ValleySerious risk

Mana Valley

Chamoli district, Saraswati/Alaknanda River · Uttarakhand

The valley above Badrinath around Mana village at ~3,200 m, near the source of the Saraswati and the Tibet border.

Visit-safety grade
Serious

Manageable with care. The biggest factor is water & current: Fast, powerful water — people are swept off their feet here far more often than they fall. Do not enter or wade above the drop.

Water & current20 pts
Fast, powerful water — people are swept off their feet here far more often than they fall. Do not enter or wade above the drop.
Altitude / AMS16 pts
3200 m — high altitude. Est. SpO₂ ≈ 89% arriving unacclimatised. AMS becomes common if you ascend too fast. Acclimatisation rules start here.
Remoteness / rescue12 pts
Remote — real medical help and evacuation are hours away.

At 3200 m, altitude is the quiet risk. Arriving from low elevation in a single day gives your body no time to adjust — pace the climb where you can, and learn the early signs of AMS.

Score 48/100, re-derived from the site’s real characteristics — never a marketing grade. A higher number is not “don’t go”; it is “go informed.”

Know before you go
  • AMS at ~3,200 m for pilgrims arriving quickly from lower elevations
  • sudden cold, snow and weather changes near the high border
  • landslides and closures on the Badrinath highway
The safety code · valleys
  • Gaining a lot of height by road in a single day still brings on AMS — pace it, hydrate, and watch for headache and nausea.
  • Mountain weather flips fast and roads close for snow or landslides on short notice — keep a buffer day.
  • A fast river through a green valley is still a killer current — admire it from the bank.
When to go
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Prime windowShoulderOff-season
Photos

Photos via Wikimedia Commons — full attribution on the credits page.

The essentials
Nearest town
Badrinath
Elevation
3,200 m
Visit
Roadside / drive-up
Season
May–Oct
Permits
2 to arrange (Uttarakhand)
How to reach
Starting point
Badrinath
Uttarakhand
By air
  • Dehradun (DED)~143 km
  • Pantnagar (Kumaon) (PGH)~195 km
By rail
  • Rishikesh~138 km
  • Kotdwar~149 km
By road

Drive to the roadhead Badrinath. From Rishikesh (~138 km) shared taxis and state buses run the last leg to Mana Valley.

Distances are straight-line (as the crow flies), computed from the coordinates. Real road distance and driving time in the mountains are longer — confirm current road status and the last motorable point with your operator, especially in monsoon and winter.

Right now
−10°, clear skies· wind 4 km/h

Live from Open-Meteo at this spot, adjusted to 3,200 m. Mountain weather turns fast — treat this as a hint, not a promise.

Altitude & air
High altitude
Elevation
3,200 m
Oxygen vs sea level
~67%
Est. SpO₂ (unacclimatised)
~89%
Air pressure
524 mmHg

AMS becomes common if you ascend too fast. Acclimatisation rules start here.

Where it is
3D replay

See it in 3D

A Google-Earth-style flyby that drops in from orbit and traces the real approach trail up to Mana Valley(where it’s mapped in OpenStreetMap), over real satellite terrain — so you can read the climb and the lie of the land before you go.

More valleys
Serious
Yumthang Valley
Sikkim
Moderate
Nubra Valley
Ladakh
Moderate
Aru Valley
Jammu & Kashmir

Coordinates, heights and depths are approximate, curated from public sources — good enough to plan and to gauge risk, not surveyed. The safety grade is a deterministic guide, not a guarantee; conditions change with weather, water level and crowds.