Monday 29 January 2018

The most beautiful Trek in Pakistan

Wakhan Corridor Trek from Emit

Day- 1  Arrival in Islamabad city tour of the twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Islamabad is the capital city of Pakistan a modern architected city and Rawal Pindi is the old city of Pakistan unique with old architecture and history.
Day-2  to 4. Fly to Gilgit or drive to Chilas there are two ways to go by the Karakorum Highway the eighth wonder of the world or over Babusar Pass ( 4100) meters from the beautiful Naran and Kaghan valleys. If you are lucky enough with weather there is an hour flight to Gilgit otherwise drive to Chilass for 10 to 12 hour and overnight stay in a hotel.
Day 3 to 5 Gilgit to Ishkoman: 4 hours driving along with the beautiful villages of Ghizar district. The last village of Emit is the starting point of the trek.
This is two weeks interesting trek in the Hindukush starts either from Chitral or Ishkoman we need special permission from the Ministry of tourism Islamabad as it is in the restricted zone. It is accessible to Gilgit to Ishkoman and begins the trek from Bilhanz the last village of Emit takes five hours from Gilgit. Bilhnaz is a village at the altitude of 2900 meters the first day in the tents the temperature 20 C in the month of July.

Day-6 Trek to Matramdan: It is a smooth walk of 3-4 hours trek along the Qurumbar River on the jeep road to the last permanent village of the Emit Ishkoman. There are spectacular views of snow-capped peaks of Hindukush all the way. There are 22 houses with Wakhi speaking people hospitable and welcome you to the village warmly. Camp at 3200 meters, you will enjoy the day.
Day-7 Trek to Warghut: It is a great day along the east bank Qurumbar River with the views beautiful landscape. The first two hours of the day are smooth as the previous day and another on the west bank of the river takes you Piakhing, and the moraine of Warghut Glacier a beautiful summer village of Warghut with the field of barley and wheat. Another one kilometers takes you to the campsite with spring water under birch trees at the altitude of 3600 meters opposite of Chilinji Glacier.
Day-8 Trek to Sokhtarabad: it is an interesting walk of four to five hours with views of the spectacular views of white top peaks adds  to the joy of your holidays, you will cross the grandeur of the Sokhtarabad Glacier and the views of Bortha Borthi Pass to Wakhan. From here to the west the famous Chilinji Pass trek goes to the west to Chupuson Valley of upper Hunza. Sokhatarabad is the most beautiful campsite of this trek at the altitude of 3600 meters under the trees. There some summer houses from the friendly people of Emit who spend summer with goats and sheep. They welcome you to their summer houses offering local dishes. You will enjoy the camp and have a comfortable night here.
Day- 9 Trek to Shuinj: The trek takes 5 to 6 hours along the east bank of Qurumbar River it is a easy and smooth walk for the first two hours then you are going to walk on the Chitibio Glacier on ice, the starting point, and the last point is a moraine crossing mostly with white ice having crevasses too. The glacier takes about two hours to cross and you climb to Shuinj there are summer houses of the Gujar people from the Emit valley who spend their summer like the ones in Sokhtarabad. It is nice campsite on the altitude of 3900 meters with views of splendid white heat covering peaks of Qurumber that adds to the joy of your trekking. The camp here is wonderful with soft green ground and a bit colder than the previous camp.
Day-10 Trek to QUrumbar Lake: This day you reach the altitude of 4000 meters to camp at the magnificent Qurumbar Lake with spectacular sceneries and beautiful flowers all around the lake. It is 3 kilometers long and two kilometers wide blue sky lake full of sea birds swimming in it. The walk from Shuinj to the lake is much easier and you feel fresh after acclimatization you reach here as my experience.  A little feeling of altitude I experienced during my trips in the past. The campsite is at 4100 meters the last end entering KPK Province with a full view of the lake on a field soft green grass and wild onions’ ground.  At night the temperature decreases to – some times. It is worth having an extra day and enjoy walk up towards Wakhan corridor or climbing peaks of 5000 meters around here if you are interested in it.
Day-11 Trek to Showarshore/or Lashkargaz: There are four options  from here of 4 more days trek, the one continue down to Ishkarwarz, Lasht and Mastuj, Chitral or to Gilgit (over Shandur Pass) the second to Chikar cross the Darkot Pass to Yasin and Gilgit. The third option is to go to Zindighram Pass to Darko and the fourth one is to go to Ishkoman by Chiantir Glaceir over Amin Pass (5100 m) to Ghotolti (which has newly been discovered by our guide Amin Shah along with Italian trekkers in 2004).
 Day-12 Trek to Zindighram Base Camp: It takes 4-6 hours to walk on a smooth easy path with views of the Wakhan Corridor ridges to your right, Chikar Zom 6400m, and Kaio Zom 6700 m all the way down to your camp. If you are going to Zindighram Pass you have to cross the to the east bank of the river and climb to the base camp on unusual paths of animals and reach to your campsite 4200 m to stay the night close to the Zindighram Glacier. There is amazing views that you have come up to backward, Chianter Glacier to the right and Zindighram Glacier ahead you are going proceed the next day. Hopefully, you will enjoy your night.
Day-13 Trek to Rawat Over Zindighram Pass (4550 m): This is the hardest day your trek and will give the experience of your adventure. 8 to 10 hours, you will soon get on the Zindighram Glacier and climb up on white ice with ice springs on the glacier and ascending to the pass in five hours the scenery of the glacier makes you forget everything your life and if you are first time on such trip there is endless joy walking on ice, snow and amazing views all around and hearing the whistles of snow cocks from the nearer peaks. When you reach the pass you have magnificent views of both sides to the Qurumbar Valley and Darkot valley. The difficult walk of the day ends here; you are descending to Rawat on the glacier all way down to the campsite with fields of barley and birch trees. You will be welcomed by the friendly and hospitable people from Darkot here. You will come across a sulpher boiling spring on the way close to Rawat and can have a hot shower in it. Camp at 3700meters.
Day-14 Trek to Darkot and drive to Gilgit: An easy walk of 2 hours on jeep roads to Darkot village giving a surprise to the people of your arrival in the Village and the villagers will happy to see you and welcome warmly. The Village is at 3300 meters.

Four hours drive to Gilgit from along the beautiful villages of Yasin Valley, Gupis, and punial.


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