Baralacha Pass

बारालाचा4850 मीटर की ऊंचाई पर स्थित पर्वतीय दर्रा है, जो हिमाचल को लद्दाख से जोड़ता है। ये लाहौल घाटी से जंस्कार घाटी में जाने का रास्ता है।

Next morning i met other travelers in the dining area who graciously offered to ride together since the roads ahead were tricky. We started 9:00am weather was good and riding in the valley became wonderful as vast scenic riverside showed us the way to one of the highest passes in Himachal Pradesh. After 30 minutes of peaceful riding i reached Barsi bridge the longest bridge in Himachal Pradesh. Here we one has to get their name and vehicle number registered due to security reasons. Roads ahead this point becomes tricky due elevation, water streams and falling rocks. There are two places to see between this point and Barala-Cha-La Pass(16040ft) 4890mt. Deepak Tal and Suraj Tal both these places are extremely beautiful and worth spending time some time. people often do not stop at Suraj Tal continue their riding to Barala-cha-la pass which is a big mistake since you might end up wasting your day if you are not traveling beyond this point. Suraj Tal is one of the most scenic places on this face of the earth and worth exploring. Roads that lead to these areas are so scenic one would keep stopping out if their will. Spending time at barala-cha-la pass is a bit harder since its at a height where one struggles to breath after 20-30 mins there you start to notice that you have a light headache and getting tired too easily. For the same reason start descending soon or move forward. Remember to leave the area clean and pickup any garbage you come across. I stayed in jispa for another night to experience starry night sky once more.

Baralacha La Pass- the first high altitude pass on this route (with Atal tunnel we no longer had to go via Rohtang pass). We got out of the vehicle for mandatory photo and the altitude and rarefied air at 16000 ft. began to hit us immediately. We hiked up a bit to reach the prayer flags and breathing was getting to be difficult.

Day 7:At around 1 am in the night, just before the Baralacha Pass, we encountered a Pagal Nala, and found a couple of vehicles stranded because of it. After talking to the people around, we understood that we had to spend the night in the car (We couldn’t go back because the diesel tank of our car was almost empty). Luckily we had blankets in the car, which I swear to God, saved us from the bitterly cold wind.We got up from our uneasy sleep in the morning when we saw vehicles finally crossing the water. Without any further ado, even we crossed it - and after crossing the water, we could finally take a sigh of relief. We had planned of reaching our respective homes on Day 7, but nature again had some different plans.As soon as we reached Kullu, we came to know that the roads to our hometown Mandi are blocked because of the landslides, and though the roads ‘might’ open, it’s very risky to travel in the night.