India · Asia
Khardung La
One of the highest motorable passes in the world at 5,359m. The thin air and extreme altitude make every pedal stroke a battle.
- Length
- 39.0 km
- Avg gradient
- 5.0%
- Max gradient
- 10%
- Elevation gain
- 1,952 m
- Summit
- 5,359 m
- Hairpins
- 22
Versants
- From Leh — 39.0 km at 5.0% (max 10%)
History
Khardung La sits on what was, for centuries, a working caravan route — traders moved an estimated 10,000 horses and camels a year over this pass between Leh and Kashgar in Central Asia, long before it carried any kind of wheeled traffic. The motorable road across it was built in 1976 by India's Border Roads Organisation, primarily for strategic access to the Nubra Valley and the Siachen Glacier region rather than for tourism or sport.
For years Khardung La was marketed, including on its own summit signage, as the highest motorable road in the world — a claim that GPS surveying has since undercut. Modern satellite measurement puts the true elevation at around 5,359 m, well below the roughly 5,602 m the summit sign long claimed, and another Ladakh pass, Umling La, now holds the highest-motorable-road title outright.
None of that changes what it takes to ride: real altitude, thin air, and a road that's paved for its first stretch out of Leh before turning to variable-condition gravel higher up — reason enough that most cyclists ride it downhill, shuttled to the summit and let loose for the descent back into town.