Spiti Summer

Summer in Spiti: the roads are open, the passes are (mostly) clear, and the valley buzzes with its brief season of warmth. This is the accessible Spiti — the one where you can walk around Kaza in a t-shirt, swim (briefly, gasping) in the Spiti river, and visit monasteries where monks are out painting the walls for the season. But "accessible" is relative. Spiti is still at 4,000 metres. The roads are still one lane. The nearest hospital is still a full day's drive away. Come prepared, and you'll find a high-altitude summer that's unlike anything in the Indian lowlands — clear skies, cool nights, wildflowers at Chandratal, and enough Buddhist calm to last you until next summer.