Well. I think I will be able to clear some questions of this thread. Since I did the Sandakphu trail on my Duster AWD last weekend. No, I didn't go all the way upto Sandakphu. But that was not because of the vehicle but because of the deteriorating weather conditions.
Our plan was not to do Sandakphu initially. We had just gone to Darjeeling for a weekend from Kolkata. We had no itinerary for the trip. So on Saturday after visiting Rock Garden.We decided to see what exactly this trail was like.
We reached the climbing point of Manebhanjan. The cloud cover had become dense. We saw the Sandakphu milestone & saw the climb up chitrey.
Stage 1 : Climb upto Chitrey. Raod is tarred, but very steep. As fellow member himadrimondal said the picture doesn't do justice to the steepness. Chitrey is a place till where 2WD vehicles can go. But I only found Sumo's there. No hatchbacks. It would be a difficult climb for a loaded hatchback.
We stopped at Chitrey to enquire about road ahead. The Sumo drivers had no idea since it is only 4x4 territory & strictly no vehicle goes above that point except the SWB Landrovers. I found a LR driver & asked him about the trail ahead. He looked a bit shocked & asked whether the car is 4WD. I confirmed, but that didn't convince him much. We decided to climb ourselves & see. He warned us about the width of Duster & told us about roads being narrow.
Stage 2 : Rocky & Muddy road to Sandakphu. The tarred road ends just after Chitrey & the rocky road starts. The terrain looks like it has been made only for leafsprings. The road is quite narrow with some very steep hairpins. After some point we encountered this
I had my doubts whether duster will squeeze into this gap. Got down of the vehicle to inspect. It looked like we could make it with proper navigation. Remember there is no safety guard on the gorge side. You go down if you are not careful. While going up there was literally a gap of 5 mm with the rock & at most 5mm from the gorge. Since I was at the gorge side I could push the vehicle to the edge of the gorge. While coming back I wasn't that luck. Gauging your front left tyre position down to millimeters & that when you know that there is a gorge next to it not easy. To top it all it was raining. I was overcautious & scraped the rear of my duster with the rock. Better than falling down.
After this encounter we were slowly climbing up. The Dusters Power to weight & AWD performed flawlessly. At no point did it feel less powerful. There were many wheelspins though not the ones that would scare you to back off. Things were going good till we reached Tumling. After that, the rains started heavily, making temporary small streams on the climb & reducing the visibility substantially. The sunlit time left was less too since we were a little late to start the climb. We decided to return from Tumling, which is halfway Sandakphu.
Some points to be noted :
1. The handbrake performed perfectly. It has the capability of holding the vehicle in place at steep inclines.
2. The reverse gear is powerful enough to a reverse climb. We encountered a LR from the opposite side while we were climbing down. We had to reverse up to a point where we could give it some space to pass.
3. The Hill assist work on reverse too. If you are on an incline nose down & want to reverse up, the brakes hold the vehicle for 3 seconds.
4. There was one very steep hairpin where we encountered an LR stopped just after the turn (Not a very wise thing to do). We had to brake midway on a hairpin. On the first recovery try, felt for the first time that extra power would be required. The engine couldn't pull up & died. Restarted & got through by slipping the clutch with high revs.
5. There is no scope of error. Provided you have a 4x4, it all depends on the driver skills. My respect for all those who have done this trail including Blackpearl, 1100D, mr.sinha & himadrimondal. It is quite taxing to your brain.
6. Vehicle width is one major issue. Duster is quite wide, It is even wider (although marginally) than the new gen Scorpio. I doubt anything wider that Duster can make it up due to that rock.
I had done this trip with my wife who was my navigator too. We had not gone on a mission to conquer anything. We had agreed that we will come back if we feel it is too unsafe. As soon has the heavy rains started, we decided to come down. There is no point putting your & your family's life in danger. Please do not do this trail if you are not confident enough or feel any danger to do so.
In the end I would say by whatever I experienced, Duster AWD should be able to climb up Sandakphu. But, in the hands of expert driver & Navigator.
Would not advise or promote Sandakphu to anyone since it is dangerous. Please go there on your own responsibility.
Anecdote : While we were near Tumling, we found some local people quite surprised to see a vehicle other than the LR. They started asking how & whether it is 4x4. I told them it is a 4x4. They said, it is the first time they had seen a duster on this trail & were quite surprised. We moved on post that. While returning, they were in an intoxicated state, started singing "Duster - Duster" & dancing on it. They even clicked a selfie with our car & gave up a thumbs up. We did not get out of the car since I was with my wife. But it was great to see them so excited about the car.
Hope I have been able to answer some questions. Please feel free to ask if you require any more details.
Some pictures :
First break at Chitrey
Homestay at Chitrey for the trekkers.
Roads
At a comparatively wider stretch
The Hairpins
The Visibility at Tumling
Regards,
Pawan