Wednesday 24 August 2016

Trekking from South Face of Nanga Parbat to North Face

31-07-2016. Fairy Meadows to Tarashing
On July 31, 2016 we left from Fairy Meadows to Tarashing which is the last village of Astore district from where the trek to South face of Nanga Parbat and Mazino Pass begins. We arrived at Raikot Bridge at 1 o’ clock in the after-noon because the road from Tato was blocked and one of our jeep driver did not arrive to pick us which we had already reserved that made us late. Having lunch at Raikot we left at 2 o’ clock and reached at Tarashing by half past 6 in the evening. The beginning of the Astore road was terrible and took us long time by driving in a very slow speed and the last part of the road ten km to reach to the last village was completely rough that made us tired when we reached at Astore. My clients were too tired too and some the members were not felling well and couldn’t have supper by that day. It was not a good day for all of us. We stayed night at Nanga Parbat Hotel at 2,911 meters.
August 1, 2016: Tarashing to Latboi
 The next morning we started trek it was a great day with good weather, we began a bit late in the morning it was hot day up to Hilligkoffer base camp the first cam site crossing Tarashing Glacier  and lush green beautiful villages of lower and upper Rupal. We reached here walking four hours from Tarashing. We had our lunch here it was nice time and the clients were happy with the beautiful scenery of the landscape and magnificent views of Nanga Parbat and other snow-capped high mountains of Himalaya. We decided to walk another two hours to the next camp of Latboi and moved to this camp which is at the altitude of 3,550 meters with green meadows and thick forest all around with superb views of Nanga Parbat it is also called second base camp with clear spring water and cluster summer houses there were the people from Tarashing and offered us local dishes with yoghurt from cow and goats milk it is nice campsite we enjoyed our day trip. One of our lady members was not feeling well and after two hours of walk she got weak and decided to ride on donkey and we managed it and arrived to the camp riding.
August 2, 2016: Latboi to Shaigiri
It was short day of two hours walk we set off at 8 a.m and arrived at the campsite of Shaigiri a gentle walk along the juniper and birch trees, the campsite here is at 3,660 meters under the trees with grassy flat for tents with clear fresh spring water. The views from here to the South is amazing of 5,484 meters Rupal peak and beautifu snow-capped 5,600 meters Liala peak ahead adds to the joy of the trek. The porters here always get on strikes for little things and always noisy unlike the porters in other parts of  Gilgit Baltistan that makes you disturb you there should be professional guide to deal with the porters of this trek. The porters from High camp to the end the trek come from Chilas who the worst. I dealt very technically and did not give them a chance to strike on the way. I had a little problem to dismiss two porters from here where their language was finished but handled it quickly. We had some drops of rain this after-noon.
August 3, 2016. Shaigiri to Mazino Base Camp:
This morning we set off towards Mazino Base camp a walk of three hours, the path follows northern lateral moraine of Toshain Glacier with great views of Liala peak and Rupal peak backwards and Nanga Parbat on one side, the walk was very interesting the first two hours were very hot because it was sunny day. We arrived at the camp around 12 at noon and the weather began to change we had a strong wind,   tents were almost to blown up by the wind but it stopped soon. The camp site is green meadow at 4,200 meters, with bubbling streams and dry juniper bushes,looking down Toshain Glacier is interesting from here. We enjoyed this day very much because all of group member were happy to be on 4000 meters without any problems.
August 4, 2016 Mazino Base Camp to High Camp:
It took us five hours with lunch break on the way for an hour. The track turns north and climbs steadily up to the lateral moraine of the Mazino Glacier which descends directly from the Mazino Pass. The first two hours on green meadows and then on the rocky path leads to the high camp at 4,700 on the north side of the Mazino glacier with glacier water. Here our porters from Chilas joined us for the next days trek towards the north face of Nanga Parbat. We had enough time to be relaxed here and prepare for the next day to go to cross the Mazino Pass I was a bit afraid of some my clients who were seemed not able to reach the pass but fortunately it got opposite my guessing they did well on this day which was beyond my expectations at all. We had our dinner 5:30 p.m in order to sleep early because we had to leave by 3:00 a.m to make sure to reach at the pass on time and descend down to the other side before sun rising to avoid rock fallings which very dangerous part of this trek and made it on time and very happy to be on the Loiba Glacier crossing the Mazino Pass. We had 19 porters and six members of the group and we were three staff members on this trek.
August 5, 2016. Mazino High Camp to Chatti crossing the Mazino pass 5399 meters:
This morning we at 3 o’ clock with headlights and walked on the Mazino glacier which is smoothly climbing up and came to beginning of the steep towards mazino we got the day light. We been very lucky with the weather on this trek it was always with us, this morning we had blue sky and came to the with magnificent views from the pass to Mazino Ridge, Nanga parbat and many other peaks around. We came to the pass at 6 a.m and fixed the rope to descend down there was an another group of Pakistani trekkers along with ten porters and we started descending one by one I make my members to be first to go down then our porters followed us fortunately everybody did reach the camp safe and sound and it was interesting day for all my clients they were very happy to be here and one of the challenging trips their lives as their comments. We came to camp side Chatti at 4700 meters on green meadows after 10 hours of walking. On the way we gave them a light lunch and had the lunch at the camp. We had heavy rain this afternoon the evening was very cold. The camp site is at 4,200 meters, but our option was to cross another pass Kao/Sargalio Band Pass 5140 meters and camp here to go on this pass and go the base camp of Noth face of Nanga Parbat. We did it on the next day.

