This page documents my trek to Hushe Valley in Pakistan in May 2001.
In 1999 I came across the Lonely Planet book "Trekking in the
Karakoram and Hindukush". In 2001 I did a trek in the Gondogoro valley that introduced me to the mind-blowing mountain scenery in the Karakorams in the Baltistan region. In 2004 I went to Pakistan and decided to explore the Gojal and Hunza areas along the Karakoram Highway.
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 extr 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 airtrip. We emerged into the hot and dry aor 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
View of Skardu from my hotel window, Yadgar monument, Indus River and mountainsGot up early around 7 am. Went for another walk in the bazaar and found a jeep to Khaplu at 9:30 am. Also found a couple of used mountaineering equipment shops just off the main strip. They had everything from ice axes and crampons to sleeping bags. The prices varied wildly but I had a hunch the guy would accept most reasonable offers. You could buy an ice-axe for about Rs. 1200 ($20). Oh well, maybe next time I won’t bring all the stuff with me. The trip to Khaplu was interesting with the road winding along the Indus River. Steep mountains tower on both sides with large fans of rockslide debris beneath every gully. The granularity of the rock rubble in these slides ranged from small gravel to house-sized boulders. We stopped in the village of Gole for a cup of tea in a grungy hotel with dirt floor. In Ghowari village the jeep got a flat tire so the driver went off to find a tire repair place leaving us passengers to chill out in the shade. The whole terrain is very bleak and barren but a village seems to have sprung up wherever there is fresh snowmelt water. Ghowari was such a village. They plant barley in the fields and grow apricot and mulberry trees. Local dried apricots are sold in most general stores. An inquisitive villager came by and we struck up a conversation. Apparently the snowfall this year had been far below normal level and everybody was worried about the water supply situation. I saw a bicyclist come careening down the steep road, lose control and bash into a big boulder by the road. People rushed to help him, he was bloody and dazed but apparently not hurt seriously. The jeep driver returned after about an hour and we resumed our journey. The road forks about an hour after Ghowari. The left fork crosses the river near Doghoni and head towards Khapalu. If you continue straight instead of turning towards Khapalu then you head to Kharmang and the border with Indian-occupied Ladakh at Kargil -- the scene of a major skirmish between India and Pakistan in 1999 . All the people I talked to in this part of the world seemed fairly content to be a part of Pakistan. The government has undertaken many civic projects (bridges, schools, roads etc.) to improve the quality of life for the people here and they seem to appreciate that. Mostly Muslim people in Indian-occupied Kashmir would rather be part of Pakistan or independent and therein lies the root of the Kashmir conflict. Personally from a purely selfish point of view I would like to see the Ladakh and Zanskar region become part of Pakistan so I could go trekking up there. The road to Khapalu is paved thanks to the confrontation with India over Siachen glacier. They need to ferry supplies to the soldiers so there is also a good telephone connection to the rest of the country along this road. You see military offices of SCO (Special Communications Organization) in most major towns and villages after Skardu. The river running beside the road to Khapalu is the Shyok River. It is one of the major headwater sources feeding the Indus river. All rivers in this area are choked with glacial silt and mud but every once in a while you come across an enchanting turquoise lake where the river creates a small oxbow after changing course. Also a few delightful looking sandy beaches that would make nice camp sites if one had the time. The harsh landscape seemed mostly devoid of humans -- a rarity in over-crowded Pakistan. We reached Khapalu in the afternoon. They checked the jeep for any foreigners before letting us into town. I think they just want foreign people to register there. I tried to find a jeep to Hushe but nobody seemed available this time of the day. After asking around I established that there was no regular transportation to Hushe. Most special-hire jeeps left early in the morning because some stream crossings get dicey by mid-day beacause of increased waterflow. I checked out the Khapalu Inn, which had some pretty grungy accommodation for around Rs.200. I left my bag there and walked down the dusty, unpaved main road down to the NAPWD rest house stopping at the dismal Citizen hotel along the way. I was getting somewhat concerned at spending the night in one of the ratty hotels mentioned above and hoped I could find something a little better . The governemnt Rest House had rooms with marble tiled bathrooms and hot water for Rs. 160 /night. I lost no time in securing a room and then went back