This page describes my trip to Passu and Karimabad in Pakistan in September 2004.
In 1999 I came across the Lonely Planet book "Trekking in the Karakoram
and Hindukush" which kindled my interest in exploring the mountains of my
native country. In 2001 I did a trek in the Gondogoro valley that introduced
me to the mind-blowing mountain scenery in the Karakoram in the Baltistan
region. In 2004 I went to Pakistan and decided to explore the Gojal and Hunza
areas along the Karakoram Highway. Note that to get the ticket to Gilgit
you need to go to the Northern Areas desk in PIA office on the Mall in Pindi,
buy the ticket and confirm it at 11 AM the day before your trip. Its Rs.
1400 one-way for Pakistanis and a little more for foreigners.
Note: All prices are given in Rupees. At the time of my trip 1 U.S $ = Rs.
60
My brother dropped me off at the Chaklala Airport in the morning. I was a little worried about the baggage weight but fortunately they overlooked it. The guy next to me got nicked for an extra Rs. 250 for a blanket he was taking ("But its cold in Gilgit" he was protesting). The Fokker showed up 1/2 hour late but thankfully the weather gods were smiling upon me and it was cleared to go back to Gilgit. The overhead luggage space is extremely limited on the Fokker but they do have an area in the back where I was able to stash my backpack. The Gilgit flight was pretty full but I was lucky in getting both seats to myself. Unfortunately my seat was on the left side of the plane and all the good stuff including great views of Nanga Parbat were on the right side. It took the plane half an hour just to clear the smog and haze of the lowlands and Pindi/Islamabad pollution. The scenery gradually improved as the land started to rise into ever steeper mountains. Human settlement became fewer and limited to bottoms of steep and narrow river valleys. A guy with a camera was ushered into the cockpit because he wanted to get a good shot of Nanga Parbat. It was nice to fly in this relaxed atmosphere after the fear and paranoia of US-based airlines. The flight ended quickly as the plane circled and landed on the small airstrip. We emerged into the hot and dry air of Gilgit. All around were steep barren mountains with huge talus and scree slopes. Rakaposhi's ice covered tip was prominently visible. The city seemed situated in a bowl. There appeared to be no public transport linking city to airport. Everybody either had somebody waiting for them or else hired a jeep. I was approached by a guy who assured me that this was it. It was only Rs. 30 to get to the wagon stand where mini-vans left for Minapin. I piled my stuff in his jeep and we took off. We stopped on the way at a store selling used outdoor equipment. He did have gas canisters for Rs. 500 that worked with my stove but he was adamant on the price and wouldn't budge an inch. I got pissed and left without buying it. I would have reason to regret this later. The wagon stand was pretty decrepit and the market around it lacked any good shops to buy supplies for the trip. I found the van for Minapin but he said he wasn't planning to leave until 2 PM. I put my bag on the van and started waiting. Another van with more passengers was about to leave and its driver told me he was headed to Aliabad and that I could catch something from there to either Passu or Minapin. Since he seemed about to leave I decided to pile on to his wagon. We soon left the stand and then this guy proceeded to wander all over Gilgit trying to fill his van to overflowing capacity. I was able to buy some bottled water and some biscuits at one of the places where he stopped. We finally got the wagon filled to capacity and got on the road only to stop in one hour for a lunch and tea break in a small collection of hotels and shops. The mountains were still pretty barren and not that impressive and I was beginning to wonder if this trip was going to be a dud. I was seated next to a guy who was chewing snuff tobacco and periodically spitting huge gobs of green spit on the floor of the van. Mercifully he got off with his two women before the end of journey. Many women in this area wore the pill-box hats signifying their Tajik origins. There were some impressive mountain views along the way particularly of Rakaposhi. We reached Aliabad in about 3 hours. The guy made me pay an extra 20 Rs on top of the Rs 90 he fare for my bags. When I got out of the van the view stunned me. Rakaposhi was extremely close and loomed above the place in a dramatic manner. Ultar was visible in the other direction. I was thinking about taking a break here and absorb the scenery when I was approached by another van guy whose van was leaving for Passu and needed one more passenger. I decided to get on it and leave Aliabad for the return. This van was also filled to capacity with four guys on each seat. Not the most pleasant traveling conditions. Next time I go on a trip like this I will try to get the front seat which is considered a "double" seat and pay double fare. At Rs. 200 or so it will still be pretty cheap and would ensure a much more comfortable journey. Anyway this van deposited me in Passu in front of the Passu Inn in about 2 hours. I checked out the rooms and bargained the hotel guy down from Rs. 500 to 250/day. The hotel appeared to be mostly empty which no doubt contributed to the flexibility on part of the manager. It seemed reasonably clean and had a nice yard with apple and cherry trees. A few