins after 10 to 11 AM in morning from different trek base in Manali depending upon the trekking company.

Hampta Pass trek can be taken as Do It Yourself trek(DIY)  or through trek organisation. DIY mode is best suited for seasoned trekkers, who are well versed with emergency situation, cooking, heavy lifting and navigation etc. For novice trekkers, organised trek are best suited, which provide well pitched tents, cooked food, experienced guide with all necessary emergency support and knowledge of the location and hand holding to the first time trekkers.

There are lot of trek organizing companies in Manali.

Some of the famous trekking companies for Hampta Pass are:

1. IndiaHikes
2. YHAI
3. Trekkers of India
4. Himalayan hikers
5. Kailash rath
6. Himtrek
7. Trekyaari

This order does not indicate any priority.

Important highlights of the trek

1. Trek length : 28 KM
2. Number of days required : 5 Days.
3. Cost : It costs 7000, but vary from trekking company to company including 2000 for Chandertaal lake . Excludes journey to Manali and back.
4. Last accessible ATM: Manali
5. Last mile network connectivity: Jobra and koksar
6. Gadgets to carry: carry as minimum as possible according to your photography and videography needs. I carried my mobile, GoPro, 20k maH powerbank, small tripod for timelapse and long exposure photography. I used mostly mobile and I am not able to even use all three batteries of GoPro on entire trip. Camera is must to capture the scenic beauty of the trek. Keep it less on weight. You can carry any number of gadgets or camera. Drone is allowed.
7. Clothing : Quick dry shirts for day treks (t-shirts not recommended due to sunburn). Warm clothing for night camping and waterproofing to protect against snow and rain. It is advisable to carry minimal to keep the backpack lightweight. I carried 2 waterproof and warm trek pants, 1 normal trek pant for day trek, 1 waterproof jacket , 1 fleece, 1 pair of waterproof mid ankle trekking shoes, 1 pair of sandals, 3 pair of socks, 4 pair of undergarments, 4 shirts, 1  sun cap, 1 dark goggles, 1 mask, 1 pouch of basic medicine , bandage, moov and gadgets mentioned above. Multiple plastic bag to protect all items from rain inside a waterproof rucksack. All these in a 40 L rucksack with rain cover.
8. What not to carry: Don't carry speakers, unnecessary weight in rucksack.
9. Challenges of trek: Unpredicted rain and snow fall, black ice near hampta pass and descend from hampta pass is usually slide through snow, river crossing, glacier crossing.
10. Why all trek operators advise to carry cash on trek : There are number of shops on entire trek, where you can get eatbles and other essentials, there is a paid alternate to water crossing. At chhatru campsite there are some dhabas nearby so you can pay there. Our trek also included the Chandratal lake. On the way to chandratal there will surely be some stopping point for eating and some times you may need to pay for using washroom.

Day wise activities

Day 1: Delhi to Manali

Manali is the nearest city for Hampta pass trek. So first we need to reach Manali. Manali can be reached via all sorts of transportation like bus, taxi, air and nearest railway station is chandigarh. Nearest airport is Bhuntar airport which is around 1 hour drive from Manali. Since I was going alone, so I preferred to go by bus. There are large number of AC and Non AC buses plying from Delhi to Manali every evening. Major departure points for most private volvo and other Deluxe buses are R.K Ashram metro station, Red Fort and Majnu ka Tila. You can also board these buses at karnal bypass.

My boarding point was Majnu ka Tila, I was quite early to reach there and found the Gurudwara Majnu ka Tila as the best place to visit and this was my first visit to this Gurudwara, I find this place amazing and it has got a very soothing and unique vibe. After an hour of reat there, it was time for bus, so I called the bus and they asked to come outside Mother Teresa's Nirmal Hriday church which was about 400-500 metres from Majnu ka Tila.it was around 10:00 PM when my bus came. Now it was time to relax and enjoy the ride. Bus took an dinner stop somewhere near kurukshetra around 1 AM.

