Dangerous road trip in India

Seasoned drivers Lisa Kelly, Rick Yemm and Alex Debogorski are headed from Alaska to the Himalayas and the ancient highways of India, where there is a casualty on the roads every 4.5 minutes.
From the crowded streets of Delhi to treacherously steep, narrow and congested roads blasted into mountainsides, they're about to embark on an exhilarating, exhausting and terrifying adventure.
India's Himalayan roadways are among the oldest on the planet. Dating back to 206 B.C., the Himalayas were an integral part of the famous Silk Routes, connecting Central Asia with South Asia, and creating a bridge between the culturally and religiously diverse countries of India, China, Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan.

This season, the drivers will cover two main routes, each with its share of difficulties and dangers: the NH21 and NH22.



Starting out on NH22 in Shimla, the "highway" heads northeast through the town of Rampur, onto the villages of Tapri, Karcham, Kuppa,and Kalpa. Cut somewhat haphazardly out of mountain cliff-sides, parts of NH22 have earned fear-inducing nicknames like "Freefall Freeway," "The Cutouts," "Breakaway Bend," "The Ledge" and "Angry Mountain."



In many places along "the Cutouts," only enough rock has been blasted out of the mountains to allow one vehicle to pass at a time. The drivers have to both be aware of the 1,000-foot cliff they're driving along and scraping the top of their truck on the rock ceiling. "Breakaway Bend" challenges drivers to dangers of the unnatural kind--too much blasting has weakened the mountain from below, leading to not only potholes, but, in some places, total roadway failure. The road could give away from under the wheels of the truck at any moment.


On NH21, things only get worse. From Shimla, the drivers head north, straight into the heart of the Himalayas, toward Manali and onto Keylong. The real troubles aren't in the towns though, it's between them, as drivers are forced to cross the Rohtang Pass. Whether it's dodging landslides, rain or heavy snow; all-day traffic jams and weeks-long road closures, sometimes getting anywhere at all is too much to ask.