Adi Kailash Yatra October 2026: Closed 19

The Adi Kailash and Om Parvat yatra is closed to pilgrims from 19 to 26 October 2026. The SDM Dharchula, Ashish Joshi, has ordered that no Inner Line Permits be issued to yatris or tourists for those eight days. The only people getting permits are the runners and support crew of the Adi Kailash Parikrama Run, the second edition of the state’s high-altitude race, which is being held out of Gunji that week. The administration’s own advice is blunt: come before the 19th, or after the 26th.

For our calendar that means one thing. Every batch that was due to leave on 20 October is closed. The 13 October departures go ahead and are out of the valley before the closure starts. The 27 October departures are the next ones on every route, and they’re still open at the same price.

Is the Adi Kailash yatra open right now?

Yes, until 18 October. Then it shuts for eight days and opens again on the 27th. What’s shut is the permit counter, and with it the valley. The Inner Line Permit is the single document that gets you past the check posts beyond Tawaghat, and for those eight days the SDM office isn’t issuing one to anybody who isn’t on the race list. No permit, no Gunji, no Jolingkong, no Nabhidhang. The Dharchula–Gunji road itself is open (the Kulagad bridge was rebuilt in September and has been carrying traffic since the 18th), but the road being open does you no good if the barrier at the valley mouth won’t let you through. The permit guide explains what the ILP covers if you’re new to this.

We’ve confirmed the closure dates ourselves. Treat them as fixed.

Why a race closes a pilgrimage

The Adi Kailash Parikrama Run is run by the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board, and 2026 is its second year. The first edition on 2 November 2025 drew over 760 runners from 22 states, by the state’s own count. Runners report at Gunji between 20 and 22 October to acclimatise, which is why the closure starts on the 19th rather than on race day. The 70 km ultra and the 42 km marathon go on 24 October, the 21, 10 and 5 km races on the 25th, and a mountain-bike event on the 26th. The ultra course runs from Jolingkong down through Kuti and Nabi to Gunji and on to Chiyalekh, which is the yatra road end to end. With over a thousand participants expected in a valley of small homestays and camps, the administration has chosen to give them the place to themselves.

We’d plan for this to be an annual late-October gap from now on.

Which of our batches are affected

Route	13 October batch	20 October batch	Next open departure
Classic, ex-Pithoragarh	Runs. Leaves the valley 18 Oct, home 19 Oct	Closed	27 Oct, back 2 Nov
Via Kathgodam	Runs. Leaves the valley 18 Oct, Kathgodam 19 Oct	Closed	27 Oct, back 2 Nov
Ex-Delhi, with Patal Bhuvaneshwar	Runs. Leaves the valley 17 Oct, Delhi 20 Oct	Closed	27 Oct, back 3 Nov
Darshan Express, ex-Dharchula	Runs. 13 to 16 Oct	Closed	27 Oct, back 30 Oct

Dates from our published departure calendar. The 13 October groups on the three longer routes spend their last valley night at Gunji on the 17th and drive down to Dharchula on the 18th, a day before the counter stops.

After the 27 October departures there’s one more weekly batch on each route, leaving 3 November. That’s the last of the 2026 season. Prices haven’t moved: starting from ₹16,500 per person on the Darshan Express, ₹34,500 via Kathgodam, ₹36,000 on the classic route and ₹37,500 ex-Delhi. The cost guide has what each of those includes.

If you were booked for 20 October

Message us on WhatsApp and we’ll move you to 27 October or 3 November on the same route. Same price, same 12-seat batch. Your documents carry over to the new batch. If neither date works for you, tell us that too, and we’ll sort it out person by person rather than by a rule written for everyone.

One thing to check before you pick the 27th: your return travel. The ex-Delhi route gets back to Delhi on 3 November, the classic and Kathgodam routes finish on 2 November. Book trains and flights for the day after, not the same evening. A Himalayan road in November doesn’t care about your Tatkal ticket.

Going on your own? The same dates apply to you

The closure isn’t a tour-operator thing. An independent yatri walking into the SDM office on 21 October with a perfect file gets the same answer we would. If you’re planning a self-drive or a taxi trip, the window is before the 19th or from the 27th. In a normal week the counter needs two to five days from a complete file. Whether it will take pilgrim files during the closure for travel after the 26th is something the order doesn’t say, so lodge yours before the 19th to be safe. The opening-date guide has the season timeline if you’re working out which half of autumn suits you.

Adi Kailash yatra closing date 2026

There’s no closing date printed on the permit. The administration shuts the route when snow makes the Gunji to Jolingkong stretch unsafe, and in some years that’s a day’s notice. Our calendar treats the first week of November as the end: the 3 November batch is the last one, back on 9 November. So the reopening on the 27th hands you the last ten days or so of the season. Late October in the Vyas valley is cold and clear: the sharpest Om Parvat views of the year, and nights at Gunji that drop well below freezing. If darshan this year matters to you, the 27 October departure is the one to take. Our drivers start the jeeps before first light that week just to get the diesel moving.

If you hold a seat for the 20th, or you were about to book one, send us your route and the date you’d prefer, 27 October or 3 November. We’ll confirm the seat and tell you the document deadline for it the same day. The full route comparison is on the Adi Kailash yatra page.