into town and fetched my bag. I could see some fairly nice looking granite peaks from Khapalu (They are the mountains of Haldee) with some snow on them, but no major peaks or glaciers. Since I had a couple of hours to kill, I headed up to see the Raja's house. I took a shortcut through some fields but it petered out in a maze of alleyways and houses. After some trial and error I managed to find my way to the main bazaar by following a maze of alleys and tunnels with shabby houses clustered on all sides. I toiled my way up the main bazaar and then took a right and headed up past the school. Along the way I stopped a passer-by and asked him if I was on the right trail to the Raja's House. He confirmed that I was and then flagged down a passing motorcyclist and asked him to give me a ride. The guy declined and drove off, but I found him waiting for me around the bend. He apparently had had a change of heart. He very generously drove me up the steep and rough road to Raja's house. The town of Khapalu looks pretty small judging from the bazaar, but it has quite a bit of depth as it continues for quite a ways up the mountain side. I didn’t think his small motorcycle would be able to haul both of us up that steep a slope but he successfully maneuvered it at break-neck speed over some pretty tricky terrain like a race driver. After disembarking shakily, I took his picture and promised to send him a copy (thank you ex-havaldar Fazil Ali of Khapalu). I took a look at the decrepit Raja House and snapped a picture. It had some nice woodwork and a multi-storey balcony; a disconsolate looking black calf was wandering about in the entrance. I continued up to the village of Chuqchun in the quickly fading light. The road forks near Chuqchun and the left one heads steeply up to hydroelectric power plant while the right fork heads to the village. There is a really nice wooden mosque with some pretty elaborate woodwork in Chuqchun village. They don’t allow non-Muslims into the mosque. After visiting the mosque I headed up the other fork towards the power plant. Saw a mysterious guy wandering along the stream sharpening what appeared to be a knife. Felt a little vulnerable since I was carrying a lot of cash on my person and it was getting pretty dark. The road kept going up. The view of Haldee Mountains is more impressive on this side. I ran out of water at this point and finally yielded to the temptation of drinking from a pipe that seemed to be tapping spring water. The road kept going up but I turned back since it was getting pretty dark. Things are pretty steep and vertical here. I could see a small building perched up on the hill several hundred feet above me. By my reckoning I had probably come up a good 2000 ft above Khapalu. Khapalu is at 2600 m elevation (8600 ft). It took me about 2 hrs to walk down and it was pretty dark by the time I got to the rest house. The cook there had prepared a pretty creditable dinner of spinach and potatoes. I downed this and hit the sack. It was fairly cool at night so I dragged out my sleeping bag and put it on the bed. The bedding was OK but I still felt uneasy sleeping on it.
Got up at 5:30 am. The cook had prepared breakfast and tea. Finished packing
and went back into town to find transport to Hushe. Couldn’t find any public
transport. The Citizen Hotel had a jeep but he wanted Rs.3000 to take me to
Hushe. Found another jeep driver in the bazaar and negotiated Rs. 2100 for a round-trip. At this time it dawned on me that this may be the last major shopping area I would see for a while. I bought some rice, lentils and bottled water -- in retrospect I should have laid in a good supply of essentials here or in Skardu. Things get progressively expensive the further you go from Skardu. We drove
down to the rest house where I picked up my stuff and settled the bill (R. 220 for food and lodging, not bad) and then
we were finally off to Hushe. The road is unpaved after Khapalu and continues
along Shyok River for 3 hours before reaching Siachen Glacier. We however, crossed the bridge over Shyok River and
headed up the Hushe valley. The drive dropped off some food at his home in
Saling. Then we wound our way along the jeep road through several small
villages. I stopped the jeep periodically to take pictures. The driver seemed
to know almost everybody who passed us by and gave rides to most people who
wanted to hitch a ride. There were little lizards with orange gills that lived
in the rocks along the road. We also saw a couple of Chikors. There is a really
rough spot near Kande village where the road has been washed out by floods. The
jeep had to cross some really rough terrain over rocky streambeds and the
stream. I developed a new appreciation for the 20 yr old Toyota Landcrusier.
The chain-smoking driver gave great hacking coughs just like his jeep but they
both seemed to keep going despite the occasional stall or two. He twiddled with
the air-fuel mixture expertly to get us over some steep stretches. We made it
to Hushe (elevation 3000 m, 10000ft) shortly after noon. The road just before
Hushe gets pretty rough.
