Chitral Pakistan

High over the Hindu Kush

Chitral Pakistan Update 30.5.12

Well I have finally found a way to host a blog (spot adventures is off line at the moment so I created this one) so I can fill you in with events, and there have been many!, here in Chitral. We (as in Alex from OZ, Glen and Rob from NZ and Dmitry from Russia) arrived by plane from Islamabad on the 16^th. We were very lucky indeed to get this flight in as there hadn't been a flight to Chitral for the previous 10 days much to the disappointment of Rob and Alex who had arrived a week early then we had. The flight first landed at Peshawar to pick passengers and then onwards up and over the high Lowari Pass into Chitral Valley, Chitral town lies at the head of its valley and the airport only allows one shot at the runway. There is no room for error, fortunately we landed safely to be greeted by the friendly airport manager who amazingly gave us permission to land our paragliders on the runway and the local paragliding pilots who kindly gave us a lift into town and our guesthouse, the Chinar Inn. The Chinar tree is famous in Chitral, a huge and mighty tree that lives for many centuries.

Shai Mosque Chitral with Trichmir in the background

Our first stop in town, however, was to register with the police and there our troubles began. Times have changed significantly since we were here in 2010. Last year there was a border skirmish in which 30 Chitral Scouts (Pakistan army) were killed in a night attack from Afghanistan on 2^nd May, the same night that Osama Bin Laden was attacked and killed by an American force in Abbotabad. So as a result of that attack, the Chitral area is now considered a security zone and paragliding just didn't fit under the security measures in place, namely individual guards attached to every foreign visitor. As well, according to the DPO (district police Officer), we didn't have the correct permits to be in the area let alone paraglide, so we were left devastated with the realisation that we were not going to be able to fly.

Meeting with Farhad discussing our dilemma

Two days later a small miracle occurred as we were literally loading up a hired jeep to take us east to Karimabad where there weren't any security measures in place. Word was sent to us to come along to the Police Station where we would meet again with the commander who had some good news for us. Seems that Sajjad Shah in Rawalpindi, Prince Farhad here in Chitral, the Minister of Tourism and no doubt the head of the Pakistan Army and others I am sure had worked some magic and given us the necessary permission to fly! We were absolutely delighted of course to be allowed to fly and happy to not have to endure a two day trip to Karimabad!

The team (LR) Dmitry, Rob, Alex, Grey, Glen

Dmitry and Glen at the Summer Palace TO

So on our forth day in Chitral the weather cleared (it had been raining so we hadn't been able to fly anyway), the land cruiser was ready for us as we loaded up our wings ready to travel to the TO at the Summer Palace high over Chitral. You can imagine our consternation when FIVE police guards showed up to escort us to the take-off, there just wasn't enough room in the vehicle! After some time things got sorted out and only one armed guard came up I guess to make sure we got away safely. Anyway we were under strict instructions to report to the nearest police station if we were to fly cross country so I guess the guard's responsibilities ended after we launched.

We managed a couple of days flying in the Chitral township, cloud base was low and it was windy. It was beginning to look as if we might have arrived too early in the season. Then on the third day of flying we managed to get away for our first big flight to the town of Booni to the north. Rob and I managed the 60 km flight, Alex landed in the village before Booni and Glen and Dmitry landed back in Chitral.

Rob and I were treated like royalty by the local Booni pilots. Turns out that most of them funny enough are related to the royal Chitral family anyway. First Barber(famous here for getting sucked up from launch into a serious CuNim and landing 20+ kms away) and Mughtasim met us at the local football grounds and loaded us onto their motorcycles back into town for refreshments. We ended up staying with Musafar, the president of the Booni club, in his lovely home where we were fed and watered.

Shai Quila Fort

The next day we were driven up to the local Booni site called Zani Pass. It's a high takeoff at 3400 m and just getting ready to launch with all our gear nearly killed me. It's incredibly complicated getting ready what with an oxygen system, huge amounts of warm clothing, checking radios, gps, spot devices, water system, bivy gear, the list goes on. Then of course one needs to get ready to launch and pray that you don't stuff up cause you are totally breathless and weak by this stage. Of course I stuffed up and it took some time to sort it all out before I was airborne. What a relief to be flying, all the troubles of take off instantly forgotten, as I cranked into the first thermal, the panorama expanding with each flying circle... up up and away. Everyone managed a descent flight with Rob and I and Mughtasim landing in Booni after several hours and then returning by local van/bus to Chitral.

The rain returned again for three days 24-26th. There wasn't so much to do in the rain, walking, talking, playing cards, eating, sleeping the days drifted by. On the 25^th we went saw a local polo match in honour of the newly crowned King of Chitral. We unfortunately missed his coronation that morning but amazingly Rob and I along with some of the locals (Zahid, Gullam, Sajid and others) had a chance to take tea in the palace/fort with the new King the following day. The new king. King Mullik, is aged 28, graduate LLB and MBA (USA). His father had died unexpectedly last year and so it is his turn to be the King of Chitral valley. Rob and I were delighted to be given a grand tour through the fort. The fort dates back to the 1300s and is filled with an amazing collection of historic pieces. The photos, documents and paintings are incredible.

