Baralacha Mountain Pass which is the second dangerous pass on the Manali-Leh Highway

Today I will take you all directly to the Trans Himalayan land located in the North of India. In the month of June, I went with my team to the world famous highway named Manali-Leh Highway. This highway starts from Manali and ends in Leh. Its distance is 480 km and the important thing is that it is adorned with 5 mountain passes, 2 lakes and ravines. The average height of this highway is 4700 meters and this land is much above the tree line. This is such a dangerous highway that the oxygen here is also about 45%, so let's go on our journey.

I and some of my friends were volunteering on this highway. We are supporting some crazy people who are running in Trans Himalaya day and night. Our job is to provide food to these runners, keep the runners out of danger in case of any emergency and arrange for their stay at night. On the first day our team reaches Khoksar which is situated in Lahaul valley and on the same day we also cross the first mountain pass of this highway which is called Rohtang pass (3850 meters). Lahaul valley starts as soon as we cross Rohtang pass which is like Kullu-Manali but the weather here is very extreme.

After Khoksar we have lunch in Keylong and fill the fuel of all our vehicles at the newly built petrol pump here. Till now all the runners are fine and the distance has become 120 km. Since the runners have come after crossing Rohtang pass and it took the whole night to cross this dangerous pass, so now all the runners are feeling very energetic in the sunlight. Today the runners have to cross Jispah, Darcha and reach Jingjing bar which is almost the end of this valley.

I have been up for two nights so I got some rest today and had a warm night in Jispah and got ready for the next day. Today I have to accompany the runners to cross the second challenging pass on this highway and make sure that all the runners are okay. We cross Jingjing Bar at 10 am, now the runners have to walk another 22 km to cross Baralacha La. Whenever I come here I remember a hiking trip I did in the past where I planned to trek to Chandratal from here but that trip remained incomplete as we could not cross the Chandra river.

Jingjing Bar is the base of PWD and all the workers who maintain this highway live here. Every morning some trucks take them up, the workers repair the highway throughout the day and in the evening the same truck comes back with them. We see some such trucks and wave to these workers going to work and wish them best of luck. As I move towards the mountain pass, I look back and see a snake-like road on which some vehicles are running. The scene is overwhelming.

Of course, it is 23rd June but even at this late hour, the snow on this highway has not melted, because the height here is 4850 meters and in winters, up to 40 feet of snow falls here. This pass is the last end of the Lahaul valley, here the Lahaul valley ends and further ahead the Yunam valley begins where there is a 6000 meter high peak named Yunam in the name of the valley. Many years ago I had climbed this peak.

There are many tourists at the Baralacha pass, some are parking the vehicles, some are clicking photos, some are looking for something to eat and some are trying to fill their eyes with the beauty of this place. Since tourists want to see snow and make snowballs and hit each other, some vehicles have gone to a snow patch located at a reasonable distance and people are playing with snow and having fun there. I manage to take some photos of them with my 55-250 mm lens.

We wait for the runners here for about 3 hours and as soon as the runners finish their course from here, we also sit in the vehicle and move towards the next station which is called Bharatpur. So friends, how did you like the photos of this Trans Himalayan Pass?

Disclaimer: This post is originally written in Hindi and I have used Google Translator to translate the Hindi text in English. All the photos have been clicked by me from canon 77d (55-250mm) and edited on laptop lightroom app, post thumbnail created in adobe photoshop.

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