chairs were set up in the shade of these trees and local men lounged around on these sipping tea and chatting. The views around were pretty impressive. The hotel backed onto a huge rock cliff. On the other side was Passu village and beyond it the Hunza River. A fantastically rugged mountain rose on the other side of Hunza River. Its jagged face looked like an impregnable fortress with soaring turrets and battlements. Its local name is "Tupopdan" which means hot rock. Apparently its so steep that snow does not accumulate on it leading locals to believe it had internal heat that melted snow. Its also known as Passu Cathedral. From the LP book I gathered that a Brit expedition had tried to climb it from the back side (Shimshal, Qarun-Koh side) in 1987. I later found out that Joe Simpson (Touching the void author) was also part of that expedition -- just two years after his harrowing experience on Siula Grande. I settled into my room quickly and then ventured out to explore the place. It had a couple of small shops and a PCO was located a 15 minute walk down the road. I went down there and called home to let my folks know that I had arrived in Passu in one piece. Then I went into the village and found a general store that sold bottled water. The guy who ran it informed me that the porters in this town had a union and took turns at portering. The rate was either about Rs. 330 per stage and they wanted a "wood tax" of Rs. 300 if I intended to use wood for cooking along the way. Guess I should have bought the gas cylinder. I stopped to check out the hotel next to the PCO but its rooms were very dirty and strictly for the desperate or the unwashed-backpacker types. It did have a nice common area and I had a cup of tea and chatted with the friendly owner. Night fell very swiftly in this area and it was dark as I returned from the PCO. I met a Swiss guy in the dining room of Passu Inn that night. He was doing day hikes around the area and we chatted and compared notes. It was pleasantly cool at night, a refreshing change from the heat of Pindi. I met with a porter named Ali Aman who had been sent by the store keeper. He basically repeated the same info as the others, there was a union, rates were fixed and that was that. Absolutely no room for negotiation. I resigned myself to paying "foreigner" prices but decided to hold off on starting the Batura Glacier trek until I had acclimatized for a day or so.
View from plane window, distant mountainsGot up early. Took a walk down towards the PCO and beyond to a fairly decent looking hotel past the China Camp. I wanted to see what other hotels were out here and if there were any better deals out here. However the hotel seemed totally deserted with no signs of any management. Another hotel nearby seemed like it had closed for the season. There was a great view of Tupopdan and Batura Gl. moraine from the road. I walked back to Passu Inn, had a bit of breakfast, packed some gear for a day hike and slathered myself with sun-screen. I decided I was going to either do Passu Ghar or Avdegar hikes to acclimatize myself. As I walked down the road I came to a view of the beautiful white seracs of Passu Glacier. It was amazing to see such a stunning panorama right from the road and I decided that I would hike to Passu Ghar to get close-up views. There is a small restaurant on a rise with a long and elaborate series of steps leading to it. I went up to it and asked the guy how to get to Passu Ghar. He told me he had worked in the Pindi Pearl Continental before coming back home and opening this place. It seemed pretty deserted and his menu was a little expensive. I decided to visit him on my return and patronize his establishment. He had free camping in small clearing at the back of his restaurant and somebody was camping there. He led me past some huts and thorny animal pens to the top of a small hill and pointed out the path in general terms. I asked him to take a couple of pictures and he obliged. Nice fellow. There was an obvious trail leading towards the glacier and I followed it for a while until I came to a silty lake at the toe of Passu Glacier. The LP book mentioned going up an ablation valley along a medial moraine but I couldn't see any obvious trails. There were cairns here and there but there was no proper trail. I ended up scrambling at the base of a steep cliff in fairly treacherous loose scree as I headed towards the only thing that looked like an ablation valley. The going got a little easier when I reached the ablation valley but only for a short while. The valley dead ended with a steep rock wall on one side and a sheer drop below to the lake basin. I dug out the LP book and it mentioned "go up the ablation valley and climb some easy class 2 shale to get to the main trail". The steep rock did look like shale so I assumed this was it. It sure as hell didn't look easy to me but I really didn't want to go all the way back to the hotel to find the other trail. I started going up this thing and it wasn't too bad in the beginning but things started getting steeper and more treacherous as I proceeded. The material was crumbly and it was hard to find hand and foot holds. I decided to get onto the "shale" in the hopes that that might provide better footing. I was beginning to feel pretty scared at this point. nobody knew where I was and if I fell I would probably die or seriously hurt myself. Scenes from "Touching the void" came to my mind especially the bit