Pakistan travels: Beyond Chitral

Flying near Passu

The NWFP, or Northwest Frontier Province of Pakistan, is an overwhelming array of massive mountains, steep sided valleys, winding glaciers and humungous snow fields, speckled with raging rivers, placid lakes and billions and trillions of tonnes of loose rock ready to pour down on the unsuspecting traveler. Woe betide an earthquake in this region or a flood, like the one in 2010, a flood that wiped out bridges, villages and roads killing many throughout the Province. Anyone who travels by jeep in this Province and has a fear of falling should be fair warned that the roads (engineering wonders!) are terrifying at times and a nightmare to travel on. I say this with feeling as I have been constantly awed by how the roads carve their way around vertical cliffs, their edges often dropping hundred of metres, constantly aware of a certain death if the driver is in the slightest way inattentive!

Northern Pakistan has three unique mountain ranges that crash and crunch into each other. The Hindu Kush flows up from the west and curls over the northern border with the Wakan Corridor in an easterly direction. The Karakorum range (famous for its great mountains including K2, Broad Peak, Gasherbrum along the Baltoro glacier) thrusts itself to the north along the eastern border with China. Wedged between the two great ranges lie the mighty Himalayas, its jewel, near the end of the range, is the overpowering 8000m massif, Nanga Parbat, one of our flying must-does!

Another check point near Shandur (Dimitry)

Leaving our beloved Chitral behind we (Rob, Alex and Dimitry and myself...Glen had departed back to work by this time) set out on the June 6 making our way slowly northeast by jeep first to Mastuj, then onwards over the Shandur pass to Gigit far to the east. From Gilgit we headed north to Karimabad in the Hunza Valley, home to another giant, Rakaposhi (7778m). The trip took three days and we were pleased to arrive!

Lake Attabad

The road that we followed to Karimabad is the famous KKH, Karakorum Highway, completed in 1978 and currently under a complete reconstruction contracted to the Chinese. In Karimabad it was our intentions to fly far and high and bivy out when we could. Unfortunately the bivy thing didn't happen but we did manage some great flying; south to Rakaposhi,, north to Passu and its gorgeous glacier and east up the Barpu glacier to Spandec (aka Golden Peak). The weather overall was a bit disappointing, there was some massive cloud development which was pretty scary at times, cloudbase was lower than in 2010 but it was still a great time! When we weren't flying we were hiking and traveling around the area. One trip took us by boat across Lake Attabad to Paasu for the night to return the next day. It was interesting to fly later to Passu and further north seeing the area from a different perspective. The highlight for me was a six-hour flight, up close to Rakaposhi, watching my shadow trace along the snow and ice- awesome.

Nanga Parbat was calling to us so, with our driver Manzoor and his trusty jeep, we headed south on the 20 June to Tareshing nestled in the southeast of the mountain. This was a two day excursion, first back to Gilgit to meet up with Dimitry who had arrived earlier to organise an extension to his visa and then south to Tareshing. Alas the administration rules had changed and Dimitry was unable to get his extension, much to his and our disappointment. Almost unbelievably we had to say goodbye as he headed back to Islamabad and onwards to Turkey. It was a sad moment for all of us as we had all planned to fly together for the next month.

Tareshing is a small mountain village located at an alttitude of 2920m. It is seriously in the backwaters of Pakistan, life is pretty simply, farming is its core and I can imagine the winters are long and cold. We found a nice guesthouse but without electricity and not much water it was pretty hard going. After three days we were ready to move on. Fortunately the weather cleared for one great flight and although we never really saw the top of the mountain while we were flying the sheer size of it made us feel very small indeed.

Near Rupal village

On the second day in Tareshing (which was not flyable) Rob and I had an opportunity to walk up to Rupal, the village at the base of the Rupal glacier (the Rupal face is a one of mountaineers' great walls... made famous by Reinold Messner). This village was even more primitive than Tareshing and we both felt that nothing had changed here over the centuries. Women toiled in the fields and the men lolling around not doing much. The villagers lived in primitive mud brick huts, chickens and goats and the odd cow ambled around as we passed through narrow pathways. The fields however were lush green and contrasted dramatically with the harsh mountain backdrop. Unexpectedly we were offered a cup of mountain tea and homemade local bread by a kindly gentleman which was very nice. We left the village with a good feeling.

Alex and I rugged up

The following day we made tracks southeast to the Deosai Plains National Park, an incredibly high plateau |(+4000m). We were on our way to Skardu, entrance to the great climbing arenas of K2 , Broad Peak and Gasherbrum and the famous Baltoro glacier. The air was thin and the temperature freezing. We had to rug up with all our flying gear to keep warm. The weather once again had deteriorated and snow began to fall as we trundled along slowly. Little did we know that the road had only just opened up for the summer season!

Deosai Plains

Then in the early afternoon we arrived to a big river crossing. Two National park rangers flagged us down for a ride further on. Their four wheel drive vehicle had drowned in the crossing having just made it across before dying. There it was to the left of us by the river, an apt reminder that this was not going to be an easy crossing. I had my doubts but Manzoor was in charge and we began to cross. My thoughts quickly turned to what we would do in the event of a possible catastrophe. It was at least 20 kms back to anything that resembled civilization and I had visions of stumbling along sodden wet and freezing cold having lost all our possessions....not a pretty thought! The water rose up along the side of the jeep as we plunged forward. Rob who was in the front seat suddenly yelled that water was coming in under the door! The front wheels lost their traction for a moment and the front edged downstream. We held our breath as we clung on tight. Water was all around us. Would the engine fail? Was the river going to get deeper? Fortunately the jeep held its line as Manzoor struggled to maintain control. Then just as suddenly we were out of danger and breathing a sigh of relief, we had made it across safely!

Rob cooking up a storm of pancakes in Karimabad

Eventually we left the Deosai Plains on a long downward journey that lead us to the town of Skardu. There we languished in the Conchordia Motel where it seemed that all the climbing parties stayed. The hotel buzzed with climber talk while we checked the skies. Sadly the skies didn't clear and after a few days we made the difficult decision to head back to Gilgit. Alex was short on time left in Pakistan and we felt that the flying was going to be better back in the area that we knew quite well. So here we are now in Gilgit and so ends my second blog from Pakistan.