Laal Tibba – Mussoorie, Garhwal Hike

Altitude : 2290m

Range: Tehri Garhwal, Uttrakhand, Himalayas India

GPX not available becasue 2003 was the year Garmin started making GPS forerunner watches. I may have pictures from this hike and if I find them I will post them here. Here is the story.

Ride to Dehradun Railway Station

I had visited Dehradun many times before this trip to Lal Tibba through Mussoorie but never towards upper Garhwal due to lack of time from my sports activities. It has been more than two decades since I saw this part of India so I’m not sure what it would look like now a days. In my experience, there used to be only one training going to Dehradun from Amritsar and if I’m not wrong it was perhaps called “The Passenger Train”. The ticket back in the days was less than 40 rupees I suppose which we never bought as student athletes since most of the ticket checkers were our fellow athletes. Not that we had much money as a student. I remember earning 250 rupees and barely spending that over the span of full year since my scholarship covered board and lodging along with food. So a free ride up to Dehradun railway station through Haridwar. Despite being an inaccessible town from lower himalays, the vibe of Dehradun’s Bus Stand is as busy as any other town.

Dehradun Bus Stand to Mussoorie

Sitting in a crowded mini Bus with a few people on top of the Bus in a narrow ridge road from Dehradun to Mussoorie early Spring was the best experience of the trip. The Bus was barely on the road and any time any other vehicle crossed from the front, one vehicle had to come to the complete stop. Sometimes the bus would stop near the ridgeline and I could see the 700 feet drop through the Window.

Stay at Mussoorie

There was a hotel at the left side of the road as you enter Mussoorie, the hotel would cost 5000 rupees back in the days that means today the hotel would probably be 25000 rupees a night? However, I found a hotel with breakfast for mere 250 rupees that is $3USD today. I assume at that rate, the same hotel would be $15 today. It was an okay stay and didn’t really look or feel like a hotel more like a Bed & Breakfast stay.

Hike to Laal Tibba and various other places

Hiking in lower Himalayas isn’t that hard. There wasn’t usually any mountain climbing back in the days or even rock climbing. Mostly people would go for a hike and even that was rare. Most of our trip to Himalays were for tourist places or pilgrimage. I find myself lucky enough to be able to go to these place in those times at minimal cost and enjoy the Summits of some of the Himalayan range mountains.

The view from Lal Tibba (Laal Tibba) is absolutely stunning. I believe it is called lal tibba because of the smaller hills visible close to the summit that are of redish colour. The view was covered with Clouds moving in and out and Garhwal ranges peeking through the clouds at times. I wouldn’t mention other small hikes because they in my opinion aren’t significant enough to mention as a separate mountain/hike. Moreover, I had lost my camera in a waterfall at Mussoorie. There was some sort of fair in a part of the town and I remember taking pictures of me playing Billiards there. Back in the days, the cameras were rare and whoever had a camera, it was not a digital camera. So, 35mm reel from my camera was saved and the other reel with mountain pictures fell into the waterwall in the camera. I may have a picture or two that I would try finding somewhere.