Confluence of Hushe and Siachen Nala
Jeep crossing turbulent stream near Kande
Jeep road crossing exposed rock-slide prone area above Hushe River
The driver deposited me at the Laila Peak campground in Hushe
village. This was basically a small yard with a little bit of grass inside a
walled compound. There was a canteen and a little eating room. The owner was a shifty-looking
middle-aged guy with a scraggly beard. The camping cost was around Rs.30/day
and the bathroom sent horror chills up my spine. It consisted of a grungy
looking toilet with a cut-off liter bottle of Pepsi and a hose coming out the
back of it. A rusty metal can or cut-off barrel was the only other item in this
bathroom. Water dripped into this metal basin depressingly from the ceiling. I would have much rather shit in the fields outside than use that place. There
were a couple of shaggy Yak heads in his campground (reminded me of bison more
than anything else, but less massive). He initially accepted my offer of Rs. 600 for a 3-day trek
to Daltasampa in the Gondogoro valley. However after I had sorted out my stuff
and was about ready to leave with the porter (his son), he changed his tune and
demanded Rs. 1200. This pissed me off considerably and we had to sit down and
renegotiate. Finally we settled on Rs. 1000 which included the food supplies he
had provided as well the rental for the ratty looking sleeping pad (they call
it a "mattress"). Still fuming over his perfidy, I left the village
with porter leading the way. The weather had been cloudy all day but it started
getting really gusty just as we left the village. There was also a little bit
of spitting rain while I was negotiating with the owner. Needless to say I was
getting concerned about the advisability of camping on high ground if the
weather got worse. It almost seemed like fate was conspiring to keep me from
trekking. It took us about 30 minutes to cross the village fields. On the left
side of Hushe river (True right in LP lingo) is the Honbrook Nala and fields
climb alongside it as well. Masherbrum and the Masherbrum glacier are visible
from the village. We got another good look at the curving Masherbrum valley and
dirt-covered Masherbrum glacier shortly after crossing a flat open space. The
trail was a little rocky in places, particularly near stream crossings. It
started raining heavily about the time we crossed this open flat space and
descended to the juniper dotted terrain close to the Hushe Nala. It got pretty
cold and gusty and the porter wasn’t too enthusiastic judging from his
mutterings. However I was determined that I was not turning back so we carried
on with heads bent against the driving rain. Things calmed down as we came to
an irrigation ditch and rounded the corner in the valley. There was a junction
here with stream from Ailing glacier, Masherbrum glacier and Gondogoro glacier all
coming together. This place always seems windy because the confluence of all
these valleys channels the winds. I could see the peak of Aling glacier from
the trail. Shortly thereafter we reached the forward settlement of Ogundstan.
The operative word here is dung. The smell of manure suffused the air. The
population seemed to consist mainly of women and children. Ali (the porter)
made some tea. I had some tea and biscuits while he wolfed down some bread with
his tea in one of the dark stone huts. The women seemed pretty friendly towards
him and I didn’t notice any shyness or use of the veil etc when Hush village
women came across the men from their village (or me for that matter). This
place sees a fair amount of foreign trekker traffic and the children had
obviously learnt from previous encounters. They would say approach me and
"hello" "how are you" and "sweet". I offered the
children a biscuit or two, which were shyly accepted. I was also amused to see
a carabiner being used for tethering dzos. Many dzo (calf-yak hybrid) calves
were hanging out at Odungstan. After Odungstan we crossed several rocky streambeds
that were created by the tame looking stream coming from the mountains above
Odungstan. Apparently it had flooded in a major way last year. About 1/2 hr
after Odungstan we could see the snout of Ghondoghoro glacier. It was totally
covered with debris. We crossed the stream coming from Tsarak Tsa glacier on a
fairly sturdy bridge with red and white striped side rails. Shortly thereafter
we reached Shaischo (3430 m, 11300 ft). It had taken us about 4 hrs to get here from Hushe
including the 1/2 hr tea break at Odungstan. The shop run by Hakim (mentioned
by LP) was not open. Ali explained that there had been a village-wide decision
to shut down all the Shops in Shaischo. Apparently there had been some copycat shops
that had opened up after Hakim's shop and the area had become a bone of
contention among Hushe villagers. Ali told me that last year, during peak
tourist season, there was supposed to have been live music and a volleyball court
in operation here. I felt thankful that I had come here before main tourist
season and been spared all these diversions. I pitched my tent in a nice place
between two streams. There was a majestic looking peak visible from there
(Khanamika 1?) as well the stream coming form Tsarak Tsa (also referred to as
K-7 glacier by the porter). Ali started a small fire from wood he found around
there and cooked a fairly decent dinner of diced potato curry and steamed rice.
