Adi Kailash and Om Parvat: route and permit status

The 2026 season, as it actually happened

Every row below is dated and sourced. Where a source is a small outlet, we say so and mark the confidence down.

The year-round announcement, and why we are not treating it as fact yet

On 7 August 2026 the District Magistrate of Pithoragarh announced, on the Chief Minister’s direction, that the Adi Kailash Yatra would operate year-round — “except during adverse weather conditions and unforeseen emergencies” — with line departments told to prepare an action plan covering roads, water, power, healthcare, security, accommodation and sanitation.

If it happens, it is a genuinely significant change and this page will say so. Right now we report it as an announced intention, not a current fact, for three reasons that we think you should weigh yourself:

• It was announced while Inner Line Permits were still suspended from 2 July.
• It was announced eleven days before the road was closed by boulder falls at Malghat and Kulagad.
• The exception clause — adverse weather and unforeseen emergencies — is exactly the condition that shuts this road. On a corridor where a single slide isolates the whole valley, “year-round except in bad weather” is not the same promise it would be on a plains highway.

There is also the practical matter that Vyas Valley villages including Gunji depopulate in winter, when residents migrate down to Dharchula. A year-round yatra needs somebody up there to run it. We will believe the operational version when we see permits issued in January.

What a closure on this road actually means

This is where most travel pages soften something they should not. A monsoon closure here is not a delay of a few hours.

There is one road. When Malghat, Kulagad or Garbadhar goes, the Vyas Valley is cut off completely and you wait where you are — potentially for days, potentially above 3,000 m, potentially with no mobile signal. On 18 August 2026 travellers were stranded on both sides of the block simultaneously, and villagers reported pregnant women unable to reach a hospital.

The named danger points on the Tawaghat to Gunji section are Malghat, Kulagad, Garbadhar, Malpa and Elagad. The history is not theoretical: the 1998 Malpa landslide killed around 205 people including about 60 Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims. In May 2023 the hillside at Garbadhar cracked, the BRO spent four days clearing it, a fresh slide followed, and two pilgrim groups were stuck. Landslides also strand people below Dharchula, on the Tanakpur–Tawaghat road.

How to check this for yourself

You should not rely on us, or on any travel site, for the state of a road today. Here is the order we would work through, and we have tried to be useful rather than complete.

Two honest observations about that list. First, there is no official live road-status feed for this corridor. If a site tells you the road is open today with the confidence of a train enquiry, ask where they got it. Second, the fastest information in practice is a phone call to someone in Dharchula — which is one of the few genuine advantages of booking through an operator based on this side of the state rather than a call centre elsewhere.

If you are mid-planning, the best time to go page covers the seasonal pattern, and the permit page covers who issues what. For the drive itself, see Kathgodam to Adi Kailash or, if you are starting further up, Kathgodam to Dharchula.

Common questions