Babusar Top Open or Closed? Opening Dates Explained

Is Babusar Top open or closed? In a normal year the pass is closed by snow from about November to late May, and open from late May or June until the first heavy snow of autumn. In recent years it has reopened on 25 May (2026), in the fourth week of May (2025) and on 10 June (2024), and it has closed anywhere between mid-October and the end of November. Even in season it is a daylight-only road, and snow, rain or road works can shut it for a day or several, so check on the morning you travel.

This guide explains the pattern behind those dates: how the snow is cleared, what the first weeks after opening are really like, why it can close in July, and how to find out the current status before you leave Islamabad or Naran.

Is Babusar Top open right now?

The honest answer depends on the month, and then on the day.

• November to April: closed. Do not plan a crossing, and do not drive up hoping to talk your way past the checkpost. Above Batakundi the road is under snow and avalanche debris, and the hotels and police posts on the upper road are shut.
• May: closed for most of the month. The pass has opened in the last week of May in the past two years, and in mid-June in the two years before that.
• June to September: open in a normal year, with closures of a day or two after heavy rain or landslides.
• October: open in most years, but the first snow can close it early, as it did in mid-October 2023.
• Late October to November: a gamble. The road closes for the winter some time in November, occasionally sooner.

"Open" also means something narrower than it sounds. It means the road is open in daylight, in the direction the police are letting traffic through, until the weather says otherwise. Check on the day, not the week before.

When does Babusar Top open each year?

These are the reopening dates reported in the press for the last four seasons. They are a guide to the pattern, not a forecast.

Two things stand out. The pass has been opening earlier, in late May rather than mid-June, in the last two seasons. And an early opening does not mean an easy June: in 2026 the road opened, jammed with Eid traffic on a narrow snow-bound carriageway, and was shut again twice within two weeks while machinery widened it.

The road up the valley to Naran opens well before the pass. In 2026 it reopened in the second half of April, and by the end of the month it had been cleared as far as Batakundi, 15 km beyond Naran. So a May trip to Naran is often possible even when Babusar is not.

Why the opening date moves

Each spring the National Highway Authority clears the Naran side, working up from Naran with heavy machinery. The problem is less the fresh snow than the avalanche deposits the locals call glaciers: in recent seasons NHA crews have cleared more than 21 of them between Naran and Babusar Top. On the far side, the Diamer district administration in Gilgit-Baltistan clears the avalanche debris down towards Chilas. The pass opens only when both sides are through and the two administrations agree.

What decides the date is how much snow fell in the winter and how the spring behaves:

• A light winter means an earlier start. In 2026 officials said lighter snowfall had helped the spring clearance, and the pass opened in late May.
• Late snowfall in May can bury work already done. In 2026 fresh snow at the end of May slowed the operation and forced the June closures.
• Holiday pressure pushes the administrations to open before Eid, sometimes before the road is wide enough for two-way traffic.

What the first weeks after opening are like

If you are planning to cross in late May or the first half of June, expect a different road from the one in the July photographs.

• Snow walls. For the first weeks the road runs between banks of cleared snow near Gittidas and the top, and in places is only one vehicle wide. Traffic is often run one way at a time.
• Short hours. In recent seasons the police have stopped traffic in the evening; a May 2026 advisory warned that the road becomes unsafe after 6 pm because of freezing and ice.
• Real hazards. The same advisory listed avalanches, slippery surfaces, brake failure, rockfall and landslides, and told travellers to avoid unnecessary trips until the road was declared fully clear.
• Crowds. When Eid falls just after opening, as in 2026, the queues on a single-lane road can run for hours.

If your dates fall in this window, cross early in the morning, give yourself a spare day, and have the Karakoram Highway ready as a fallback.

When does Babusar Top close?

The pass normally closes for the winter in November, after the first heavy snow. Recent seasons show how much that varies:

• 2023: unexpected snowfall closed it on 14 October, weeks earlier than usual, and stranded travellers were moved down to Chilas.
• 2024: heavy snow fell on Babusar and Lulusar at the end of October, and by the end of November the road was shut and anyone trying to drive beyond Batakundi was being turned back.
• 2025: snow closed the road from Naran to Jalkhad and Babusar on 6 November. Mansehra police withdrew their posts at Gittidas, Jalkhad and Besal, and the hotels and restaurants on the upper road closed. The Diamer administration formally closed the road from its side on 29 November.

When it closes, it closes for the season. Once the police posts are withdrawn and the hotels are shut, there is no reopening for a sunny week in December.

Can it close in summer?

Yes, and July and August are when it is most likely. Monsoon rain brings landslides and flash floods to the Diamer side of the pass.

The worst recent case was on 21 and 22 July 2025, when a cloudburst sent a flash flood down Thak Nala on the Chilas side. Vehicles were swept away, tourists were killed and others went missing, and more than 200 people were rescued and moved to Chilas. The Diamer deputy commissioner closed the road to all traffic, and it reopened for one-way traffic on 28 July.

Most summer closures are far shorter. In the 2026 monsoon, landslides in Diamer typically blocked roads for a day or two before they were cleared. The pattern to plan for is a forecast of heavy rain, then a closure of a day or so, then a slow reopening.

How to check whether Babusar is open

Use more than one of these, and check again on the morning you drive:

1. Call 1422. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa this reaches the provincial Tourist Facilitation Hub, which runs round the clock and gives road and weather updates for Hazara, including the Kaghan valley. In Gilgit-Baltistan the same number reaches the tourist police.
2. Check official pages. Mansehra police and the district administration announce closures and travel hours on their social media pages, and the Gilgit-Baltistan tourism department posts advisories for the Diamer side, as it did during the July 2025 flood.
3. Ask in Naran the evening before. Hotel staff and jeep drivers know what came down the road that day. The police posts on the upper road, at Batakundi and Jalkhad, will tell you whether traffic is moving.
4. Look at the forecast for the pass itself, not for Naran or Chilas. Heavy rain or snow forecast for the high ground is reason enough to wait a day.
5. Treat social media videos with care. Old flood clips circulate every summer. A dated notice from the police or the district administration is worth more than a viral video.

For the other routes north and what closes when, our travel guide covers the main roads across the northern areas, and our Karakoram Highway road status guide explains the all-season alternative.

Planning a trip around the dates

A few rules that save most trips:

• Before mid-June, plan on the KKH. If Babusar opens in time, take it as a bonus. If your trip only works over Babusar, move it to later in June.
• Don't plan a crossing for the first days of Eid in a year when Eid falls soon after the opening. The queues on a half-cleared road are the worst of the season.
• Keep a spare day in July and August, and be ready to switch to the KKH when heavy rain is forecast for Diamer.
• Aim to be over the top by early afternoon. It keeps you inside the permitted hours and off the steep Diamer descent in the dark.
• If the pass shuts, Naran still works. Saif-ul-Malook, Lalazar and Lulusar all sit below the top, as long as their own roads are open.

If Babusar is how you plan to reach Gilgit, our Islamabad to Gilgit road guide compares the two routes leg by leg. To build a trip around the season rather than fight it, use our trip planning page.

Frequently asked questions