Thamsar Pass Trek

Short Itinerary

Day: 1 - Jogindernagar - Barot

Get together with the other members along with some adventurous activities.

Day: 2 - Badagran - Plachak

Today you will go upwards through the mountain villages.

Day: 3 - Plachak - Panhartu

Cold and exciting day. You will walk on the glacier and see the waterfall.

Day: 4 - Panhartu - Thamsar Pass - Panhartu

The most exciting part of the journey. You will reach the highest point of the journey and see twin lakes.

Day: 5 - Panhartu - Rajgundha

You will go downwards n this day as the journey is moving towards the end.

Day: 6 - Billing - Bir - Palampur

Final day and also exciting one. Here you can take part in the paragliding kinds of stuff.

Expanded Itinerary

Day 01:

Jogindernagar - Barot

Distance to cover: 39 km

Approximate time to cover: 1:30 hrs

Altitude:

On the very first day, you have to reach Jogindernagar. You can reach there by car or shared taxi, which could be available either from Delhi or from Chandigarh. After reaching Jogindernagar, you can take some rest in the hotel or guesthouse. Here at Jogindernagr, you will meet with the other members of your team. With these members, you will complete the trekking. After taking some rest, you will go to Barot by shared car. The distance between Barot and Jogindernagar is nearly 39 km and you will reach there within one and half hour. Here at Barot, you can engage yourself with adventure activities like rock climbing, rappelling, etc.

Day 02:

Badagran - Plachak

Distance to cover:

Approximate time to cover: 3-4hrs

Altitude: 8530 feet

The trek will start from here at Badagran village. You have to wake u early, eat breakfast and get ready as early as possible. Today’s part is moderately difficult. Today you will go to the highest point of 8530feet. Although the trek for today is short. Still, trekking through the villages in the heart of the mountains will be thrilling. There will be small and old wooden houses in those villages. The entire landscape and the scenic beauty of the surrounding will definitely give you goosebumps. You will reach at Plachak early. Now, you have to take rest, stay in the camp at night at Plachak.

Day 03:

Plachak - Panhartu

Distance to cover: 9 km

Approximate time to cover: 3-4hrs

Altitude: 10826 feet

Today, you will start from Plachak and go towards Panhartu. You will witness the thrilling in front of your eyes today. Today’s part of trekking will not be too long. Still, it will be full of adventure. In this part, you will be able to walk on the snow and white glacier. You will see a waterfall here at Guhardi. After crossing the waterfall, you will reach the beautiful meadow at Panhartu. This meadow is very beautiful and full of green plants and herbs. Here at Panhatru, you can enjoy the views of the surroundings and spend the night in the tents. You must keep yourself warm as the night here must be cold enough.

Day 04:

Panhartu - Thamsar Pass - Panhartu

Distance to cover: 14 km

Approximate time to cover: 4-5 hrs

Altitude: 15748 feet

This day will be the most exciting part of this whole trekking. On this day you will be able to climb and witness the Thamsar Pass. You will also reach the highest point of this journey at an altitude of 15748 feet. Another exciting part of this day is to cross the twin lakes at the base of the Thamsar Pass. These are basically glacial lakes. Thamsar pass is surrounded by snow and it shares two different valleys on each side. The first one is the Kangra valley and the other one is the Ravi valley. When you are on the topmost point of the pass, you will see some glimpse of the lush Kangra valley. This trek needs climbing on different occasions. Popular Himalayan ranges like Pir Panjal, Kalihani, etc. will surround you along with the entire Bhara Bhangal village. After spending a day full of thrill and excitement, you will return to the campsite and spend the night there.

Day 05:

Panhartu - Rajgundha

Distance to cover: 12 km

Approximate time to cover: 3-4hrs

You should wake up early in the morning as usual and have some breakfast. Then you will start your journey right from Panhartu. From here, you will start moving downwards to Rajgundha. Today’s journey is not too long and the path will be easy. Therefore it will not take too much time to finish. You should walk slowly and enjoy beauty rather than moving fast. The trek is going towards the end. Therefore you will get a little time to feel this moment. After trekking for 3 to 4 hours, you will reach Rajgundha. Here you will spend the night at the campsite.

Day 06:

Rajgundha-Billing - Bir - Palampur

Distance to cover: 7 km

Approximate time to cover: 3-4hrs

You will start today’s journey from Billing. There will be another thrilling experience waiting for you. Bir is very popular in the state Himachal Pradesh and is known as the best place Paragliding in India. It has the second-highest paragliding site in the world, which is as high as 2400 meters. Here, you can enjoy the beauty of nature and also take part to experience the adventure of Paragliding (optional, you have to pay the expense). At Bir, you will visit places like the very popular Sherabling monastery in Bhattu, Bijaynath temple of Lord Siva. After that, you have that time and energy, you can walk a little bit through tea gardens in Palampur along with the banks of the Neugal river. The journey will be finished here after almost week-long trekking through the ups and downs of nature.

Temperature/Weather

The best time to go for the Thamsar Pass trek should be between mid-June to mid-October. But, in the first half of this period, i.e, from June to August, you may see heavy snow in the entire region. As the chances of snowfall are very high this time. There may be slight near Manali and the surrounding. The other parts remain dry and sunny at that time. The average temperature here in the day during this season remains around 12-18 °C while the temperature at maybe between -2 to 6 °C.

In the next part, i.e, from September to mid-October, the trekking gets easier than the first half as there will be almost no heavy snowfalls. The temperatures in the day will remain between 12-18 °C but night will be much colder and temperature may go beyond -5 °C.

Peak Information / Height

You will see two less famous peaks there. Those are Lantern and Thamsar. The Lantern has a height of 5067 meters and the Thamsar is as high as 5078 m. You see them on both sides of the pass. Both the peaks remain covered with white snow for most of the time of the year.

Difficulty Level

This trekking is moderately difficult. For the beginners, it may seem difficult a bit. The trek is easiest to go during September and October. At this time you will face less trouble as compared to other times. Climbing up through the slant narrow path and crossing the twin lakes with the help of rope might be difficult.

Snow Trek

If there is a snow version of a trek, explain about it in detail and what changes, how do the feel of the trek changes in the winter season, what is the best time to do this trek to get snow and snowfall

ATM & Mobile Connectivity

There will be enough network available on your mobile at Jogindernagar. After reaching Barot you will get weak signals there. Still, you can manage to make calls and use the internet (maybe very slow to connect). Service providers like Jio, Airtel and BSNL are available here. But BSNL is the best and strongest in the mountain areas. After this place, there will be absolutely no network. You will get a mobile network after reaching Bir-Billing.

There will be no ATMs available in the middle of the journey. You will get ATMs at Jogindernagar. Here you should take sufficient cash with you before starting the journey.