Spiti Circuit

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Shimla

   Shimla is where the British came to escape the heat of the plains, and it still has the look of a Surrey town that took a wrong turn into the Himalaya. Built along a ridge at roughly twenty-two hundred metres, with pine and cedar trees and rows of red-roofed houses, it served as the summer capital of British India, and decisions affecting hundreds of millions of people were made here between May and October. The Ridge, an open promenade in the centre, is lined with Christ Church, a pale yellow neo-Gothic building of the 1850s, and the Mall, a long shopping street, runs alongside. Vehicles are restricted on the Mall and the Ridge, so you will park below and walk up.

   Read the complete Shimla write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Spiti Circuit point 1 sits at 0 km, early in the day. Next is Spiti Circuit point 2.

2. 2. Spiti Circuit point 2

   Reckong Peo is the district headquarters of Kinnaur, a place of tight hairpins, cliff-hung roads, and views of one of the finest mountains in the Himalayan foothills. Across the Sutlej valley, the peaks of Kinner Kailash rise to over 6,000 metres, and when the sun hits the summit at dawn, the rock glows red. At around 2,700 metres, Peo is an administrative town, busy with government offices, shops and a market, but a short ride above it lies Kalpa, a quieter village famed for its apple orchards and its view of the mountain.

   Read the complete Spiti Circuit point 2 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Spiti Circuit point 2 comes up 64 km in. Next is Spiti Circuit point 3.

3. 3. Spiti Circuit point 3

   Nako is a village on a ledge above a little lake, a cluster of flat-roofed stone houses at about 3,600 metres in the upper Hangrang valley, just where Kinnaur begins to turn into Spiti. The lake sits in a cup of the hillside, ringed by willow and poplar trees, and in winter it freezes solid and people skate on it. Beyond the village, the mountains are bare, brown and enormous, and the air feels clean and thin. You are crossing a frontier here between the green, wet Himalaya of the south and the cold, dry plateau of the north.

   Read the complete Spiti Circuit point 3 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   At least 166 km in you reach Spiti Circuit point 3. Next is Spiti Circuit point 4.

4. 4. Spiti Circuit point 4

   Kaza is the administrative centre of Spiti, a town of low buildings spread across a broad plain beside the Spiti river at about 3,800 metres. The landscape around it is staggering, a desert of pale rock, deep gorges and bare mountains, with a few green patches of barley and peas where villagers have brought water down from the snow. Tibetan culture runs deep here, and the name Spiti means the middle land, a reference to its position between India and Tibet.

   Read the complete Spiti Circuit point 4 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Spiti Circuit point 4, about halfway. Next is Spiti Circuit point 5.

5. 5. Spiti Circuit point 5

   Kunzum La is a pass that most riders approach with a mix of excitement and fatigue, a rocky saddle at about 4,500 metres that separates Spiti from Lahaul. At the top, a small shrine decorated with prayer flags, yak horns and offerings stands beside the road, and riders traditionally circle it once, clockwise, and honk a horn for luck. The view takes in a sea of snow peaks, glaciers that tumble from the heights, and the vast empty valleys on both sides.

   Read the complete Spiti Circuit point 5 write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Spiti Circuit point 5 sits at 257 km, late in the day. Next is Spiti Circuit point 6.

6. 6. Near Manāli

   Apple orchards, deodar cedars and the roar of the Beas river surround Manāli, the hill town at the head of the Kullu Valley in Himachal Pradesh, and this spot lies just outside it, at the point where the road to Ladakh starts its long climb into the high Himalaya. Manāli sits at about two thousand metres, and from here the snow peaks of the Pir Panjal range rise straight up behind the town, with the Rohtang Pass hidden above.

   Read the complete Near Manāli write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Spiti Circuit point 6 comes up 613 km in.