Talang Pass – following the goat trail from Tang to Holi

 

Chamba side view from Talang Pass, Mani Mahesh Kailash in the center

At 4667m Talang is touted as the highest pass that local shepherds use to cross the Dhauladhar Mountain Range from Kangra to Chamba and back during their annual migration with their herds. This pass had been on my radar for several years and this year since the pandemic put a hold to my international trips, I finally crossed it. In this post I won’t talk much about the pass history itself rather give a factual account of how we crossed it. Suffice to say that till now Talang Pass has very little mention or details online. And I wish to fill up this void through this article. I will also give our exact itinerary that we followed. You would be able to follow the details in this post in case you wish to do this pass unguided by yourself. A word of caution before I begin, that this indeed is a very difficult pass and unless you are an expert hiker with very steady head for heights, in good physical condition and posses a high degree of navigational skills, just don’t attempt it. It is objectively dangerous as well and there’s a good chance of injuries and accidents. The fact that the hardy shepherds cross this pass regularly mean nothing since they are super human.

 I had a team of five, including self though at the beginning it was only my friend from Tang, Ravinder Kumar, who is a mountaineering instructor and I. Three more of his friends signed up. We decided to do it totally self supported without any guide. We arranged food for four days. We carried one 4 men tent and 1 one man tent. Our kitchen items included one 5 ltr cooker, 1.5 lt of kerosene and my MSR multi-fuel stove. When we started off we each averaged a backpack of around 15kg.

 

Trail ascending towards Khargoshni Mata after Chamunda Temple

Day 1 – we had hired a minivan to drop us from Tang till the end of the road to Himani Chamunda temple. We left at around 7.30am. The van dropped us at around 1400m. From here we followed the well marked trail to the Chamunda temple and arrived around noon at the temple at around 2900m. There are two water points en route to the temple so there’s no need to carry too much water. During normal years this route also has many tea stalls and cafes to eat. This year there was only one tea stall open. At the temple we did some puja, inquired from the head priest about the trail ahead. From the temple we followed literally the ridge top that immediately descends behind the temple. It goes down by about 300m before it climbs back up again till Khargoshni Mata temple. The trail here is easy to follow, just stay at the top of the ridge all the way. We found one water point en route to Khargoshni Mata. This part took us around 2 hrs. We had lunch at a point just before the ridge starts climbing sharply towards the temple. Rain started and we got considerably soaked though our spirits remained high. The Khargoshni Mata is not really a temple, rather a rocky projection with flags and images and trishul. Above this the trail climbs further up and then turns right, again keep to the top of the ridge and you won’t get lost.

Kanda Got ahead 2800m 

 The ridge descends around 150m as it curves to right and then to left. From in between you should be able to see your first night’s camping ground at Kanda Got. We spied several blue tarps that shepherds use as shelters. The trail finally descends to the Got. It’s a wide area on top of the ridge with a majestic waterfall in the background that comes down from Talang Pass. Keep walking till you find a water source to your left. It is basically a water pipe that shepherds had drawn from the waterfall. Beyond the water point there’s a flattish patch where we camped for the night. We were at 2800m and it had taken us nearly 9 hrs. There were couple of shepherds around us. We cooked dinner and then lit up some dry woods for camp fire.

 

Waterfall where you go down and then go up steeply

Summary – 0730hrs Tang to end of Himani Chamunda Road (1400m) by minivan. Started hiking at 0800. Reached temple at around 1200hrs (2900m). Reached Khargoshni Mata at around 1430hrs. Reached Kanda Got camping ground at around 1700hrs (2800m).

 

Day 2 – today we anticipated a long day as we intended to cross the pass. We started at around 6.30am. The trail goes up straight towards the distant waterfall for around 30 min and then dips down to the right. We reached another shepherd after an hour, perched at the edge of the slope overlooking the waterfall. We had to descend all the way to the bottom of the waterfall and then climb up steeply across it. One of the shepherds was going back to Talang and he agreed to walk with us, which I think was godsend. The trail descending to the bottom of the waterfall was rather precarious with several exposed rock sections where we had to climb down very carefully using our hands. On a wet day this would be truly dangerous. We lost 400m at the bottom of the waterfall where we drank to our hearts fill and also filled up our bottles as there’s no water for the next three hours or so. 