He spread his sleeping bag out near my tent and we hit the sack around 9 pm. It
started to rain pretty heavily around 11:30 pm and I told Ali to go shelter in
the porch outside one of the shops. The guy talked in his sleep and I am not
sure if he heard me or moved to shelter at that time.
I woke up around 6 am. Woke up Ali and he set about making us some tea. Ali had packed some thick ugly looking bread that appeared to be a cross between bun and a bagel. He fried it a little bit and I managed to down half of it with some tea. Brushed my teeth. Hakim showed up and we talked a little about his shop. He was not too happy about it being shut down. Ali told me that a good view of the Tsarak Tsa glacier could be had from climbing the little hillock a little to the east of us. I readily agreed. We left the tent fly and tarp out to dry and hike up the hill. Vegetation here was very strange with cactus like shrubs, thorny bushes and the air was fragrant with the smell of juniper trees. Ali pointed out a couple of yaks grazing high above us on the slopes on the other side of the stream. It seemed impossible that such a bulky animal could get up so high and navigate those steep slopes. The yak/cow hybrids called dzo were more numerous throughout the valley and grazed at lower elevations than the yaks. LP says the Hushe don’t use the Ghondoghoro valley for grazing but I saw hundreds of dzos grazing in this valley. The Tsarak Tsa glacier became visible soon after climbing the hillock. Its not as heavily covered by debris like the Masherbrum and Ghondoghoro and as such its medial moraine and white surface stand out from a distance. I snapped a couple of pictures. On the way back Ali showed me a little stone cage, which the villagers use to trap snow leopards when they come too far down the valley in search of prey. It has a spring-loaded trap door and the villagers bait it with meat. When the leopard is trapped they kill it by sticks, stones and other weapons at their disposal. So much for the conservationist ethic of the Hushe villagers mentioned in LP book. I think the Hushe villagers have cottoned on to the eco-yuppie/granola tourist mindset and are exploiting it by putting up signs celebrating wildlife and whatnot. We returned to Shaischo by 9 am. It had takes us about an hour to do this side-trip. I asked Ali if he would regret it if the snow leopard was to go extinct but he seemed to view that as a very desirable objective since his cattle and sheep would become safe. I tried to make him a little more conservation-minded without being too proselytizing. I am not sure if it worked. We quickly packed up. Hakims rival shop-owner ("chairman" Channa) also had shown up and was rooting around in his shop. I purchased a couple of onions from him. Now we headed up the valley slightly to the right of the Ghondoghoro glacier. In about 45 minutes we reached Atosar -- another camp spot. I personally would have preferred to camp here than Shaischo if the place had been crowded and the shops open. As we climbed up the ablation valley we came across snow leopard paw prints. It was a young leopard judging from the size and it gone up from Shaischo in the morning. We kept seeing the prints on the trail for a bout a km. At this point Ali saw a couple of chikors by the trail and dashed off to hunt one of them for dinner. He came back, thankfully chikor-less after about 15 minutes. Apparently the chikor had holed up under some rocks and he couldn’t get to it. The trail comes close to the debris-covered glacier a few times but stays away from the moraine in the side valley for most of the climb to Ghondoghoro camp. The tree line starts shortly below Gondogoro camp and things start getting spectacular at about this point. Several hanging glaciers become visible. We crossed a small stream (Gholost?) coming from a hanging glacier below Balti peak on our right. Shortly thereafter we reached Ghondoghoro camp (elevation 4000 m, 13200 ft), which is a big sandy plain with several streambeds veined across it. On one side of it is the moraine and on the other side are steep cliffs which back onto 6050m Balti Peak. Unfortunately all of the streams seemed to be dry. Ali the porter suggested repeatedly at this point that we should camp here for the night and maybe day hike for the remainder of the day to Daltsampa. I dismissed this idea vehemently. I had paid for a trek to Daltsampa and I would be damned if I was going to settle for a 2 hr climb to Ghondoghoro camp for Shaischo as the end of the trek. Furthermore I didn’t see any good water source at this place. We had some tea at this camp. Ali found some wood in the stone huts that are clustered on one side of the plain. He strapped this wood to the duffle bag. I took the time to wander up to the moraine and the big boulder on the other side of the camp. Nice views of the Ghondoghoro