There were a few options for our day off: hike to a monastery, rafting, or trekking. Rafting ended up getting canceled because Ravi said someone had died because the river level was up. Trekking past Jispa got turned into a 3 hour trip up to Baralachala Pass. Me, Josh, and Jenny (all NC State grads) ended up driving up there.
This pass was quite a bit different from the Rohtang pass. There was not nearly as much traffic, the grade overall was much less steep, and it was paved (nicely) most of the way. When we arrived the weather was nasty, cold, and raining and we threw on our rain jackets and walked for a little bit. Within minutes the rain soaked through our pants and we began to get cold. We headed back to the car to get our rain pants so we could continue to explore. Once we had completely suited up and went back out, the rain stopped and the heavens opened. It happened slowly and the clouds gave way to reveal the peaks around us.
We were at 16,500 ft and I could definitely feel it. I could move fine on a level grade, but inclines and standing up made me light headed and dizzy. Keylong is about 10,000 ft so this was quite an increase in elevation. At the top, just as we were about to leave we saw a group of trekkers and we went to say hello. They were from the UK just ousted of London and were a part of a "challenge " group that was doing a 16 day trek. We came back down in about the same time but I had a nasty headache that didn't go away. Even after several hours at Keylong the headache didn't get better, so I went to bed around 8:30pm. I am still not sure if the headache was caused primarily from the altitude, or if the mefloquine I took that morning had something to do with it.
This pass was quite a bit different from the Rohtang pass. There was not nearly as much traffic, the grade overall was much less steep, and it was paved (nicely) most of the way. When we arrived the weather was nasty, cold, and raining and we threw on our rain jackets and walked for a little bit. Within minutes the rain soaked through our pants and we began to get cold. We headed back to the car to get our rain pants so we could continue to explore. Once we had completely suited up and went back out, the rain stopped and the heavens opened. It happened slowly and the clouds gave way to reveal the peaks around us. 
We were at 16,500 ft and I could definitely feel it. I could move fine on a level grade, but inclines and standing up made me light headed and dizzy. Keylong is about 10,000 ft so this was quite an increase in elevation. At the top, just as we were about to leave we saw a group of trekkers and we went to say hello. They were from the UK just ousted of London and were a part of a "challenge " group that was doing a 16 day trek. We came back down in about the same time but I had a nasty headache that didn't go away. Even after several hours at Keylong the headache didn't get better, so I went to bed around 8:30pm. I am still not sure if the headache was caused primarily from the altitude, or if the mefloquine I took that morning had something to do with it.
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