about where they were climbing up some steep shit and hoping they were not going to come to a dead-end because they knew they couldn't climb down the stuff they had climbed up. Every search for a new foothold and handhold brought me closer to panic mode. I forced myself to calm down and focus on getting up but it was hard since I was kicking down small rocks with every step that clattered a long ways down. I finally made it up the steep stuff but to my great despair this was not the top. There was a slightly less steep slope of morainal rubble ahead. At this point I really started to fervently wish I had not come on this hike. My heart rate monitor was climbing up to 180 which is the first time I had seen it so high. I proceeded up this slope as best as I could. Every step was agonizing because the loose stuff would make me slide back and I knew that if I slid hard there would be nothing to stop my fall. Small rocks were sliding down and falling off the rock face with the slightest gust of wind and with every step. I started praying that the top of this slope would have an easy descent on the other side because if it didn't I was totally screwed. Thankfully Allah answered my prayers because I was able to get to the top and saw a relatively gentle descent on the other side to what was unmistakably an ablation valley. Relief washed over me in a great wave and I sat down to gather my wits. It now appeared clear that I had taken the wrong trail. Fucking morons had put cairns all over the place for no apparent reason. I was on top of the medial moraine. It was a pretty narrow knife-edge with the top not wider than a couple of feet. I decided to walk up the medial moraine and then return back to Passu if I couldn't see any obvious trails. The views were great and even in my disturbed state of mind I was able to appreciate the gargantuan scale of things around here. There was a huge glacier clad peak poking out from behind Passu Cathedral. Apparently it was Qarun-Koh - a major peak towards Shimshal. In the foreground I could see 25000+ft high Passu Dior with Passu Glacier descending from it. The moraine petered out into a sheer drop so I turned back there and walked back down until I came to a clear trail that was going down into the ablation valley and then climbing up the other side to some relatively flatter terrain beyond. It was getting late but I decided to take it and see if it led to Passu ghar. This connector deposited me on a level trail that went past some stone-walled animal pens before popping out near a dirt road and an irrigation channel filled with silty water from the glacier. I wasn't too thrilled about running this turbid water through my filter but had little choice. It was very hot and dry in this area despite the proximity to all the glaciers and I had gone through 2 litres of water just on the hike up. The trail now hugged the steep side of Borit Sar -- a round mountain with glittering rocks that made it look like it was saturated with water. The irrigation channel and trail were ingeniously carved out of the hillside and the outer edge of the channel was made by several overlapping layers of flat rocks . The views of Passu Glacier up close were awesome but the light was beginning to fade. I came to a flat area where the water pooled into a small pond. This place had some camping possibilities. There was a huge slab of tilted hillside leading up to Passu Ghar but I knew I had already pushed it too late and would have to turn back. I angled for a low spot in the moraine and was able to get some really good views of the whole Glacier and surrounding mountains form here before turning back. The downhill part was fairly easy until I came to the junction where I had a choice, I could go back towards the medial moraine and try to find the trail I had missed earlier or keep going on the main trail which would hopefully deposit me on the KKH. Given my earlier misadventure on the medial moraine I decided to go for the hopefully easier main trail. The problems started when this supposedly straightforward trail started showing signs of forking. I dug out the LP book in rapidly fading light and was able to find some electricity towers mentioned in the book. I followed these towers and the sometimes faint trail with the help of a flashlight. There were a couple of scary moments when I lost the trail and had to backtrack a bit but eventually to my great relief I found myself standing on the KKH. It took me another 1/2 hour of walking along the pitch dark road to get to my hotel. Along the way I encountered several trucks loaded with cargo coming from the Chinese border. Some of these asshole truck drivers would actually swerve and make feints as if they were trying to run me down! A long and eventful first day indeed. It certainly brought home the realization that trails here were a lot more confusing and dangerous than in the Pacific NW. It also whetted my appetite for doing the Batura Glacier trek because I was sure it would have excellent scenery. I tried to hook up with the porter I had talked to last night but the bugger didn't show up at the hotel. Furthermore the village store was all out of bottled water and I was stuck drinking Fanta all night. Had some well deserved dinner in the dining hall and chatted with the Swiss dude and a Japanese guy who had shown up that day. Walked down to PCO and made the nightly report (glossed over the near death experiences of that morning). .
