CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 187 km, Manāli to the finish - roughly 2 h 37 in the saddle. On the way it passes Atal Tunnel north portal and Baralacha La. The highest point is about 5,100 m. Baralacha La is open in summer only - check it is open before you set off. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
For about 33 km this is Leh–Manali Highway, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
This part of the ride is 110 km of Atal Tunnel north portal → Baralacha La.
This part of the ride is 44 km of Manali-Leh Highway.
Manāli is where the plains give up and the Himalaya begins in earnest. The town sits in the Kullu valley in Himachal Pradesh, on the banks of the Beas, among deodar forests and apple orchards, with snow peaks rising behind. Old Manali, across the river, is the quieter half, a tangle of lanes, wooden houses and cafes, and in the cedar woods above the town stands the Hadimba temple, a pagoda-like wooden shrine built in the sixteenth century and dedicated to a figure from the Mahabharata. The valley has long been a stopping place for traders, travellers and, more recently, backpackers and motorcyclists.
Read the complete Manali write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Manāli is where the day begins. Next is Atal Tunnel north portal.
The Atal Tunnel changed the Himalayan road map. For generations, the road north from Manali climbed over the Rohtang Pass, which was open for only part of the year, snowed in from late autumn to early summer. In 2020 a tunnel of about nine kilometres was opened under the pass, one of the longest highway tunnels in the world at such a height, and named after the former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The north portal, where you emerge into Lahaul, is one of the great moments on the road to Ladakh.
Read the complete Atal Tunnel north portal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Atal Tunnel north portal comes up about 33 km into the recorded legs. Next is Baralacha La.
Baralacha La is a pass that feels like the roof of the world, and at 4,890 metres, it nearly is. The name means the pass with crossroads on the summit, because it sits where roads from Lahaul, Zanskar and Ladakh once met. The rivers tell the story: the Chandra rises near here on the south side, and the Yunam flows north, and a few kilometres below the pass lies the clear, round lake of Suraj Tal, one of the highest lakes in India, from which the Bhaga River begins.
Read the complete Baralacha La write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 143 km into the recorded legs you reach Baralacha La. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is Sarchu, mostly downhill.
Sarchu is not a town, and calling it a stop barely does it justice. It is a high, bare plateau at about 4,300 metres, on the boundary between Himachal Pradesh and Ladakh, where the Leh-Manali Highway crosses a wide, windy basin beside the Tsarap river. In the summer season, a collection of tents and camps appear on the plain, serving riders, truck drivers and travellers who need a place to sleep halfway between Manali and Leh, and in winter everything is gone and the snow takes over.
Read the complete Sarchu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sarchu closes the day.
Manāli → Atal Tunnel north portal is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Atal Tunnel north portal → Baralacha La is 110 km. This is the part worth slowing down for - look through the bends and use the pull-offs.
Baralacha La → Sarchu is 44 km. Brakes and eyes forward; the views are behind the corners, not in them.