August 06, 2016. Chatti to Sargallio crossing Sargalio Band pass 5,140 meters.
It was really a tough day for my clients because this is an unusual pass/trek rarely is done as our porters we are the people after four years on this trek. The path is on the moving rocks from the very beginning and too steeply going up an up to reach the pass and slippery gravels in some parts of the. Some my members hated this day and told me that stupid people will come to such a trek we came to the pass in four hours hardly looking towards the North face of Nanga parbat is amazing the view down is superb from the pass. We took some pictures here and descended down to green meadows with crystal clear spring water where our porters and staff were waiting for our lunch. We arrived here by 1:30 p.m. Our cook Karim was working with stove because it was not working that porters made it out of order on the way we had dry lunch unlike every day. We had our lunch the descended down to Sargalio a camp site with green flat and huge juniper trees an awesome campsite. There were few of our porters it was surprising because most of the porters had gone to Kutgali where they for summer with all our language it was really bad job they did because there is another two hour walk to go there but our members were already exhausted and were not able to move any more. We called back all of them and stayed night there at 3740 meters. We had some rain drops last night.
August 7, 2016: day trip to Nanga Parbat Base Camp (North Face):
On this day five members of the group visited to the base camp they left from the camp at 8:30 a.m and came back at half past five in the afternoon. It was day rest for me and the porters. We spent washing our clothes of last week trekking and we stayed the second night here. Our clients decided to go in one day from here to Chilas but in our program it was a two days plan it should be done in two days because it is long day especially for porters it is quite hot on barren gorge down to Halala and Bunar Dass. My clients were optimistic to reach Chilas by the same day and we did it, but our porters arrived late in the evening.
August 8, 2016: Sargalio to Chilass via Halala and Bunar Dass:
It was long day walk as I mentioned that my clients were optimistic to do in one day we did it six hours. We left at 7 a.m and reached at Halala polly bridge by 1 p.m running all the way down sometimes there was beating heat when the sun was shining but again the weather was with us most part of day stayed cloudy and we had a rain too when we were at the jeep road and waiting for the jeeps. We hired Toyota from here and came to Chilas by standing in it as it was a tradition with this kind of vehicles to reach the villages of North Pakistan long ago, but here still the same. We arrived at Shangrila Chilas by 5 p.m.
August 9, 2016 Chilas to Islamabad:

This morning we left from Chilas at 9 a.m and reached Islamabad at 10 p.m driving 13 hours on the way to Naran ad Kaghan valleys over Babusar Pass 4,173 meters. It was wonderful day travelling safe sound.I hope you will enjoy reading this post. If you wish to visit Pakistan please write me on amin25952@gmail.com

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