spiti valley winter trip – Spiti in Winters

When you think of a Spiti Valley winter trip, you already know you are in for an adventure. The heavy snowfall and the freezing temperatures won’t make things easy but will surely make them fun enough if you are prepared for it. That is exactly what we were looking forward to and exactly what we prepared for on this trip.

But despite all that, things did not go as planned. Mother Nature decided to play spoilsport and one day of rain spoiled weeks and weeks of planning. Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. And this happened to someone like me, who had been to Spiti numerous times and had been guiding people on how to get there.

When I was planning for this Spiti Valley winter trip, I planned it all very meticulously. I checked the weather forecast, road conditions, accommodation, best vehicle, and everything I could think of but the unexpected change in weather made the trip impossible.

In the post below, I will provide a detailed narration of my trip, our preparations, route planning, and everything that you need to know while planning a Spiti Valley winter trip.  Reading through the post below, you can get a fair idea of how you can prepare for this trip, what you should expect, and how things can still go awry. Read on to find out more. You can also check out this video of our trip for more information.

Spiti Valley Winter Trip

So the first question that comes to mind is whether or not a winter trip to Spiti Valley can be planned. The answer to this one is a definite yes. It is not going to be your regular Spiti Valley trip though and you will not be able to cover all the tourist places. But with careful planning, Spiti in winter is definitely doable.

How to reach Spiti Valley in Winter

So let’s first talk about the routes. There are two ways to enter Spiti Valley – either via Shimla or Manali. The route via Shimla is the longer one as it passes through the entire Kinnaur Valley. This is ideally a 2-day journey.

The route via Manali is however much shorter. From Manali, you can enter Spiti in merely 5 to 6 hours and reach Kaza in 7 to 8 hours. The thing with this route however is that it crossed over a high-altitude pass on the way known as Kunzum Pass.

Due to this, this road gets closed during the winter season, after Kunzum Pass gets blocked with snow. On the other hand, the road via Shimla remains open for all 12 months.

So a trip to Spiti Valley in winter means that you will have to go via Shimla and come back the same way. Manali – Kaza road would have to be kept out of your itinerary as well as the Chandratal Lake.

That is how we planned the trip. The idea was to reach Kaza from Shimla and return the same way while covering Kinnaur Valley. It was going to be an 11-day trip which actually was sufficient enough to see everything that was open and accessible.

Spiti Valley Winter Trip Itinerary

The itinerary that was finalized for the trip looked something like this.

• Delhi to Shimla – Day 1
• Shimla to Sarahan – Day 2
• Sarahan to Chitkul – Day 3
• Chitkul to Nako – Day 4
• Nako to Kaza – Day 5
• Kaza – Day 6 & 7
• Kaza to Kalpa – Day 8
• Kalpa to Narkanda – Day 9
• Narkanda to Delhi – Day 10

It ensured that we were traveling at a slower pace, giving us ample time to enjoy the view and shoot videos for my YouTube channel. Our stay on Day 3 was actually in Rakcham. Chitkul usually gets completely closed during the winter season. While you may be able to reach there, finding accommodation will be very challenging. That is why we booked our stay in Rakcham instead.

This also ensured that in case of heavy snowfall, while we were there, we wouldn’t get stuck in Chitkul and would be able to make our way out from Rakcham. The road to Sangla and Rakcham usually remains open for all 12 months, or at least that is what we thought.

Since the road between Manali and Kaza remains closed in winter, it was kept out of the itinerary. Chandratal too becomes inaccessible at this time and we had to keep that out as well.

Accommodation

With all of this planned and finalized came the question of hotels. In Kinnaur Valley, a lot of hotels remain operational in winter months so that was not the challenge. The problem was with our hotels in Spiti Valley.

I am not saying you can’t find a hotel in Spiti in winter. You can but finding one with good amenities can be a challenge. Since the temperature in these months can get as low as -25 degrees Celsius, running water becomes a luxury.

The risk of water freezing in the pipes causing them to burst open forces the hotel owners to stop running water entirely. Hot water gets provided in buckets in limited amounts and you will have to make do with that only.

Second, comes the question of heating and cold weather. We had to find a hotel that provided proper heating arrangements and a comfortable stay during such harsh weather.

After a bit of research and talking to a few people, we finally narrowed it down to a few good hotels that I will later talk about in the article. We called them, provided our dates of travel and accommodation was booked.

Best Car for Spiti Valley Winter Trip

The best car for a winter trip to Spiti Valley would be a 4X4 SUV with high ground clearance. This would ensure that you do not get stuck anywhere in the snow and are able to manage slippery roads. Carrying snow chains would also be mandatory.

