Rohtang Pass

Where it sits. Rohtang is a saddle at about 3,980 metres on the eastern end of the Pir Panjal range, 51 kilometres north of Manali on the old Manali–Leh road. It is the wall between two different worlds: to the south, the green, forested, rain-fed Kullu valley; to the north, the bare rock and glacial light of Lahaul and Spiti, which sit in the Himalayan rain shadow and see a fraction of the precipitation. The name translates, bluntly, as a pile of corpses — a reference to the traders and travellers caught by weather on the crossing.

The story behind it. For centuries this was the only practical route from Kullu into Lahaul, Zanskar and onward to Ladakh, used by traders moving wool, salt and borax. It closes under snow for roughly six months a year, and until recently that closure isolated Lahaul completely each winter, with helicopter supply the only link. That changed on 3 October 2020, when the Atal Tunnel opened: 9.02 kilometres long, driven at about 3,000 metres under the Rohtang ridge from a southern portal near Dhundi, above Solang, to Teling near Sissu in Lahaul. It cut roughly 46 kilometres and several hours from the Manali–Keylong run and made Lahaul accessible year-round. The practical consequence for travellers is that the pass itself has changed function — through traffic now goes under the mountain, and Rohtang has become a destination rather than a bottleneck.

What you actually see. The road from Manali climbs through Kothi gorge and past Rahala Falls in deodar forest, then breaks above the treeline into a series of long switchbacks. Marhi, at about 3,300 metres, is the last cluster of tea stalls and the point where snow lingers longest. The pass itself is a broad, windy col with old snow patches into July, a small temple, and views north into the Chandra valley and the Lahaul peaks. Weather changes fast and visibility can drop from clear to nothing inside twenty minutes; afternoon cloud is the norm rather than the exception. Snow activities — sledging, snow scooters, hired boots and overcoats — cluster at Gulaba and Marhi and are the main reason most day visitors come up at all. Walkers use the same road as a staging point for harder ground: the Beas Kund trail, which leads to the glacial source of the river that drains the whole Kullu valley, starts from Solang below the pass, and the Hampta Pass crossing links the Kullu side to Lahaul on foot in four to five days.

On screen. Rohtang and the Manali valley are among Hindi cinema's most-used mountain locations, and the record is worth getting right. Imtiaz Ali's Jab We Met (2007) filmed the first half of the song Yeh Ishq Hai at Rohtang, with the remainder shot at Naggar Castle down the valley, while Manali's Hadimba Devi temple and the Mall appear elsewhere in the film — the movie is largely responsible for a generation of Indian travellers making the Manali trip at all. Ayan Mukerji's Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) is the instructive counter-example: its trekking sequences are set in and around Manali, and the Hadimba temple and Span Resort scenes were genuinely shot there, but much of what audiences read as Manali was filmed in Gulmarg and the Kongdori bowl in Kashmir. The then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Omar Abdullah, publicly noted that the film had not credited the state.

Getting there and timing. Manali is reached by road from Delhi in 12 to 14 hours, or by air to Bhuntar, 50 kilometres south. Access to the pass is regulated: following a National Green Tribunal ruling, daily vehicle numbers are capped in the region of 1,200, split between petrol and diesel, with permits issued through the Himachal government's online system and the pass closed to tourist traffic on Tuesdays for maintenance. The road is normally open from May or June until October or November, depending on snowfall, and the tunnel handles Lahaul traffic outside those months. Go early — vehicles start queueing at the Gulaba check post before dawn, and cloud usually closes the view by early afternoon. Altitude is a genuine issue: 3,980 metres reached in two hours of driving from 2,000 metres leaves many visitors with headaches, so a slow start and plenty of water help. There is no accessible infrastructure at the pass, and no fuel beyond Manali until Keylong.