Got up early and went into village to locate porter but no sign of the
bastard and the store was closed. Wandered about town and looked at the natives.
The women here are less conservative and more curious about outsiders. All
the guys wear western clothes which is really odd for a village in Pakistan.
However it was becoming abundantly clear to me that these guys don't really
consider themselves Pakistani. Their allegiance lies with Agha Khan who is
like a Pope to them. He lives in Europe and come around once in a while to
officiate over marriages. The locals have made huge welcome signs with white
stones on the mountains along the Hunza River. Disgustingly obsequious and
fawning slogans in my opinion and they definitely have a jarring effect on
the otherwise beautifully start mountain vistas. There was a fairly nice
school and all the kids were flocking to it. I also went to a small hotel
in the village called the guest house. Apparently its the Pakistani version
of a B&B. There were some foreigners staying there and apparently getting
ready to start a trek. The owner was somewhat snooty and his room rates were
definitely overpriced. The only redeeming feature of the place was a great
map of the Batura Glacier trek that was framed and hanging on the wall. I
kept checking on the store and it finally opened but instead of the regular
shopkeeper a young punk was running it and chatting with a buddy. I asked
them about the porter and the guy suggested I take his buddy as a "guide"
who would charge Rs. 500 /day instead of the Rs. 330/ stage charged by porters.
He would also help me with 10-15 kg of my pack weight. This seemed like a
good idea for two reasons, A) my stuff weighed a lot less than the 25 kg
(50 lb) load that a porter is supposed to carry. B) I could probably cover
more than 1 stage in 1 day so it would end up costing less if I paid by the
day. Consequently I told the guy to get his shit ready and meet me at the
hotel ASAP. Then I went to the hotel, had breakfast and got ready to depart.
At around noon there was a knock on my door. I was surprised to see a strange
face. The guy said his name was Nazar Karim and he was going to be my guide.
This should have been my first warning sign that something was amiss but
I just figured these guys were all the same and as long as he could carry
my stuff for the specified price then I didn't give a rats ass. He just had
a small day pack which was the 2nd warning sign and this did give me some
pause for thought. Unfortunately my haste to get on the trail made me ignore
these signs. We finally worked out an arrangement where he would carry my
pack and I would carry his. We finally headed out the door with him bitching
about how heavy my pack was and me telling to get a scale and weigh it if
he was so worried about it being over 15 kg. Next he said we need to find
a jeep or truck to get to trail head. He was able to talk to a guy with a
tractor trailer and convince him into giving us a ride to the trailed. The
tractor guy reluctantly agreed and we went down the road and over a jolty
dirt track to the trail head. I sprawled out in the hay in the trailer with
some kids and Karim sat on the wheel well and jabbered back and forth with
the driver in their native tongue. At the trail head the fucker again started
whining about the load and also mentioned that the tractor guy was in fact
the head of the porter union and had questioned him as to why he was carrying
a porters load for guides wages and also why he was cutting in line of the
porter whose turn it was to go. Apparently Ali Iman (the SOB who hadn't shown
up last night or this morning when I was looking for him) was a relative
of this union honcho and the honcho was quite pissed about his relative getting
the shaft. It finally began to sink in that this Karim guy was a whining
asshole and might give me more trouble along the trail. I basically said
to him, we had a deal if you can't honor it then lets go back. So we started
walking back with him still dithering about going or not going. As a final
option I told him I would pay him an extra Rs. 500 on top of our agreed price
if we started out right now. He agreed after some more dithering but insisted
on going to the nearby hotel and getting some tea leaves for the trek. We
finally started hiking. It was hot and hard work going up the scree slope
for about 30 minutes and we finally emerged on a level plateau. The trail
then climbed up the lateral moraine and I finally came face-to-face with
Batura Glacier. It was a huge glacier with multiple streams gushing out from
different parts of the debris covered snout. In fact it was covered with
debris as far as I could see. There were distant white peaks glittering in
the distance. These peaks are collectively known as the Batura wall and are
all 7000+m peaks. Tupopdan loomed huge on the other side of Hunza river.
