Chanshal pass

Chanshal pass, Pabbar valley

The take off point for the steep 8 km trek to Chanshal pass is the pretty village of Larot around 45 km from Rohru, on the Rohru-Chirgaon-Chanshal-Dodra Kwar road.(There are two buses from Rohru bus stand (at 9 am & 11 AM) to Dodra Kwar when the pass is open & up to Larot when it is not..Cabs are also avaialable but expensive because of cab-unionisation.) 

 

From Larot the trail starts along a path behind the tea shops at the upper end of Larot village. It follows the ridge line up then begins a series of zig-zags below the power line, which heads straight up from Larot, over Chanshal pass, 4300 metres and down to Kwar in the Rupin valley on the other side.

 

Until the opening of the road across Chanshal pass this steep track was the main artery for villagers from the isolated Kwar region heading to Himachal for official work. The opening of the road has reduced traffic on the trail to a trickle in summer, but as the road is open only for a few months, generally from May-to September, the track is the shorter way in at other times and is kept in decent shape.

 

The beauty of this trek is in the variety of flora that it passes through in just a few km. It begins in the magnificent Deodar pine forests around Larot, which soon begin to give way to more stunted vegetation as it approaches the pass.

 

Gradually the tree line disappears altogether, replaced by vast flower bedecked meadows known as Thach near the pass.

Chanshal pass has a teashop, catering mainly to the lone roadways bus from Rohru to Dodra that passes through each day. It is also a take off point for many other meadows, (Thaches} in its immediate neighbourhood.

 

Caution: There is only one rest house with two rooms at Larot. In case the rooms are taken, which they often are in summer by officials overseeing work in the neighbourhood, visitors may have to head back at least as far as Tikri, the village at the start of the climb up or even as far as Chirgaon, around 20 km below.