Bhabha Pass Trek - 9th to 13th July 2013

Every time I go Himalayas I come back only with my physical body my soul keeps roaming into the wilderness of Himalayas. This was going be the 4th time into Himalayas.

Planning started in Dec 2012 after returning from Sikkim. It was May 2013, our bookings were almost getting over. June 2nd week rain brought huge disaster to the northern sate of India, Uttarakhand. The entire state was in a turbulent situation. Our destination, the neighboring state Himachal Pradesh was also affected badly. Many a tourists and trekkers got stranded. Chopper rescued them. All these news put a huge stumbling block to our trek cum trip plan. I was in constant touch with our guide Prem Dorji and other guides at Kafnu (our trek start point). All of them assured us that the trek route to Bhabha Pass is ok. But the road from Rampur to Kafnu could be a challenge. And we were ready to take this challenge. After a lot of hurdles we decided to proceed from Bangalore. According to the situation we would take a call, that was the final decision we took while leaving Bangalore.

Our Team: Thank you Bangalore Ascenders, for allowing me to organize this trek. Achintya, Gautam, Govind, Sabu, Deepak, Uttam, Sudhir and myself.

Total trek distance: Roughly 45-50 kms.

Our Route and schedule:
Day 1: 9th July – Trek from Kafnu to Muling (11385 ft)
Day 2: 10th July – Trek from Mulling to Kahra (12500 ft)
Day 3: 11th July – Trek from Kahra to Phustirang (12927ft)
Day 4: 12th July – Trek from Pustring to Bhaldar (14600 ft) via Bhabha Pass (4865 m / 15900 ft)
Day 5: 13th July – Trek from Bhaldar to Mudh Pharka (12877 ft)
By God's grace we were fortunate enough to go as per our schedule.

Our first destination was Delhi. And from ISBT bus stand to Shimla.

Sunday, 7th July: We reached Shimla @ 5:30 AM. It was drizzling and covered with cloud. After getting down from the bus we trekked to our hotel, hotel Satkar,Youth Hostel. We had nice aloo Paranthas with pickel, juice, lassi, egg burji etc at Breakfast. And then we went out to roam around.

Shimala @ 12 noon

We went to Kufri. But no view as it was raining and completely covered with fog. On the way an old gentleman warned us to not go to for any trek. In the newspaper it was mentioned that in upper Kinnaur district every day 2-3 feet land slippage was happening. We returned from Kufri late afternoon. By then the weather started opening up.

Form Shimla @ 6:40 pm

But our worries did not get over until we got to know that the only bus from Chandigarh to Kafnu via Manali reached Kafnu on time and the next day bus will also leave on time. Soon we got introduced with a tour operator, who suggested us to book a TT. We decided to travel by TT @ Rs. 6000, from Shimla to Kafnu. We got relived a little bit and left rest of the things in the name of God.

We enjoyed the evening at Shimla

 Monday, 8th July: We directed the TT guy to come early. So that if any delays due to road block etc can be well managed. We left Shimla 8 AM. It was getting dark with rain cloud mounting over.

We reached Rampur @12. From local people we got to know that the road to Kafnu is open and vehicles are moving. We moved on.

Sutlej river

A stop over at Sutlej river

I never experienced such a furious river before

At 2PM we halted for lunch. It was really an awesome lunch with daal, rice, pickle and boiled aloo.

It was a great view from the hotel...

One of the most endangered species - Griffen vulture 

And we moved on. Roads ahead turned into challenging and beautiful.

We were about to reach Wangtoo bridge.

Wangtoo bridge - from here the road to upper Kinnaur region (Recong Peo, Poo and Sangla Valley) was devasted. Fortunately route to Kafnu was ok

Our TT moved towards Kafnu on the tricky route.

Due to bad road or no road I could not take any photograph of this route. From Wangtoo bridge it was adventurous 1 hour  journey to Kafnu.

@ 4:48 PM we reached Kafnu to find this slide 

 From here Kafnu was just 2 kms. We called our guide and proceeded to Kafnu leaving the TT behind.