glacier and the Masherbrum icefall from this point. Ali asserted that the big boulder had some precious stones embedded in it and some ex-army man from Hushe had tried to dynamite the boulder to extract them. There is a big chunk of the boulder lying beside it, apparently the result of that blasting effort. It was pretty windy and cold outside and there were a few small snowflakes drifting down. I stuck it out in the open for a while but then decided to check out the stone huts for shelter. I entered the dank, manure smelling hut in which Ali was making the tea and had some tea and biscuits. Apparently the same huts are used to house animals as well and the floor is carpeted with goat droppings and dung. While in the hut, Ali pointed out a tick crawling on my fleece pants. I brushed it off but was very disturbed by it and left the hut pronto. It was disconcerting to see a tick at 13200 ft. I would have thought it was too cold for them here. It was ironic that after obsessing about ticks during all my gorge and east Oregon hiking, I would run into one in the Karakorams. Ali thought it dropped on me from one of the bushes we had brushed against. However I suspected the hut may have housed it since they also use these huts to shelter cattle (goats and dzos). We arrived at Ghondoghoro camp (elevation 4000 m) after a 2.5 hr hike from Shaischo. It took us an hour to have tea and then we moved on towards Gholung. The trail ascends at a gentler pace after Ghondoghoro. Several breathtaking glaciers descending or hanging above Ghondoghoro Glacier became increasingly visible as we progressed \up the valley. At the head of it all was Masherbrum and the big icefall. The clouds kept me from getting an unobstructed look at Masherbrum but the scenery was pretty awesome regardless. All around us were 6000+ m peaks. Jagged and razor sharp pinnacles seemed to be everywhere. There were clouds weaving around the peaks and a few snowflakes fell on us at this point. Masherbrum was large obscured by clouds. Even with the clouds, I have not seen such an impressive mountain vista in all my life. Black mountain crows with pink/orange beaks circled above us and made whistling cries. Ali pointed out a remarkable pillar looking finger of rock that is prominent when you look down the valley towards K-7. He called it Khanamika. Khanam means sky and ika means pillar. So the name means pillar that holds up the sky. A very nice name, in my opinion. We crossed the stream coming from Gholung glacier (another hanging glacier on our right) and reached Gholung camp in about 1.5 hrs after Ghondoghoro. It was an enchanting place with great views. At this point I ran out of film and spent some time trying to clean the dust from my camera lens and loading new film. There are crude signs saying "Kam" painted on rocks. At this point Ali became increasingly skittish and seemed unwilling to continue to Daltasampa even though it was only 3 in the afternoon and we had 3-4 more hours of light. He said the trail was uncertain after this point and we wouldn't be able to make it back to Hushe the next day if we camped at Daltsampa. Furthermore he had a light sleeping bag and was unequipped to camp at Daltsampa. Based on all this we agreed to leave the heavy bag here, Ali would carry my backpack and we would hike to Daltsampa and return in the evening. Depending on time left we would camp at Gholung or go back to Ghondoghoro camp. At this point the trail really did take a harrowing turn. It descended steeply down to the side of the glacier along the sandy and unstable moraine. There is substantial rock fall danger and I realized at this point why Ali had been so skittish about doing this with a heavy bag. Every gust of wind would cause small stones to trickle down the slope. The trail was nothing more than a bunch of faint footprints in the sandy moraine. The dzo dung along the trail indicated animals and humans both used this trail. It was unnerving to look up and see all the loose rocks perched above you at a steep slope. The Ghondoghoro glacier's debris covered surface was within touching distance to our left in places. It was unnerving to see big rocks splashing into murky looking pools pf glacial melt. The glacier caked and groaned periodically. Every step along the trail causes stones and sand to trickle down below us. The sandy trail is a good for descending since the feet sink in with every step but it’s a pain in the ass to walk up since you slide back with every step. Thankfully I had been exposed to this stuff in hikes above timberline in the Cascades, so I trundled along behind Ali, pausing every now and then to take a picture or a sip of water. After about an hour of this we came to a stream crossing. The trail ascends steeply up a series of switchbacks up the sandy moraine after this crossing. This was probably the hardest part