Debsa Pass
Encyclopedia
Debsa Pass is a 5360 metres (17,585.3 ft) high mountain pass
in the Himalaya mountains between the Kullu
and Spiti
Districts of Himachal Pradesh
, India
.
Joydeep Sircar
led the teams which explored the watershed ridge and discovered the pass after approaching through the Parbati River
valley in Kullu. After an abortive attempt on an impassable col further North in 1992, the actual pass was located and reached in 1993, but the team refrained from crossing it into Spiti under the mistaken impression that they could be arrested because they did not have Inner Line Permits required for Spiti. Two years later, the 1995 team planned to approach from the Spiti side, which involves much less height gain, but tremendous autumn floods in the upper valley of the Beas River
and other areas of Himachal which wrecked roads forced them to take the Parbati approach again. This time they crossed the pass on 21st September and completed the route from Manikaran to Kaja.
Leomann's 1:200,000 map of Himachal Pradesh (Third Edition, 2005) shows a dotted track beginning at a point between the Kach (actually Kachh) and Bara Dwari Thach campsites and crossing the Kullu-Spiti watershed divide into the West Debsa Glacier to follow the West Debsa and Debsa streams to Thidim (should actually be Thango) in the Parahio Valley. This is a fairly accurate representation of the 1995 route, though the pass is left unmarked.
Mountain pass
A mountain pass is a route through a mountain range or over a ridge. If following the lowest possible route, a pass is locally the highest point on that route...
in the Himalaya mountains between the Kullu
Kullu
Kullu, once known as Kul-anti-peetha - "the end of the habitable world", is the capital town of the Kullu District, in the state of Himachal Pradesh, India. It is located on the banks of the Beas River in the Kullu Valley about ten kilometres north of the airport at Bhuntar.Kullu is a broad open...
and Spiti
Spiti
-Geographical locations:*Lahaul and Spiti, a district in the state of Himachal Pradesh in India.*Spiti Valley, former heartland of the former Spiti district now combined.*Spiti River, in the Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh.*Spitia River-Language:...
Districts of Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh
Himachal Pradesh is a state in Northern India. It is spread over , and is bordered by the Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir on the north, Punjab on the west and south-west, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh on the south, Uttarakhand on the south-east and by the Tibet Autonomous Region on the east...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
.
Joydeep Sircar
Joydeep Sircar
Joydeep Das is a mountain-traveller and pioneer mountain-historian. In 1979 he published his Himalayan handbook, an index of all the-then named peaks of 6096 meters and above in Afghanistan and the Indian subcontinent giving chronological entries of expeditions up to 1975 to each peak with a...
led the teams which explored the watershed ridge and discovered the pass after approaching through the Parbati River
Parbati River
Parbati River may refer to:*Parbati River , India*Parbati River , India*Parbati River , India...
valley in Kullu. After an abortive attempt on an impassable col further North in 1992, the actual pass was located and reached in 1993, but the team refrained from crossing it into Spiti under the mistaken impression that they could be arrested because they did not have Inner Line Permits required for Spiti. Two years later, the 1995 team planned to approach from the Spiti side, which involves much less height gain, but tremendous autumn floods in the upper valley of the Beas River
Beas River
The Beas River is a river in the northern part of India. The river rises in the Himalayas in central Himachal Pradesh, India, and flows for some 470 km to the Sutlej River in the Indian state of Punjab....
and other areas of Himachal which wrecked roads forced them to take the Parbati approach again. This time they crossed the pass on 21st September and completed the route from Manikaran to Kaja.
Leomann's 1:200,000 map of Himachal Pradesh (Third Edition, 2005) shows a dotted track beginning at a point between the Kach (actually Kachh) and Bara Dwari Thach campsites and crossing the Kullu-Spiti watershed divide into the West Debsa Glacier to follow the West Debsa and Debsa streams to Thidim (should actually be Thango) in the Parahio Valley. This is a fairly accurate representation of the 1995 route, though the pass is left unmarked.