When I woke up at 7 AM, bus was near Sunder Nagar, Himachal Pradesh and. We were notified by the bus driver that , there is huge landslide near Mandi and it will take time to road repair and bus was halted on a roadside dhaba. Later we came to know that landslide has happened well before our bus departed from Delhi and bus staff already knew about the situation. But they didn't told anybody till morning.

Now it was time to wait, wait for hours and hours. We kept tracking news from local administration and from 7 AM in morning, we waited till 7 PM, when landslide was recovered and I reach the Manali 1 AM. I had booking for my stay with trekking company based camp. When I reached there no one was there to attend me. So I looked in every nook and corner of the camp area and found one tent lying vacant and made that tent my night stay. In morning views from the camp were just amazing and the camp was on the bank of beas river. That's was all about my journey of 27 hours to reach Manali.

Day 2: Starting day of trek

After having a comfortable sleep in the tent and amazing views from my camp in morning. Then I had my daily routine task to get ready for the day. Packed aloo Paratha were given as breakfast and we moved to Prini base camp. Prink base camp was the main starting and gathering point for the Hampta pass trek. Prini base camp was surrounded by green mountains and snow peaks were visible far away.

There I met all my fellow trekkers and our guides. We were briefed about the trek, do's and don'ts during the trek. Around 12 noon we left the base camp in Tata Sumo towards Jobra via Sethan village. It was an rainy start and scenery along the route was mesmerizing and now it was time to make a call to family before leaving mobile connectivity and join the wilderness.

After an hour of drive, we reach Jobra and rain stopped. Now it was time to tighten the laces and fasten the backpack for our first day of trek to Chika campsite. In beginning there was a dense forest providing ample shadow from bright sunshine. We were full of energy and trek felt like an cake wake while going through lush green grassland surrounded by high mountains. It took around 4-5 hours to reach camps for first day. The accomplishment was awarded by the amazing waterfall near our camps and delicious food.

Everyone decided their tent partner since all tents were two person tent. Some people even choose to stay in single tent because number of tents were ample. I got my tent partner from my same field, he is engineer at Microsoft, Hyderabad. He was also the only married person like me there. So we had all sorts of discussion.

Note: During camping you need to carry out all your to task like cleaning your utensils, self service of food and finally setting up of your tent from inside.

Check Hampta pass photogallery

Day 3: Chika to Balu ka Gera

Morning was quite chilly and soothing. After completing daily morning rituals, I took some morning timelapse and it was very quiet. Trekkers from various other groups were by us because our tents were at last in that area. We also get ready and started our trek to Balu ka Gera. Trek was through rocks and a water stream was going parallel to us. We had our packed lunch and breakfast was already taken. Trek was just amazing and not that tiring till we reach the days first river crossing. This was the toughest part of today's trek. All of has to make a human chain by holding the hands very tight that if one of pair goes down then river flow will take him or her with flow. We were advised not to take lift our legs while in river, we need to just slide our feet without leaving the ground or we are gone. Everyone was wet upto hips and we had all our belongings in our backpack and shoes were tied firmly to backpack. No one got hurt and it was an wonderful experience. There was also an alternative to this river crossing, for which a rope was tied their by a person , he will hang you down and you will cross the river like ropeway. Charge for this was 300 per person. So if you don't feel confident then you can choose this option or if you are in small group then this option is preferred. Ahead of this crossing trek become smooth and we had a large grassland full of beautiful flowers. This part of trek is also called of valley of flowers. This day we reached the Balu ka Gera campsite by 2-3 PM and had ample amount of time to explore nearby and sit down on the bank of flowing river near by.

Balu ka Gera means,  Balu is Hindi word for sand and Gera meant surrounded by. So Balu ka Gera means a place surrounded by sand.

Day 4: Summit Day

With every new day trek was getting more and more challenging, these challenges are what makes trekking an adventurous. This day was no different from earlier two days, we had same morning schedule and then after full filing breakfast, complete group moved ahead with full energy and enthusiasm because today we are about to witness the main attraction of the trek i.e. Hampta Pass peak located at 12000 feet from sea level. Now we can see Snow patches and cold is increasing. We crossed several glaciers and Rocky terrain. Trek was going normal with some cold breeze blowing all over until we reach near the summit.

