Gunji, the village where the Vyas valley road forks for Adi Kailash and Om Parvat

The valley in one map, and the order of the stops

From Dharchula one road climbs about 80 km to Gunji; from Gunji it branches, about 36 km to Jolingkong and about 10 km to Kalapani.

The Vyas valley is one road and one river. You leave Dharchula at 908 m with the Kali below you, and climb through Chialekh and Garbyang until the fields of Gunji open out at 3,200 m. Almost everything travellers come here for lies within half a day of that one village.

At Gunji the road divides. The Kuti arm carries on to Jolingkong, the point for Adi Kailash and Parvati Sarovar. The second climbs by way of Kalapani to Nabhidhang, where Om Parvat is seen, and carries on to Lipulekh. Our departures take the Jolingkong arm first and the Lipulekh arm the next day, sleeping both nights at Gunji or Nabi.

Kuti, Nabhidhang and Lipulekh sit on those two arms and are reached on the days above, not as separate journeys. The whole drive from your own city, railhead and airport included, is laid out in how to reach Adi Kailash.

Dharchula: the permit town

Dharchula sits at 908 m on the Kali, about 80 km below Gunji, and the valley's Inner Line Permit is issued here, at SDM Dharchula.

Dharchula is the last town on this road that behaves like a town: shops, a bus stand, the river loud below, and warm at 908 m while Gunji the same week sits at 12°C. It is the place to buy what you forgot and to draw the cash you will need higher up.

One Inner Line Permit, issued at SDM Dharchula, covers Adi Kailash and Om Parvat, and we file it before you arrive, so the morning of the about 80 km climb to Gunji is issuance and not paperwork. For the town itself, how to reach it from Delhi, Kathgodam or Pithoragarh, where to sleep and what to do before driving north, read the full Dharchula guide.

Gunji: the village, the night and the weather

Gunji is a village at 3,200 m where the two valleys meet, reached on day 2; travellers sleep there or at Nabi, about 3,290 m, the highest nights on the route.

You come into Gunji in the afternoon, after a day of glaciers, waterfalls and one narrow road. The valley opens, there are fields and stone walls, and the light goes early behind the ridge. Then the cold arrives, quickly, and most travellers are glad of an early dinner.

Gunji is the base for both of the high days. You sleep here, drive out to Jolingkong at first light, come back the same night, and go up the other arm to Nabhidhang and Lipulekh the next morning.

How cold does it get in Gunji?

Nights sit around 1°C in May and 0°C in October, with frost on many nights in both months.

So: warm layers in every month of the season, including June. Month by month, with what the rain does to the road, is in weather and best time.

Where do you stay in Gunji?

In village guest houses and homestays at Gunji or at Nabi, about 3,290 m, with rooms taking 2 to 5 travellers.

There is no hotel district up here, and that is the honest picture: village guest houses and family homestays, simple rooms, hot food. Breakfast and dinner are included in our packages, private rooms are available on request, and which of the two villages a departure sleeps in depends on what is held for your dates.

Phone network, cash and the KMVN guest house

These three change, and we will not print a guess. Network coverage in the border valley, whether any cash machine is working on a given week, and what KMVN has open at which stop are all things our office checks close to a departure rather than months ahead. Carry cash from Dharchula, and tell people at home you may be off the network for two days.

Ask us about network, cash and the guest house situation for your dates.

Kuti village and the Pandav Fort

Kuti is a village at about 3,820 m on the road between Gunji and Jolingkong, with Pandav Fort and Bheem ki Kheti beside the route.

On the Jolingkong morning the trees give up and the valley turns to grass, stone and water. Kuti sits in the middle of it: flat fields, low houses, one of the highest inhabited villages on this road. You pass through rather than stay.

It is cold here even in the first weeks of the season. The model gives Kuti a May night of -4°C, with 28 frost nights that month, and by October it is back to -4°C. Nobody stands about for long in that wind.