It looked even better from this angle than it did from Passu. The view was
impressive and made me temporarily forget the unpleasantness with the greedy
bastard who was still maintaining a surly attitude and occasionally whining
about money and load. We proceeded along the moraine for a while and then
up an ablation valley. The route was quite steep in places and the usual
crumbly and unstable mixture of rocks and gravel. We finally came to the
porter hut at YunzBin at around 4 pm. It had taken us only 3 hours to get
here. There was still plenty of daylight left and I tried to get this guy
to cross the glacier and camp on the other side but he refused to budge saying
next porter shelter was too far away and there was no water along the way.
We went down to the glacier and filled up some kettles with dirty glacial
melt dripping off the ice. The porter hut was made of rocks, had an earthen
floor with a sunken portion in the middle that had a rudimentary stove. I
was about to pitch the tent when the guy started whining and suggested we
head back. I was totally fed up at this point and told the guy to go down
and send up a porter who would be paid per stage and would have a full pack
unlike him. I also made it clear that he would not get the money for hauling
my stuff up here until he returned. He agreed and left. I set up my tent,
cooked some rice and tuna on the wood stove and enjoyed the solitude. Night
fell quickly as usual and temperature dropped like a stone. I was at about
9500 ft. The stars were stunningly bright in the clear sky and it was a beautiful
setting. The "wood" used in the stove was coming from the thorny scrubs that
grew in profusion throughout this whole region. It burnt with a sickly sweet
odor that I found quite nauseating. When this odor mixed with the stinky
tuna it created an unholy mix that totally killed my appetite. I forced myself
to eat some of this rice-tuna crud and then hit the sack.
Batura Glacier
Tupopdan as seen form Batura
Dramatic cliffs across Batura glacier from Yunz Bin
I woke up early and spent some time puttering around the place and mulling my options. I was not very optimistic about Karim or any other porter showing up. Cooked some more tuna on the smelly wood and ate it with the rice left over from last night. Around 8 am heard some voices and rushed out hoping it was a porter. It was a couple of old guys with backpacks. They were from the village of Husseini and headed up to their pastures on the true right side of Batura. I gave them my leftover rice which they accepted with obvious gratification. There was nothing to do but hang out and wait for the porter. By 10 am I decided that I was wasting my time and I should try to pack out on my own while the heat was still bearable. Just as I was finishing loading up, 3 people emerged over the moraine. It was two guys and a young girl all wearing backpacks. Apparently they were returning from Guchesam (the summer pasture for Passu villagers). They told me the water situation was pretty bad at Uzhokpirt and streams were dried up almost everywhere. This pretty much ended any ambitions I had about doing this trek. I had had it with drinking and cooking in this shitty glacial melt water. I managed to haul the huge pack onto my back with great difficulty. This was no doubt the heaviest pack I had ever hauled. Things were dangling from it all over the place. I started off and it wasn't so bad. I was going downhill after all. There was a tough spot where I had to cross a steep talus slope with very loose footing. It boggles my mind that cattle can cross this kind of dicey stuff. I made it across very carefully. At this point I made the mistake of trying to take the "short-cut" trail that leads down to the KKH near the bridge over Batura out wash stream. I got lost in the maze of trails and ended up scrambling around at the edge of the flat plateau overlooking the road. It was too steep of a drop to the tantalizingly close road and the trail petered out. It was getting really hot and the pack was beginning to hurt my shoulders really bad. To make matters worse my cooking pot kept falling off the pack as I was retracing my steps to the old trail. I was all out of water and almost felt like I was going to pass out. I cursed that motherfucker Karim and the whole village of Passu and resolved to catch the first van out of this hell hole. I made it down the scree slope and got to the hotel where we had gotten the tea only a day ago. Bought and downed a couple of bottles of Pepsi and washed my sweat-soaked face and arms in this hotel. The owner was quite surprised to see me return so soon. The trudge up the road to Passu Inn seemed to take forever. I told everybody I encountered about the perfidy of Karim. It took me 5 hours to hike down a trail that had taken only 3 hours to go up. At the hotel I gathered my luggage and took up position by the road after sneaking a shower and changing clothes in one of the empty rooms. Much to my consternation there seemed to be no vans coming from the border. They seemed plentiful the other days but apparently not today and not this late in the afternoon. . There was a new guy in the hotel. An American who had lived in Oregon once. We chatted of this and that as I waited. The Swiss dude had left but the Japanese guy was still there. There was a truck driver lounging around and he told me that the sparse traffic was due to the fact that it was a national holiday and the customs office at Sost was closed so most of the traders had stayed put. I ended up waiting till 5 pm and then checked back into the same room I had vacated yesterday. I paid up in advance since I anticipated checking out early the next day.