As we approached near the summit i.e. Hampta Pass altitude was more than 11000 feet and every step is causing breathlessness and climb was very steep. We needed to stop after every new step and one of the group even decided to go back due to altitude sickness and breathlessness. After tiring efforts we finally reached the summit and it was an time to celebrate the achievement, every was taking selfie, we took group with trekking company banner and it was overwhelming to be there. This excitement didn't lasted for long and we are welcomed by snow storm making night in day. Nothing was visible and everyone is packed in their jacket, poncho, sunglass, cap and looking like astronaut. Now it was time to move ahead, this descend was most difficult part of the trek, when I realised that anyone can climb the Everest but main struggle is in descending. Entire trek was wet due to ongoing snowfall and rain and has rocks. So a single wrong step can make you angel. Main turnaround came when there was no trek and everyone need to descend by sliding on the snow. By this time we are in Spiti valley. Hampta Pass is connection between kullu valley and Spiti valley. Now there was no vegetation due to high altitude and entire valley was covered with snow. You can enjoy this journey in my videos as well.

Descend is not so tiring but challenging. We reached Shea Goru campsite and rain stopped. Not an single piece of cloth on body was dry. Even item in trekking bag covered with waterproof cover are wet. So everyone changed their cloths made themselves dry and we put the wet to dry. Campsite was just looking like a movie scene, beautiful red colour tent on the bank of flowing river, just 2 metre from river bank. Views from this campsite are even better than earlier camps. So every new day on the trek was bringing something better. We had delicious dinner and enjoyed the sky full of stars.

Day 5: Shea Goru to Chhatru and Chandertaal lake

Shea Goru means cold place. Shea Goru campsite was the best campsite till now and vibes better with every new day. Morning was refreshing with cool air blowing with stream of water and sunrising between mountains. Morning views were just amazing. Today was the last day of trek and trek is simpler after Hampta Pass peak. Everyone was full of energy and excitement of completing the trek was unbelievable. Trek took around 4 hours and scenery was quite different from 1st and 2nd day of trek. But it is well said, mountains change their mood every hours so be prepared. Everyone was excited to finish the trek before we met an surprise. There was a patch of glacier very steep to cross with river chanderbagha flowing at lighting speed on the right. So it was time to test again the strength of human chain. You can check the video of same and feel the reality.

Finally reached the last campsite. Now there were eateries and this campsite is connected with motorable road to Manali and Chandertaal.

After some rest, everyone is ready for Chandertaal lake. So all of us are boarded in two Sumo and started our journey to Chandertaal lake, now we can see the beauty of Spiti valley. Spiti valley is barren land with sandy and Rocky mountains, there was no greenery. Journey to Chandertaal lake was tough because of bad road conditions, there were some patches of road with even signs of road, It was an bumpy ride of 2 and half hour in either side. Chandertaal lake is worth all of your pain. While coming back from Chandertaal, we also took an maggie break at famous ChaChi dhaba run by couple. You can also reach there by your own vehicle but keep in mind to leave as early as possible in morning because there are several water crossing on the way, which becomes river as glacier melts in daytime. Sometimes even causes hour of road block due to powerful water stream which no one dares to cross. Night drives are even more like a haunted movie, so travel mountains in day only. Finally we reached our camps  after sunset and

Day 6: Chhatru to Manali

Now it was time to say goodbye to Spiti valley and back to Manali via Atal tunnel. Atal tunnel is a marvel of engineering, there is no doubt in that, but what I experienced there was not expected. After entering 2-3 kms in the tunnel there was so much smoke that it was visible with naked and very difficult to cross next 6-7 KMS in non AC vehicle with open window. It was an more than 2 hours drive and we reached before 12 noon.  After that I had my volvo bus booked for evening.

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