The short answer. It is a long, slow and very beautiful drive on a road that stays open through most of the winter. The long days are most of a day at the wheel, with stops. You climb gradually, sleeping a little higher each night, and the one thing to plan for is weather: snow or rockfall can hold a stretch for a few hours, now and then for a day.
Why every winter trip starts in Shimla
Spiti has two roads in. The shorter one comes from Manali, through the Atal Tunnel and over the Kunzum La at more than 4,500 metres, and snow shuts it from late autumn until early summer. The other runs the length of Kinnaur along the Sutlej: lower, drier, and kept open through the winter as far as the weather allows. So in winter every journey into Spiti, ours included, starts in Shimla and comes back the same way. It is also the better road for your body, because it climbs slowly.
Day 1 — Shimla to Sangla
Out of Shimla the road runs along the ridges through Theog and Narkanda, where the first snow of the trip usually is, then drops to the Sutlej and follows the river up through Rampur into Kinnaur. At Karcham you leave the highway for the Baspa valley, and climb to Sangla, at 2,680 metres, for the night. It is a long first day, and a gentle one for acclimatising.
Day 2 — Sangla to Nako and Tabo
Back down to the Sutlej and north past Reckong Peo and Pooh, where the pine forest gives out and the valley turns to bare rock. Near Khab the Spiti river comes in from the north, and the road climbs a staircase of hairpins to Nako, at 3,660 metres, and its small lake — frozen hard in January. Past Sumdo the road enters Spiti. This is the stretch close to the frontier where overseas guests need their Inner Line Permit, checked at the police posts along it. The night is at Tabo, beside a monastery more than a thousand years old.
Day 3 — Tabo, Dhankar, Key and Kaza
Few kilometres and a lot of stopping. Dhankar's gompa hangs off a cliff above the meeting of the Spiti and the Pin. Key Monastery, at 4,166 metres, is stacked up its hill like a white village. At Chicham a bridge crosses a gorge so deep you do not look down twice. Kaza, at about 3,800 metres, is Spiti's small capital and your base for the next two nights.
Day 4 — the high villages
The road above Kaza is narrower, and in winter it is where the snow chains go on. Komic, at 4,587 metres, is one of the highest villages you can drive to anywhere; Hikkim has one of the highest post offices in the world, and people really do post cards from it; Langza has fossils in its fields and a great Buddha looking down the valley. Then back to Kaza. This is the highest you will be on the trip, and you only visit it: you sleep lower.
Days 5 and 6 — down the valley and home
Kaza to Kalpa is the whole Spiti valley and half of Kinnaur in one day, ending with the Kinner Kailash range across the valley at sunset. The last day is the long descent along the Sutlej to Shimla.
What the road is like
- The surface. Mostly tarmac on the highway, with broken and unpaved stretches, and rougher tracks to the high villages above Kaza.
- Ice and snow. Black ice lies in the shaded bends in the morning, and the higher sections can take fresh snow at any time. Our vehicles carry snow chains, and a mechanic travels with the convoy.
- Rockfall. Parts of Kinnaur are cut into loose cliffs. Freezing and thawing loosens stones; this, more than snow, is what closes the road for a few hours at a time.
- Hairpins. A great many of them. If winding roads bother you, bring motion-sickness tablets and ask for a front seat.
- Fuel and signal. Fuel stations thin out past Reckong Peo, and phone signal comes and goes between towns. Our convoys carry a satellite phone for the stretches with none.
- The weather decides. If a stretch is closed, we wait, or we change the order of the days. The guide's call on the morning is final — it is the reason the trip has a guide.
Driving it in your own vehicle
You can join the convoy in your own car, with our crew, stays and support around you. The highway does not strictly need four-wheel drive, but the high villages do in snow, and you should be comfortable on narrow hill roads with a drop on one side. We brief every driver before we set off, and one of ours takes your wheel if you are tired. What joining in your own vehicle covers.
The next winter convoy
Six days on the Shimla–Spiti circuit by 4x4, with a local driver-guide, a medic and a mechanic, and every permit and night arranged. Twelve guests at most.