At Kafnu with our Guide Prem Dorji (in blue jacket) and cook

We were supposed to stay at this hotel...but due to some legal issues it was closed

Our guide Premji arranged a home stay at kafnu. After reaching there some of us went for grocery & vegetable shopping for the trek. We bought most of the groceries at nearby shop. But there were no vegetables available. They said vegetables would be available by 9 PM. Due to land slide (2kms away, that we crossed) no vehicles had come since morning. We decided to go the nearby village called Kathgaon and buy the vegetables. We hired a vehicle @ Rs. 200 and reached there. It was really a great idea. We got all fresh vegetables. After we came back we had a small question answer session regarding loading and unloading the backpack. We were carrying Maggie, Soups, Biscuits and lot of snack foods from Bangalore. All these were given to the guide and cook for packing with the other food items. It was a good decision to carry these from Bangalore, as there were no much options available. We finished dinner by 10 PM and retired for the day.

The small lovely hotel where we had dinner

They served us a sumptuous dinner... it was a very small place. But their care made it a big place

While talking to them we got to know sometimes no vegetables reach this place. They live on just daal & chwaal. My sincere salute to them.

1st Day of Trek Tuesday, July 9th - Kafnu to Mulling: And the day all of us have been waiting for curiously arrived. Clearing our worries the morning gifted us with clear and bright weather. It was really a great feeling.

Clear bright weather beckoning us 

We came back to have breakfast and pack lunch in the same hotel.

Tiffin boxes waiting to get packed...

Our breakfast was almost like a feast. Everyone hogged except Sree Sudhir. By 8:30 we finished breakfast. But our horses were yet to reach. So our cook waited there to load the stuff and we left.

...we begun our journey towards Bhabha Pass @ 8:39 AM

The dam at Kafnu

 We moved on crossing small streams, valleys and climbing up and down.

We passed by this glacier....

En route - Muling 

There was a steep climb a little ahead from here.....No not that  left side mountain.......

and finally reached the top

Crossing small streams...Our guide was carrying 60 eggs ....

Crossing really a big stream.....

Some of us could not maintain the balance while jumping a bit....

And finally at around 1-1:30 PM we reached another stream where we halted for lunch. We saw our horses and cook passed by who started a long after we started.

Our horse men

It was really great to see the pace of these horses and the horse men as well as our cook. They are the real God of these mountains. Soon they disappeared and we resumed our journey. Next part of the trek was through more or less flat zone. After walking for another we reached our campsite - Mulling 11385 ft. It took us 6 hours to reach the campsite at Mulling and it was really a beautiful trek through out the day.

View nearby campsite

On the way to campsite

In front of our campsite, Muling @ 2:30 PM

Dusk @ 8 PM..can u believe?

Dinner and goodnight @ 8:30 pm...

2nd Day of Trek Wednesday, July 10th - Muling to Khara: Previous night was quite cold. Or it could be we were yet to get along with the weather. Weather was superb. Clear blue sky and green mountains add to our exhilaration.

It was really sad to see that the entire campsite and the stream area was spoiled by garbage including plastic bags, bottles and many other non - biodegradable products. Its really hurtful to see the disaster made by trekkers. We trek to these places to have fun, enjoy and rejuvenate. At the end of the day we litter the area and come back. Request to my fellow trekkers, whoever is reading this blog, please think of mother nature, we never belong to those places and we should not leave any such traces behind. From BASC we strictly follow no littering policy. I already instructed our guide and cook to not to through the Maggie, soup packets, spice packets, biscuit packets or any other plastic bags and bottles anywhere till we reach Manali. And they agreed. After finishing the breakfast with aloo paranthha and pickle we got into cleaning camp area. So sad to see what not has been dumped here. Even the river bed is also spoiled. Most of the packets and bottles were full with mud and water. I had to wash them before putting in to the garbage bag. Every time I collect these garbage in some trek I get shocked, how heartless these trekkers are. We collected almost 2 bags of garbage. Guide told us its half a day trek.

And we started our trek from Muling to Khara by 9:30

The initial 1 hour was walking through green meadows. Every corner is beautiful there...