Got up at 6:30 but the first van of the day had already left. In fact it was its honking horn that woke me up. I quickly got dressed and took up position near the road. After waiting for two hours I started getting desperate. There was another guy waiting and he approached me with the proposal that we hire a jeep and split the Rs. 700 fare to Aliabad. I readily agreed since I had had enough of this town to last me a life time. We piled into the jeep and I secured the front seat with good views. The nice thing about hiring the jeep was that I was able to get much better views and also asked the driver to stop here and there to take pictures. Its only 20-30 miles from Passu to Aliabad and we were in Aliabad by 10 am. I took a Suzuki from Aliabad to Karimabad and checked into the "Blue Moon" for Rs 200/night. I decided not to waste any time and immediately packed a day pack and headed up towards Ultar Meadows. I was all out of clean clothes so had to resort to wearing my jeans for the hike. The narrow cobbled road climbed very steeply to Altit Fort. I bought some chocolates and water at a small store since I hadn't eaten anything. The fort looked interesting but I didn't have time to check it out and continued past it on a small trail. For once there was a clear sign pointing the way. The trail descended along an irrigation ditch to the narrow gorge of Ultar Nala. There were glorious views of the fort with Rakaposhi providing a breath-taking backdrop. The trail continued to climb along the true right bank of the Nala. Ultar towered in the distance framed by the steep walls of the gorge. A nice cool breeze was funneling through the gorge and alleviating the heat of the day. There were multiple trails as usual but at least they were hemmed in by the stream and the steep wall of the gorge. There was an even more precarious trail running along a ledge on the other side of the raging glacial river. After about an hour the trail started to climb away from the Nala and up to an irrigation channel. I was about to follow the channel but an old villager hauling a huge bale of hay called me and told me to cross the ditch and keep going up. The trail steepened considerably from this point onwards. Soon the stream vanished under the dirty snout of Ultar Glacier. I encountered a few villagers here and there. These guys have incredible stamina and are very comfortable with puttering about on glaciers. The trail finally relented after coming to a relatively flat meadow with a clear stream running through it. Vertical rock cliffs loomed over the meadow and water had stained the walls in a manner very reminiscent of the sand stone cliffs in AZ and UT. This place is called Qaraphari according to LP. I filtered some water from the stream which looked clean but had some trash, candy wrappers and chunks of glass in it. There were benches and tables fashioned from rocks in the meadow. My guess is that this place serves as a refreshment stop during high tourist season. The trail kept going up gently along the stream and past some animal pens. It was getting pretty late as usual and I was hoping I wouldn't have to turn back before getting to the meadow. The trail was fairly clear but seemed to fade away at the end. I asked a fellow herding a couple of goats and he told me to avoid the steep trail he was descending and go down to the stream. I did so and ended up getting lost and thrashing around in the loose moraine rubble of Ultar Glacier. Just as I was about to give up and head down, I spotted a ragged flag fluttering on a small hill. I headed up to it and was rewarded by the view that was waiting at the top. Ultar Glacier descended in a narrow rock cleft right into the meadow. Above it towered the Ultar Massif, Bublimating and Lady finger. A tall waterfall fell from the glacier at base of Lady Finger. Looking back down the gorge, one could see the mountains of the Rakaposhi group (I guessed it was Diran and/or Golden Peak). The scene was beautiful but fading light made for mediocre pictures of the meadow and glacier. On the plus side the peaks were lit dramatically with low angle light from the setting sun. There were shepherds' huts in the meadow and a guy invited me to come up and rest but I was in a real hurry to get down. It was about 5 pm already and the sun set around 6 pm. It had taken me close to 6 hours to climb only 2-3 miles and 3000 ft. It didn't help that I hadn't eaten much all day. I forced myself to munch on some trail mix on the way down. The way back went much faster. It was steep but the loose scree helped cushion my large strides. Consequently I made it down to the stream before dark. I was able to stumble along in the dark hoping I was on the right trail. The place definitely had a spooky foreboding look at dusk and it felt like the walls were closing around me. The cold breeze that felt so refreshing in the morning now felt like the evil breath of a predator stealthily stalking me. There was a gut-wrenching moment when I came to a bottleneck in the gorge where the trail dead-ended at the raging water of the Nala. I had managed to rock hop this section earlier but the water had risen considerably since then and it was hard to see how to negotiate this section. I was able to make it through by staying close to the gorge wall and using my trusty trekking poles to probe ahead. Soon thereafter I saw the welcome lights of Karimabad twinkling on the hill and I was out of the evil looking dark gorge. Made it up the hill and got caught up in a wedding procession that was going downhill. The town was definitely bustling with tourists even this late in the season. Lots of honeymooners or just amorous couples trying escape to a remote spot. Had a mediocre dinner in a fly-infested restaurant and then hit the sack. The water in the bathroom was cold and silty so couldn't even take a shower.