of the days trekking. I was already tired after 8 hours of trekking on half a piece of bread and a few biscuits. Every step seemed like a Herculean effort. The steepness of this slope coupled with dicey footing in places made it a fairly daunting task. Suffice it to say that it seemed to take forever for me to get up this last bit even though it only took about 1/2 hr by my watch. During this last steep portion I twisted my left knee and it started to hurt pretty badly. I became quite worried about making it back safely. After climbing this section, the trail came into a nice valley with firm footing and steep cliffs on the right. It was about 4pm when we reached this valley. It had taken us about 2 hrs to get here from Gholung. I asked Ali to take a picture of me. As he was readying the camera we noticed movement on the cliffs above us. It was a herd of Markhor! 11 adults and 2 young ones. They were just as startled to see us as we were on seeing them. They thundered at break-neck speed on a small ledge that I wouldn’t even want to walk on. Ali got excited and tried to snap their picture but couldn’t figure it out. I snatched the camera form him and tried to take the picture but something went horribly wrong with the camera at this point. The film icon started flashing and it refused to take any more pictures, I tried fiddling with it and even took the batteries out and reinserted them but to no avail. This was a crushing blow since the scenery had become even more dramatic with every foot we had climbed in the last hour. I felt chagrined and couldn’t believe my misfortune. Slowly we progressed up this valley towards a large rock cairn. Ali assured me that this was Daltsampa but I didn't believe him since I didn’t see the two lakes LP mentions as being at Daltsampa. After laboriously climbing to the cairn and rounding a curve in the cairn I came across the ethereal beauty of Daltsampa. The two glacial lakes nestled in a little valley below me. In front was the majestic spectacle to the gigantic Masherbrum icefall meeting the Ghondoghoro glacier? The glacier curved to the right soon after this point. There were white margins on both sides of Ghondoghoro and the middle was covered with rocky debris. A medium sized glacier with a rocky cleaver near the bottom merged into Ghondoghoro next to and to the left of the Masherbrum icefall. To the left of it was another medium sized glacier and next to it was another wider hanging glacier with a small rock cleaver/window. The spectacle was breathtaking and I momentarily forgot my camera troubles. Masherbrum itself was only partially visible but the icefall was fully visible and awesome. I just sat there for about 20 minutes soaking in the sight while Ali trudged down to the lake to fill my water bottles. Around 4:40 pm we turned back. I took longing looks back at the grand sight and wished my camera were working. Even though I doubt if it would have been able to do justice to that scene. This is definitely a place I would love to camp at for a few days. The return along the sandy trail was a little easier. I just plunge stepped my way down most of the way. We reached Gholung in about 1 1/4 hours and were happy to see fresh water had started flowing in one of the streams. I felt exhausted and told Ali to start a campfire and start cooking dinner. There were a couple of little cave like areas in the cliff face on the side of Gholung camp which seemed like a good place for Ali to spend the night. I made a last exhausted effort to climb up to the newly active waterfall and get water. Unfortunately the water was very dirty with sediment. I gave up on this and let Ali go to Gholung stream to fetch water while I pitched my tent. It seemed clear below us towards Shaischo and the setting sun was lighting up the pyramid of K7 and Khanamika in a grand display. However there were clouds above us towards Masherbrum. At this point it started to snow in earnest. Small but very well formed snowflakes covered the tent flap and dusted the ground. I was feeling dead tired at this point and crawled into my sleeping bag. We were at about 14000 ft elevation and that lack of food and the high altitude were making me feel weird. I munched on a few peanuts as I took big swigs of gritty water and reflected on all I had seen today. Ali finished cooking around 8:30 and I asked him too bring my food to the tent. I consumed a little bit of the undercooked potatoes and overcooked rice and set the plate outside the tent. Vague fears of the snow leopard coming to check out the leftover food started gnawing on me at this point so I dug out the knife I had purchased in Khaplu and placed it by my pillow. I sunk into a fitful sleep shortly thereafter. I remember waking up briefly during the night, unzipping the tent fly and noticing that the sky was clearing up and the stars were visible.