Waterfall crossing point

From here the trail climbs steeply along a very narrow and slippery trail carved out of the mountain side with several tricky traverses with long exposed drops to our right. It is not for someone with vertigo. We had to use hands at several places. About 200m higher up the slope broadens and eases up. From here it was more like hiking up. The trail is very well marked. We got bit delayed as two shepherds were coming down with several hundred sheep between them. After they crossed us, we continued to climb. We reached Triundi from where the trail is littered with huge boulders and is constantly steep and demanding. By now the sun was up and the heat was rather unpleasant. Around mid way the trail turned left where it got lost amidst big rocks and boulders. I was on the lead and following the shepherd who nimble footedly hopped from one rock to another. The other four were slightly behind. The trail finally reached a gigantic boulder right on the edge and then turned sharply right and went down to meet the stream that leads to the massive waterfall that we had crossed in the morning. Here we started climbing pretty much alongside the stream through a wide gully. It was breathtakingly beautiful. 

Shepherd shelter where we camped and cooked at the lake camping below the pass

The climb was hard and steep. Far above I could see the snow covered top of the pass. The trail here is not so clear but you can simply follow the one that is going up. There’s goat dropping everywhere. Stay at the middle of the gully and towards the top veer to your left and you will find the correct trail. We emerged at the top to the camping ground next to the twin lakes. It was nearly 2.30pm and we decided to camp there for the night. The shepherd left us and soon disappeared up above into the clouds. We were now at 4200m. Two of us slept inside one of the shepherd rock shelters while I pitched my tent and the other two took the 4 men tent. At night we could see the sparkling lights of Yol and Kangra.

 

Lake camping below the pass

Summary – started at 0630hrs from Kanda Got at 2800m. Reached the twin lakes beneath the pass at around 1430hrs at 4200m. Big camping place with plenty of water.

 

Day 3 – we started again at 0630hrs. Skirting the lake over ice patch, we followed the goat droppings and trail up. You got to keep more or less at the centre of the face that goes up. You can easily avoid all the snow patches on the slope by skirting around them. The trails are confusing on this climb so best is to follow the goat droppings, which we did. As we climbed higher, the twin lakes beneath aglow in the morning sun looked amazing. 

The lake

Looking back while climbing the last stretch to the pass

Final climb to the pass

Finally we emerged at the top and found the Talang Temple to our left slightly below the pass top. There’s a considerable snow field on top. We took 1.5 hrs to the top. We did some puja and other holy rituals at the temple. From there we reached the snow plateau and the vista to our North, spearheaded by the conical dome of Mani Mahesh Kailash was simply spellbinding. The entire Pir Panjal Range of Chamba lay spread ahead of us basking under the bright sun while Dhauladhar Matterhorn was to our left. 

Nearly at the top. The temple is to the left 

Talang Temple at the top

Going down to the glacier on the Chamba side

Now we had to find the path to get down on to the glacier on the other side. You should traverse to your right till you exit the snow and then you will find a narrow trail with goat droppings. Follow it further to the right. It then turns left and plunges straight down a horribly screed and slippery muddy slope for about 20m. It was tricky getting down this slope. We had to be very careful of the slippery slab rocks and scree, lest we started a rock slide. After about 20m from the top we exited to the right to a projecting boulder and then down climbed through more boulders to the glacier. The glacier on the Chamba side is massive, widely spread, with significant crevasses. There’s no trail over the snow at all but one must follow the goat dropping. We followed the dropping to the left. We took another 30min to get out of the snow and found ourselves among boulders. Here too there’s no marked trail so we followed the goat dropping. Our aim was to keep traversing diagonally to our left and keep losing altitude. We found a central ridge with streams on either side, going down and we followed this ridge. This entire area is full of spectacular waterfalls of various size and volume. Once we got to the grass we found a well marked trail. There’s plenty of streams around so no need to carry too much water. At around 4000m we found a snow bridge across a nullah and crossed it to the left side. From here there’s plenty of goat dropping and trail to descend further. Soon the trails vanished into thick forested wild plants and we simply broke through the vegetation, keeping as far left as we practically could. Now we had all the streams and waterfalls to our right. Further down the gorge got deeper and narrower. At a point there’s a massive few storey high boulder where we picked up the trail again. From here the trail climbs a bit through thick forests towards the left following the natural curvature of the mountain. It crosses a difficult and dangerous rock patch with barely any room to wriggle across over a chasm. After this it plunges down further till we reached a stream and from there across to a shepherd camping ground with prearranged kitchen stone and wooden poles. This was Aah at 2800m. Today we had been on the move for over 10 hours. We pitched our tents and cooked a remarkable dinner. From here onwards we were in thick bear country so you should be careful not to stray away alone into the forest. There’s plenty of dry woods for camp fire.