Main Street Chitral

I was very interested in the photos looking for any of Colonel Younghusband, who in 1895 as commander of a small British regiment came to Chitral, lugging heavy wheeled cannon over the Shandur pass from Gilgit to the east, to free the small garrison of British surrounded in the fort by local insurgents. The insurgents had even dug a tunnel under the fort in the hope of breaking in only to be blown up by the Brits inside who used dynamite to blow up the tunnel. Younhusband's regiment set up their cannons high along the west side of the valley, where the present day Governor lives, and managed to repel the opposing forces by blasting them with cannon balls. The skirmish was over with Younghusband the hero. Younghusband, incidently, went on to lead British forces in the evasion of Tibet, an affair that didn't go well. He was also as a master of the The Great Game, as a British Indian spy in the north of central asia regions on the lookout for possible Russian invasion intentions... all most interesting!

Sadly I didn't see any photos of Younghusband, but there was much to take in, including photos of Prince Phillip visiting, correspondence with the ruler of India during Partition, 1947, and many more photos that I knew captured important events. The fort dates back to the 1300s so there is plenty of history. Both Rob and I were privileged to see this fort from the inside as it is usually not open to visitors.

On the 27^th the weather cleared and we were flying again. This time we set a goal of landing at Zani Pass, where we had previously taken off from. We were intending to vol bivouac (fly sleep). It was a great flight back toward Booni but this time we travelled along the west side of the valley passing Trichmir (7778m), an incredible mountain massif covered in snow and ice. What a sight as we passed by. Amazingly four of us landed together high at Zani Pass. Glen elected to land at Booni \(as he didn't have a sleeping bag). It was a beautiful starry night wrapped up tightly to keep warm. Rob boiled some water so we had a hot drink and with a small amount of food that we had brought we had dinner.

Waking up early to the sunrise on top of a high pass was sureal. For a moment I didn't know where I was thinking this was a dream. We had breakfast of sorts and slowly walked up to the takeoff in preparation for flying. Glen and the local pilots from Booni came up, but their vehicle broke down so they launched from a lower site. What would the day bring as we launched our wings?

The decision was made to fly as far east as was possible following the road to Gilgit. Cloudbase was better with it rising to above 5000m but with mountains higher it would be a matter of climbing up out of valleys and crosiing where possible into other valley systems. Three of us , Rob and Alex and myself, flew over the \Shandur pass east for another 30 km before landing at Teru, a small village which fortunately had a guesthouse. Dmitry and Glen elected to fly back towards Chitral. Teru village is incredibly high in the nountains at 3200m. It is completely isolated in the winter and extremely remote in the summer months. A single Natco bus plies past on its way from Gilgit to Mastuj daily, other than that there is hardly any traffic on the dirt road.

Hike up from Teru

We were faced with a dilemma; a grueling two day return to Chitral by bus/jeep/van OR a hike up the valley to a high point to try and fly back. It was a no brainer, we organised porters for the morning and after a good night's sleep we were up and hiking at 8 am the next day. We found a suitable spot to take off at 3700m after an hour and half. It was going to be touch and go, with one shot to catch a thermal otherwise it was going to be the bus in the after noon, not something we wanted that's for sure.

Rob with goat? on TO at Teru

Amazingly we all found our lucky thermal which lifted us away and on track west to Mastuj first, then Boni and finally Chitral. It seemed impossible that we could fly this route into wind for the last third but we did, it, a 92 km straight line flight, 118 km with turn points, all three of us landing after five and a half hours. We made it back without the horror two day return by vehicle! I had a smile a mile wide, it was a great flight 6250 m was the high point and never less than 4000m until the end....and the scenery? Absolutely magical.

so if you want to have a look at these three flights in 3d on Google Earth click this link to Leonardo and select the flight and then click the Google Earth icon to see the tracks...select the last one on the 29.5.12 if you haven't much time.

http://paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/tracks/world/alltimes/brand:all,cat:0,class:all,xctype:all,club:all,pilot:0_17232,takeoff:all

If you want to see my SPOT shared page which gives you a real-time update of my track (if I'm flying) then visit , password is findhammy....(the track stays on the page for 7 days)

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0FNWHrnv0Qoo8H2ZYOpCrK1aWR5tYjVDO

So I hope you've enjoyed my story for the past two weeks. We are staying in Chitral until the 7^th and then heading east to Yasin Valley for a few days and then on to Karimabad in Hunza valley. I'll try and do another blog soon with what's been happening politically here in my next update....hope you are all happy and well....cheers Grey