Pandav Fort and Bheem ki Kheti

This stretch is where the Pandava story is written on the map. Pandav Fort, Pandav Parvat and Bheem ki Kheti are all named along the drive to Jolingkong, and your guide points them out as they come. They are roadside stops of a few minutes, not climbs.

Jolingkong, Parvati Sarovar and Gauri Kund

Jolingkong, at about 4,500 m and about 36 km from Gunji, is where the road ends below Adi Kailash, beside Parvati Sarovar.

The Kuti arm ends here. At about 4,500 m the vehicles stop and the mountain stands across its own lake, Parvati Sarovar, where there is a temple at the water and a dip for those who wish, with a May daytime high of 2°C. Gauri Kund is a second, smaller water further on the same ground, and all of it sits inside the Inner Line Permit zone.

The walking is short, the height is the work, and travellers come back down to sleep at 3,200 m the same night. The whole morning, which name belongs to which lake and how far Gauri Kund is, is in the Jolingkong and Parvati Kund guide.

Nabhidhang and Om Parvat

Om Parvat is seen from Nabhidhang, which the road reaches from Gunji on the second high day, with Nag Parvat on the way up.

The second morning takes the other arm of the valley. Nag Parvat stands over the road, the last of the grass disappears, and at Nabhidhang the vehicles stop where the rock face carries the Om: snow gathered in the folds of the mountain in the shape of ॐ.

What you see is what the snow has done that week, because the form is made of snow and not of stone. It is a still place, and most groups stay longer there than the plan allows for.

Do you need a separate permit for Om Parvat?

No, the same Inner Line Permit covers it, because Om Parvat is in the same border valley.

One permit, filed by us before you arrive, covers Adi Kailash and Om Parvat, and the Army and ITBP clear the drive on to Lipulekh on the day. You do not need a Chinese visa for any of it: Om Parvat is seen from Indian soil, in Pithoragarh district.

Kalapani, Vyas Gufa and the Kali temple

Kalapani lies at about 3,600 m, about 10 km from Gunji, and holds the Kali Mandir, with Vyas Gufa opposite it.

Kalapani comes on the way back down from Om Parvat, and it is the quiet end of that long day. Our groups do a havan together at the Kali Mandir here. Hanuman Parvat stands on the road nearby.

Vyas Gufa

The cave sits across from the temple and carries the same name as the valley itself. It is a short stop, not a climb, and it usually closes the high part of the yatra: from Kalapani the road runs back down past Gunji and Dharchula to Pithoragarh for the night.

Lipulekh: the pass that closes the valley

Lipulekh, over 5,000 m, closes the Vyas valley on the Tibet border above Nabhidhang, and is reached as a morning out from Gunji.

It is the highest point this road touches, over 5,000 m, at the head of the valley above Nabhidhang in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. Departures go up on the Om Parvat day and come back down to sleep far lower, at Gunji or Nabi, 3,200 m to about 3,290 m. That is deliberate: thin air, a short time in it, move slowly and say the moment a headache starts.

Who is allowed up, and how far the road is open on a given morning, is settled by the Army and the ITBP on the day, so the plan rests on Om Parvat and Kalapani rather than on a pass. What can actually be seen of Mount Kailash from up there, and why Old Lipulekh and Lipulekh Pass are not the same place, is in where the Kailash view really is.

Narayan Ashram: where it sits on this road

Narayan Ashram is a working ashram founded in 1936, standing above Dharchula on a side road, and it is not a stop on the published Adi Kailash itineraries.

It is one of the most searched names on this road. The ashram stands above Dharchula, 908 m, on the arm that climbs from Tawaghat rather than on the Gunji road, so it is reached as a detour and not as a leg of the valley drive. Narayan Swami founded it in 1936, and it still runs as an ashram, with its own daily order, rather than as a place that takes guests like a hotel.

The Adi Kailash routes here run Pithoragarh, Dharchula, Gunji, Jolingkong, Nabhidhang, Lipulekh and Kalapani, so the ashram is not printed in those day plans. For what the ashram is, how to reach it leg by leg, whether a night there is possible and how to behave inside, read the full Narayan Ashram guide.