The night was cold, it stopped snowing and there was very little
wind. I slept more or less comfortably in my sleeping bag but did need
to don an additional fleece layer towards morning. I was woken at 5:00
am by the sounds of Ali scrabbling around in my duffel bag. I had placed the bag under my
tents' rear vestibule to protect it from the snow. He was packing up
camp and throwing hints that we should get moving. I was feeling weak
and nauseous and had no desire to leave the tent at this point. Ali
changed tack and pointed out that the sky was clear and the sun was
starting to light up Masherbrum. His exclamations of wonderment proved
effective and I dragged myself outside to take a look. Ali was
right. A magnificent sight greeted me as I stepped out. Finally the
entire Masherbrum massif was visible. There is a long sloping ridge
with very steep sides above the Masherbrum icefall and the main peak
seems to be behind and separate from the ridge. The sun had lit up the
top and it was a breathtaking magical sight. Towards the south, the
pyramid of K7 was also catching the first rays of the sun. Again words
fail to express the chagrin I felt at my cameras malfunctioning. I
spent the next half hour soaking in this sight while munching on my
remaining biscuits. My left knee felt stiff and I was getting worried
about making it down in one day. However putting on the knee brace
helped somewhat. Moving around also helped lessen the stiffness. Then
we proceeded to break camp. I was wondering how snow stuck to the
extremely steep slopes of Masherbrum and I soon found out that it
didn’t always stick. I heard a loud boom as I was packing my
tent. Initially I assumed that it was the Ghondoghoro glacier waking
up and giving a creak but as I looked towards Masherbrum I noticed a
huge avalanche descending from one of the steep gullies right above
the icefall. The night had obviously been below freezing since snow
was still weighing down my tent fly and lingering on the ground. We
packed the tent and tarp separately with a view to drying them at
Ghondoghoro camp. We descended rapidly to Gondogoro camp in about 45
minutes. Here Ali spread out the tarp and tent fly to dry them, and
proceeded with breakfast. We also ran into a guy named Hussain from
Hushe village who was there to check on his dzo who had hurt its leg
while walking to Daltsampa. Feeling the twinges from my knee I could
fully empathize with the dzo's travails and our common source of the
problem -- the Daltsampa trail. We spent an hour or so at Gondogoro
camp. I moseyed over to the big rock to look again at the purported
gemstones in it. Foolishly picked up a glinting rock and dashed it
against the boulder in the hope of finding something inside. One of
the splinters flew right back at me and would have hit me in the eye,
were it not for my sunglasses. Chastised, I went back to camp where
Ali had cooked a pretty creditable fried bread (paratha) and
tea. After downing this I felt a little less nauseous. I gave Hussain
my rice and some other supplies that we no longer needed. Now we
proceeded down the valley with Hussain tagging along for a while, then
he peeled off and headed uphill because he wanted to fetch me some
wildflowers that are apparently a very special thing that tourists
cherish but were not in bloom at trail level. He said he would catch
up with us by Shaischo. However we made good speed and made it down
to Shaischo in 1.5 hours. Along the way we came across an
orange-furred animal that looked like it belonged to the
ferret/mongoose family of animals. Ali called it
"Struming". He said that they were scavengers. A few years
ago a snow leopard killed one of Ali's sheep up near Ghondoghoro
camp. He took the carcass and buried it behind the big boulder at the
camp to deny the leopard the satisfaction of eating its kill. He said
that when he went to check on the carcass the next day he found about
10 of these orange animals feasting on the carcass and they actually
chased him off form the carcass. He said they were not above biting a
piece of flesh off a sleeping human either. At Shaischo we found the
chairman had added a Pakistani flag to his shop. It was fluttering
merrily in the breeze and making the place look quite festive with all
the bunting, tinsel and whatnot. We chatted with "chairman"
Channa for a while before heading back to Hushe. It was obvious that
he was planning to open his shop in violation of the villagers ban on
shops at Shaischo. The trip back took about 3.5 hrs. I declined Ali's
offer of a tea break at Odungstan. We ran into a guy carrying a crate
of cola up to Shaischo to stock the chairman’s shop. It took about 4
hrs to reach the village. A thing I noticed at this point was that
many men in this region like to drape a weed or blade of grass over
their ear.I paid the porter fee to his father (owner of Laila peak
campground), rounded up the jeep driver and left. It looks hideous but
each to his own, I guess.
Three bone-rattling hours later, I
arrived in Khapalu. We came across a surreal sight just before
crossing the bridge over Shyok. An Army officer was standing beside
his official SUV practicing his golf drive. A bunch of soldiers in
track-suits were running around and retreiving the balls he hit out
onto the sandy expanse on the river banks. It seemed very out of place
in this farflung outpost with no golf course within a 200 mile
radius. The Rest House seemed deserted but I was able to roust the
cook out of his hiding place after some searching. There was a big
shot official coming to stay the next day but I was able to secure a room for that
night. I went into town after a cup of tea to call Mom from the local
PCO. It was dark and there were no streetlights, the power went out as
well. I decided to take a shortcut since the bazaar street is at an
angle to the main "highway". However I didn’t count on entering a
medieval looking labyrinth of tunnels with houses on both sides. There
were many women standing outside their houses doing God knows what but
they would scuttle away when I approached with my flashlight. It was
almost like startling a bunch of cockroaches in the middle of the
night when you switch on the kitchen light. I finally managed to find
my way and emerged in the relatively open bazaar and made the phone
call. Took the main road on the way back as I was in no mood to brave
the maze of tunnels on my way back. Checked out the PTDC motel next
door to the rest house, it is nice but pretty expensive with room
rates of Rs. 1200 to Rs. 1500 per night.
