Rupin Pass

Rupin Pass is the trek that never repeats itself. It begins in the Garhwal village of Dhaula, follows the Rupin river up through wooden hamlets that seem to cling to the hillside by faith alone, and ends, days later, in the apple-orchard country of Sangla in Kinnaur. Almost nothing about the landscape on day one survives to day eight — the trail is in a state of constant reinvention.

Its signature image is the great three-stage waterfall, where the river drops the hillside in tiers and the trail climbs alongside it onto a hanging meadow that locals still farm in summer. Above that lies the upper waterfall camp, and above that the pass itself — reached up a steep snow gully that holds white well into June and gives the crossing a genuine high-mountain edge.

This is a difficult trek that rewards strong legs and a head for exposure. The descent into Kinnaur drops you into a different cultural world entirely, and the sheer variety packed into eight days — forest, gorge, waterfall, snowfield, pass and orchard — makes it one of the most complete crossings in the Indian Himalaya.