Tso Moriri to Spiti via Parang La Details
Since I found it hard finding info about doing this trek
independently before I thought I put some details down to help
others in the future.
This trek is much more easily done from Ladakh rather than Spiti
both for logistics and easy of the trek. From the Kibber side the
pass is much steeper and there is no water at any of the campsites
close to the top of the pass. The nearest one with a steady is
probably at least 5-6 hours hiking to the top assuming you are
already well acclimatized.
Getting to Tso Moriri: If you are flexible there is a bus that goes
on (or about) 10th, 20th, and 30th of each month, best and cheapest
option for trekking.
If you want pack animals they are available in Tso Moriri, karzok,
we ended having to pay 250 per day per animal for what was supposed
to be 2 donkeys and a horse and ended up being 3 donkeys. But our
options were limited since the Karmapa was visiting a nearby village
and Karzok was nearly deserted as a result of everyone going to see
him.
Water is in short supply along the banks of Tso Moriri with a stream
at the end of the lake the first water source after the stream about
an hour outside Karzok.
You will have to cross this stream and continue up the valley at the
far southern end of the lake. Before the valley comes to a T-junction
there is a nice camping spot and a spring about 2 hours from the end
of the lake, reachable on the first day if you start early otherwise
you will have to camp at the end of the lake, stay to the right of
the marshy area. Once you get to the T-junction of the valley head
to the right, you will have to cross the river at some point look
for a good place. The trail continues on the south side of the
valley heading southwest. Its basically a straight shot continuing
down the main valley eventually veering to the left (south). There
is a fork in the valley before the pass after you have veered to the
left take the right fork you can see the glacier of the pass. Head
up on to the glacier it climbs at first then there is a large flat
area the pass is to the right (southwest). At the top of the pass
the hour climb to the peak to the East of the pass is worthwhile for
a great 360 view.
From the top of the pass it is about 3 hours down to the first
campsite with a steady water source at the bottom of a gorge and
there is no fodder there for animals. It is a further two hours to
the next campsite with grass up a side valley near the top of where
the trail climbs out of the gorge and goes over the hillside to the
east of the river which coninues all the way to Kibber. The trail
loops around and recrosses the gorge just before Kibber.
We did it in 5 days fairly comfortably starting around 8am and
hiking until 3:30 or 4pm, except for the day over the pass which
was long arrived about 5:30pm at the camp site at the river. 6 would
be even more leisurely. First day to the end of the lake. Second day
midway down the valley, third day to the "base camp" if possible we
stayed 2 hours from the base camp. 4th day over the pass. 5th day to
Kibber.
The campsites on the Ladakh side of the pass all are very exposed
and very windy and in September were very cold. I didn't have a real
tent but was doing it local style make shift tent with a plastic
tarp (280 rupees Leh market) which worked fine but I did have a good
sleeping bag. There were rock wall shelters I could use at most of
the campsites to block some of the wind. Obviously you need to bring
all you food because there is nothing in the way of villages along
this route. Hope this helps anyone who is thinking about doing the
trek.