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Old 14th January 2025, 11:18   #1
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Join Date: Jul 2022
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Great road-trip experience with the Scorpio-N 4x4 in snowy Lahaul & Spiti

Hi All,

I am merging two roadtrips (one is from Lahual valley and other from Spiti valley) that I did in recent past in this post! Also, this is my first Travelogue, feedbacks are highly appreciated!

TLDR; I had fun driving Scorpio N on snow roads and black ice, the car did great job!

Trip 1:
Dec 24 to Dec 28 2024
Gurgaon - Solang - Sissu - Keylong - Sissu - Gurgaon
Total passengers - 5(all adults); Last seat removed to keep bags, kitchen stuff (stove, utensils, food, etc), and chairs and table!

Dec 24:
We started around 8 PM from GGN, managed a good speed and reached Solang Valley check post around 8 AM!

Dec 25:
Road was slippery and opened only for local 4x4 vehicles/4x2 snow chain vehicles. We waited patiently till noon and were allowed to cross Atal tunnel to reach Lahaul!
Spent a day in Koksar(right of Atal tunnel), made tea in sub zero temperature! Did some stargazing! The roads was slipper was we had to walk, couldnt drive to a no light spot!

Dec 26:
Shifted to Sissu, went on a short drive to Tandi and Keylong! Collected wood near the chandra and bhaga river's sangam and ignited our own fire, had thupka and momos in Keylong! It was a fun day!
At night, we found a dark spot between Sissu and Khangsar and did stargazing - spotted planets, stars, milkyway and constellations!

Dec 27:
Spend some time at the Sissu helipad, no crowed at all
In noon, it started snowing. Police came to our hotel, in fact all hotels and suggested guests to leave or they will be stuck for a couple of days! We started right away! It was snowing, snow on roads, and we managed to cross Atal Tunnel!

The real fun started after that, we observed a few cars losing control and hitting other cars! It was a bit scary but we kept slow pace in 4 low and managed to reach solang valley to get stuck in 11-12 hours because there were a lot of cars and the road was slippery too!

Dec 28:
Managed to reach Manali around 3 AM! After that the ride was smooth, reach Gurgaon around 5 PM!

Great road-trip experience with the Scorpio-N 4x4 in snowy Lahaul & Spiti-img_4875.jpg

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Great road-trip experience with the Scorpio-N 4x4 in snowy Lahaul & Spiti-img_6162.jpg

A few highlights about the car:
  • No snow chains, kept the tyre pressure around 25-28 psi with 265/65/17 B'stone Dueler AT002 tyres! Loved them on the snowy roads
  • FE was between 10 to 12 kmpl
  • We started the car every 6 to 8 hours in sub zero to ensure no start issues
  • Used Snow mode (4xplor) with 4Low at downhills between Sissu to Manali, it worked as expected!

Trip 2:
Jan 4 to Jan 12
Rohtak - Solan - Hatu Peak - Kalpa - Kaza - Chicham - Tabo - IndoTibet border (Lepcha) - Solan - Rohtak
Total passengers - 7(all adults); all three rows up! 2 in front, 4 in middle and one in last with a lot of stuff; installed Mahindra's integrated carrier and managed to fit 6 big bags in a waterproof cover that I ordered from Amazon

Jan 04:
Foggy drive from Rohtak to Solan - almost zero visibility. I used yellow film to make the white lights work in fog!

Jan 05 and 06:
Our actual trip started from Solan on Jan 5th, first stop was Hatu peak, due to snow the road was not open all the way up so we had to walk for 3 KMs(each side); The walk was totally worthy!
Same day we reached Kalpa, spent 2 nights there, explored the town, drove and walked in narrow streets and waited for snowfall - but no luck!

Jan 07:
We started from Kalpa, took many road side stops, the beauty was forcing us to stop again and again! We reached SUMDO around sunset and that's when we picked the pace, it was getting cold and the road between Tabo and Kaza was very slippery so we had to be fast and cautious.
We reached Kaza around 8, waited for the moon to go down and around 12:40 AM (Jan 8) we went to stargaze- again spotted planets like Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Uranus, etc; spotted milky way (it was light); constellation, stars, etc.

Jan 08:
Went to sightseeing, the road was slippery so we were slow and used 4L at many stretches specially downhills and sharp curves - avoid any risks! the 4L nob is for a purpose.
We were slow so only covered Langza, Komic and Hikkim. Went to Kaza market and had great local food - thenthuk and momo at Poonam dhaba.

Jan 09:
Started with Chicham Bridge, there were no snow leapord spotings so we didn't wait and proceed towards or headed back to Key Monastery. Around noon, we started towards Tabo.
We drove on the pin valley road(towards Mudh village) but there was 3-4 inches snow on the road and the car was slipping a lot so we took a U turn after driving for 2-3 KMs.

We explored the Lingti waterfall, it is so beautiful, I will keep it at the top of the places we explored on this trip! Then we went to Dhankar Monastery, again a beautiful spot, after the sunset, we saw many colors of the sky including orange, blue, purple, pink, it was a great sight!
Rested at Tabo!

Jan 10:
We started early, got out permits from ITBP for Indo-Tibet border visit! Made to the zero point! It was an experience, we enjoyed talking to our soldiers, they showed us around and answered our questions very patiently. Google Map was thinking that we are in China - in fact some phones were showing China time!

Headed back and drove all the way to Solan, I guess we reached home around 12:30 AM!

Jan 11 and 12:
Mostly rested and went to Bhurshing Mahadev in Sirmour district! It was cloudy and we again hopped for snow! It rained but the temp didnt drop and
Headed back to Rohtak on Jan 12th!


A few highlights about the car:
  • Carried snow chains this time but didn't use as the tyres were perform fine with air pressure set to 25. I think I am in love with the tyres!
  • FE was between 7 to 12 kmpl (used 4x4 more in Spiti valley)
  • We started the car every 6 in sub zero to ensure no start issues! A fellow traveller with Thar Diesel didn't do it and they have waited for the sun to come up and warm the car for 2-3 hours! It will be scary in cloudy settings! This also helped in starting our travels around 9 AM.
  • Used 4H and 4L in normal mode mostly on slippery curvy roads, and downhills! On straight roads like Tabo to Kaza - used 2H in normal mode, the road was slippery but managed in slow speed
  • Avoided breaking, whenever needed used only 10-30% of break power! Used engine breaking more.
  • The car slipped a few inches, many times but I was able to get it back without a lot of efforts!
  • I was very concerned about the DFP, kept the RPMs high most of the time, mostly above 2000.
  • The roof carrier makes a lot of noise at high speeds! Even when it is empty. Planning to remove it and only installed whenever needed. I only need to put 6 bolts and all done!
unpopulrxplorer is offline   (19) Thanks
Old 14th January 2025, 11:25   #2
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Join Date: Jul 2022
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re: Great road-trip experience with the Scorpio-N 4x4 in snowy Lahaul & Spiti

Adding photos from Trip2:

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unpopulrxplorer is offline   (31) Thanks
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