I own a Mahindra Thar which is more than capable of handling such challenges. The problem however was with my driving skills. I have been traveling in the mountains for years now and can very well handle a car on extreme roads but my experience of driving on snow was minimal.

It was only once in Kashmir that I drove on snow for a little while and that was it. Due to this, I did not feel confident about driving to Spiti all by myself. For a while, I did consider it but for some reason, I could not gather enough courage and gave up the idea in the end.

That left us with only one option – to hire a taxi for the trip. Once again, a few calls were made and I booked a cab through a friend. The plan was that we would drive to Chandigarh in my Thar, leave my car there at a friend’s place, and travel by cab from there on.

Best Time for Spiti Valley Winter Trip

The best times for a winter trip to Spiti Valley are the months of February and early March. All the heavy snowfall in January would ensure that there is plenty of snow when you reach there in February and you would see a completely white Spiti that you went there for.

That is what we finalized as well. Snowfall started very late that year, only in late January. So we decided to go to Spiti in the first week of March, just to make sure that there is plenty of snow accumulated throughout February by the time we get to Spiti.

Things to Pack for a Spiti Valley Winter Trip

With all these arrangements made, it was time to start packing and get ready for D-Day. Some of the things that we packed are mentioned below.

• Heavy Windproof Jacket
• Waterproof Gloves
• Warm Socks
• Ankle Length Boots
• Thermals
• Heavy Woolen Clothes
• Woolen Caps
• Cold Creams
• Lip Balms
• Basic Medicines
• Power Banks
• Sunglasses

Challenges with a Spiti Valley Winter Trip

Let me also talk about some of the challenges I knew we were going to face during this trip due to which I packed all of that I mentioned above.

The temperature during the day in winter in Spiti remains around -5 degrees Celsius and at night, it drops to -25 degrees Celsius. To be able to manage in the snow and in the cold weather, you will have to bring all heavy woolen clothes, heavy windproof jackets, and boots that can allow you to walk around in the snow.

Running Water may not be possible at this time which means you will have to squat over a dry pit in the morning. Or there will just be one common washroom for the entire hotel and heated water will be provided in a bucket that you will have to carry to the washroom for the morning routine.

Such harsh weather means that you will have to carry lip balms, moisturizers, and cold creams to protect your skin. Sunglasses would also be beneficial as the shining sun on snow can be a little hard on the eyes

If there was a heavy snowfall, electricity could be gone for days or even weeks sometimes. That is why we packed a few heavy-duty power banks to charge our phones. Due to the extreme weather, sometimes even phone networks may not work for days

That was it. That was our preparation for a much-awaited winter trip to Spiti Valley. Finally, after getting everything ready, D-Day arrived and we started our journey.

Day 1 – Delhi to Shimla

It was the last day of February when we started from our homes in Delhi at around 2 am. Farmers’ protest was going on so we were afraid that we might get delayed at Delhi Border and that is the reason why we started a bit early from Delhi.

Thankfully, we did not encounter traffic or roadblocks anywhere. We got out of Delhi easily. After a smooth drive of about 5 to 6 hours, we reached Chandigarh just as the sun was starting to come up.

As planned, we left our car parked at my friend’s place and boarded the cab, which was an Innova Crysta. From there, we drove out of Chandigarh, reached Kalka, and were soon driving up the mountains toward Shimla.

We stopped at a Dhaba to get some breakfast as we were both hungry, as well as our driver Anthony. This is where I made the mistake of ordering Pav Bhaji for breakfast.

It tasted good and I did not feel anything wrong with it at the time of eating it. But about 30 minutes later, I started to feel uneasy and nauseous. I immediately knew that the Pav Bhaji I had was not sitting well in my stomach.

Hotel Euphoria Grand, Shimla

For the next 2 hours, until we reached Shimla, I kept asking our driver to stop the car so I could step out and throw up. I think I vomited 3 times on our way and it was only after the Pav Bhaji was completely out of my stomach that I started to feel a little better.

Nonetheless, by noon, we arrived in Shimla and started to look for the hotel we booked our stay in. It was named Hotel Euphoria Grand and while the name and the pictures I saw looked like a huge hotel, finding it became a task impossible.

We drove around narrow roads around the bus stand, asked a few people, called the hotel, and finally found our way to it. We reached there, checked in, and retired to our rooms.

Not much happened after that. We went to sleep for a couple of hours, sat on the hotel roof in the evening, had dinner, and called it an early night. That was our journey for Day 1. The real adventure started on Day 2.