Hunza Peak and Bublimating/LadyfingerGot up early to catch the van to Aliabad. Got a suzuki down to Aliabad after waiting for a while. The van to Gilgit was still filling up slowly with passengers. One of the major nuisances of public transportation in Pakistan is that they only start the trip when the van os filled to capacity. Otherwise they might even offload the guys who have been waiting for hours and cancel the trip altogether. I had earlier hoped to catch the morning flight to Pindi but it became apparent that this was a pipe dream. The journey to Giglit was uneventful. There was an awesome view of Rakaposhi with a huge glacier near Nasirabad. This place is obviously rife with hiking and trekking possibilities and I had just barely scratched the surface on this trip. In Gilgit I hired a taxi and rushed to the PIA office only to find that I didn't have a snow balls chance in hell of getting a seat today. Furthermore the guy told me with glum satisfaction that the flights were full for the ENTIRE month of September. I had absolutely no intention of taking the bus to Pindi after my hellish experience with the bus ride from Skardu to Pindi. After some cajoling they remitted and said they have a few stand-by seats every day and I could take my chances on that if I so desired. I checked into a pretty decent hotel down the road (Park Hotel, Rs 300/day) and returned to book the seat at 11:30 am. The guy told me I was #3 on the waiting list. I decided that if this didn't pan out I would head out to Nanga Parbat rather than going home. Gilgit was considerably hotter than Passu or Karimabad so I spent most of the day sleeping in my hotel room which had a good evaporative (desert) cooler. I ventured out to eat a pretty good lunch at a hotel which was doing brisk business and looked very popular. At night I went to the same place for dinner and also wandered around town a little bit. This place has bustling bazaars selling everything one might need for a trek. They even have fairly light domestic stoves that sell for around Rs. 600. I also sent my clothes for washing at the hotel just in case I was going to embark on a new trek tomorrow. Called Mom and she promised she would pray that I get that chance seat on the flight.
Was up early and arranged for a cab to take me to the airport. The guard made me wait outside the airport as passengers with confirmed seats were ushered through. Close to flight time I was allowed in through security and then made to wait by the check-in desk. After a nail-biting wait for half an hour I was the last passenger to get on the plane! He carped about my I guess my Mom's prayers worked like a charm. Got a seat on the wrong side of the plane again but was too relieved to have gotten on at all to feel too bad about it. It was back to the hot streets of Pindi by 10 am.
All in all a good trip except for the porter trouble and the petty annoyances of public transport in Pakistan. For future treks I will make sure I negotiate a contract with the porter in front of other people and maybe even write up a simple contract. If there is any doubt at all about the intentions of the porter then do not embark on the trek. Also it is not cheap but highly advisable to bite the bullet and pack a personal stove or gas canisters instead of relying on wood. Finally keep the pack light because you may have to haul it out yourself. Also pay a little extra and get two seats to travel in comfort on public transport. Make sure you are clear with hired Jeeps about whether the fare is roundtrip or one-way and the exact drop-off point.
Last modified: Mon May 16 11:34:59 PDT 2005