Got up at 4:30 to catch the first wagon out of Khapalu. Managed to find one that was cruising up and down the bazaar looking for passengers. The journey back to Skardu was uneventful and it dropped me off in front of the PIA office around 9 am. Bought a first class ticket to ensure my seat was confirmed and then took a cab to the airport. The cab driver was from Thalle and highly recommended the Thalle La trek. He also bad mouthed the Hushe women implying that Odungstan was a hotbed for horny Hushe villagers since the women hung out there by themselves and got lonely. Anyway, made it to the airport well in time for the flight. The airport had a deserted look and the few passengers were lined up outside the airport. Soon a couple of buses full of airport security showed up and the airport opened for business. I went through the check-in formalities and then sat in the lounge dozing and waiting for the plane to arrive. At 10:30 I was seriously disturbed when they announced that the flight had been cancelled due to bad weather. This is where things started to veer seriously off plan. The same cab driver took me back to the PIA office where I had to argue for 15 minutes before they refunded my money. They originally wanted me to go to Pindi for a refund. After this I secured a ticket for the 2 pm bus to Rawalpindi. Since I had some time to kill, I went to the nearby PCO and broke the sad news to my Mom that I would be taking the grueling 24-hour bus ride back to Pindi. Went to Tibet Fast Food near K2 travel since LP had recommended it. Found food to be pretty lousy with rubbery meat and fly-infested surroundings. Walked up the trail to Kharpcho , the fort on the rock. After a fairly strenuous climb, I was disappointed to find that the fort appeared closed and deserted. However, some banging on the door produced an old gatekeeper who let me in through a small trap door in the main door for an entry fee of Rs. 15. The fort is pretty unremarkable. Nice view of town that was soon obscured by a blowing dust storm that seemed to come out of nowhere. Soon it obscured the entire valley and the river views vanished before I could snap a picture. I took a couple of pictures with my camera and left since it was getting close to 2. I had earlier purchased and loaded a new 36 roll in it and it appeared to work OK. The bus left on time. I had one of the rear seats and I soon realized why I had earlier witnessed people fighting over the front seats. With each bump in the road the bus's rear end would become airborne for a few seconds and then hit the ground with a sickening thud. All the passengers sitting in the rear were cursing the driver who was driving like a bat out of hell. Soon the road started following the Indus River. We had to wait for an hour at a small single lane bridge over the river while traffic backed on both sides of the river took turns crossing. After this the driver sped along the narrow single lane road at a frightening speed. At times I couldn’t even see the road from my window, just the swollen river thrashing against rocks below. I found this section of the journey more frightening than the jeep ride to Hushe. The river is a powerful surging muddy torrent that has carved weird shapes out of the rocks along its banks. In some places there are soft marble-like rocks that the river has carved into molten-wax looking shapes. I saw at least one dangerous looking cable bridge where a villager was preparing to cross the raging river on a rickety wooden platform -- something I wouldn't do for a goodish bit of money. Things get pretty boring in terms of mountain views until after Sassi. At this point there are several good views of the Nanga Parbat massif as well as some other mountain that I suspect was Haramosh. The drive to KKH took about 5 hours. Good views of Nanga Parbat continued up till Raikhot and then we entered the Kohistan area. Sometime in the night we stopped in Chelas for dinner. The bus broke down in Besham at 2:30 am and I waited in a sleepy haze for an hour before the driver announced that the bus was going nowhere that night. Luckily there was a half-empty Masherbrum tour bus also going from Skardu to Pindi and was still here. I was able to find a folding seat on this bus (thankfully near the front). This bus stopped for breakfast in Mansehra and also developed a flat tire. Thankfully they were able to fix and I was back in the hot streets of Pindi by 9 am.
All in all a great trip except for the bus ride back. For future treks I would make sure I had a warmer sleeping bag, water filter and at least two cameras and several rolls of film. A small Coleman Peak1 stove and a mess kit wouldn't hurt either. Also protein bars. Buy the groceries in Skardu or Khapalu including onions, rice, powdered milk, tea, flour, cooking oil, a few eggs, and potatoes. Finally, I think its important to do your trekking with ample time cushion at the end so you can wait it out in Skardu for a few days for the 40 min flight to Pindi instead of the 20-22 hr bus ride.
Last modified: Mon Jul 10 17:47:22 PDT 2000