 

Aah Camping, there's stream nearby

Summary – started 0630hrs from the twin lake (Talang Dali) at 4200m. Reached the pass at around 0815hrs. Reached Aah camping at 2800m at around 1700hrs.

 

Day 4 – today being a shorter day we took it easy and started around 0730hrs. The trail is well used and marked by the shepherds and goat droppings. It goes up gently through the forest and then turns left, crossing two big streams and group of small waterfalls the trail then turns right and abruptly gets steep and slippery. Finally bringing us beneath the Jutta Dhar gully. From far this gully doesn’t seem scalable but up close we found the steep trail. It is a straight 150m climb with a 70deg gradient. In wet conditions it would be a herculean task. In most places we need to use our hands for balance and going up. As we topped out Jutta Dhar at 3200m the view of Talang Pass behind us was a sight for sore eyes. Jutta Dhar is supposedly named such because when you climb it all you see are the shoes (jutta) of your friend above. From here we again had an uninterrupted view of the Mani Mahesh Range. An important point to remember is that there’s no water point after the waterfall stream that we had crossed before below Jutta Dhar till you reach the nearest village so please fill up your water bottles from there before climbing up to Jutta Dhar. Now we followed the well established trail all the way down to Andarla Graon village at 2400m in about 2 hours. We received a warm welcome at my friend’s uncle’s house and we had a sumptuous meal of Kidney beans khichdi with ghee, milk and cucumber. We had reached at around 11.30am. Post lunch we rested for couple of hours. Then a further descent of 1.5 hours brought us to Holi (1900m) bus stand and the world of dust and human beings. At Holi we parted company with the other three as Ravinder and I went to Lamu to visit his 92 year old Grandma, who deserve a separate post later.

 

climbing Jutta Dhar

Looking back at Talang pass from Jutta Dhar

Note: Talang is among the hardest passes that I have done in the Dhauladhars and should not be taken lightly. The ideal season to cross this pass from Kangra to Chamba would be either in June following the shepherds when they open this pass or from mid September till mid October when the monsoons have receded. After this it would be too cold and there are chances of early winter snow. In July and August it would be too wet to be safe though possible. I feel our timing of 11^th Sep was ideal. We did this entire trek from Tang to Holi in 3 nights and 4 days but I would recommend you do this in 4 nights and 5 days to make it less demanding physically and to also enjoy the hike more as there’s lots of exotic flora and side valleys for you to enjoy. For the additional day I recommend camping on the other side of the pass, after crossing it, at one of the ridge tops near a stream between 4000 and 3800m. We skipped this and went all the way down to the Aah camping. In hindsight I feel a day more would have been better. A local shepherd guide is recommended though not necessary if you can read maps well and have a good sense of navigation. My description of the hike is accurate as are the pictures. In case you do hire a guide, expect to pay around 700 INR per day. You could inquire at the Chamunda temple for a guide as there’s always an odd Shepherd camping around and would be willing to come with you for the next two of three days. I feel a guide if at all, is required from Kanda Got till Aah Camping. Before and after the trails are well marked. If you are strong and experienced you wouldn’t need a rope, crampons or ice axe but I would certainly recommend carrying at least one each of these for safety reasons especially for a large group. We had rope and an ice axe but never used them. Feel free to write to me if you need more information of this trek. It is absolutely spectacular by any standards and I highly recommend it.