One must feel that in heaven. We were surrounded by spellbound beauty of Mother Nature.  How nonsense it is to litter such virgin places.

To ascend 

We took a short break here to start a small ascend.

Mind blowing mountain ranges ....

a quick photo session

A herd of sheep.....

..the shepherd and his dog

It was really astonishing to watch these sheep, the  sheep man and his dog to climb such steep mountains on daily basis. What is fun or adventurous for us is their live hood.

Soon we descended to a small valley of tiny and lovely flowers....

This valley was filled with tiny flowers, so virgin, untouched and remote....

I had not yet gone to "Valley of Flowers". But felt like no need to go there after passing through this heavenly place.

and then there was a short ascend.....

Every corner of this trek was unfolding new and totally different shades of beauty. Its so shrine, pure and virgin that soul tries to relieve into this remote wilderness of trans Himalayan region and never come back to the mortal body.

..we reached the top. halted for a white to satisfy our eyes and soul, so that soul remains under control

Form top, one side it was the beautiful meadows of Muling, where we were coming from.....

...and other side the view of Khara, our campsite for the 2nd night..

we were in between

We spent almost one hour here to capture this shrine beauty through our camera and mind.

On the way to the campsite we crossed few small streams and one large stream. Water was freezing cold. I remember Uttam went quite ahead on the bank of the stream to escape getting into the water. Even I followed him. But after walking on the bank of the stream for 10-15 minutes I decided to getting into the water and crossed it. It was thrilling cold. We met few shepherds. Spoke to them about their daily lives.They roam around these mountains with their sheeps for six months. They keep camping around these mountains. These mountain grasses are rich in nutrients for increasing the far.

3 Shepherds.....

We reached Khara our campsite by 1:15 PM, 12500 ft. It was quite windy and as soon as we reached there it started drizzling badly. We started pitching tents.

We initiated to pitch tent in the midst of heavy wind and drizzle......everything was almost flying away..

It kept on drizzling for some more time. Most of us went inside the tent to rest. This day we did not have any lunch. Although the horses and the cook reached the campsite little earlier than us. We had a short filler with puff rice and fried ground nut. After that, me Sudhir and KP went for a short hiking nearby hill. Others were resting. None of us carried our cameras as it was quite cloudy and thought it may rain. But on the top it was another experience. We were getting covered and uncovered by passing cloud. We spent some time watching this phenomenon and then came down to the campsite.

Our camp @ Khara

Dusk @ Khara @ 7:30 PM

Finally ready for the hogging session @ dinner

 Everyday dinner used to be a hogging session. Thanks to our cook that we took sufficient groceries and vegetables.

3rd Day of Trek Thursday, July 11th - Khara to Pushtirang: The day gifted us with one more clear and bight weather. We started the trek quite late as it was one more very short trek.

Morning at campsite - Khara

We started the trek @ 10:25 AM

We had absolutely no idea about the stream we were about to cross. Govind went ahead and finally went far away from us to cross the stream where water is less and can easily be crossed. We took of our shoes and started following the guide. It was like waking on a freezing cold river bed. The final cross was little large and moreover water was freezing cold. Premji really helped us. Almost all of us crossed the river. And then we saw Govind following us. He came back all the way.
After this it was a smooth gradual climb.

From where we were coming..

Soon we saw the horses, the horse men and cook passing through. Govind left us and went quite ahead with them.

We reached Pushtirang @ 1 PM

We had gained quite a good altitude by then, 12900 ft. We started realizing slowly. Air started getting little thinner. Some of us started feeling headache. After taking a little bit of rest we started pitching the tent. Weather was superb, excellent. Cook started preparing lunch. Menu was totally different. Aloo pakoda with puff rice. Everybody stared hogging. And that was a great mistake. Lesson learnt. I started feeling heavy stomach and little bit of giddiness. Before food was absolutely ok. Most of us went inside the tent for rest. Myself, guide and Gautam went for a short walk around the other side of the mountain valley. It was really beautiful.

We walked a little and went to other side of the valley

a stream ...

Roaming around Pustirang valley with Premji

We were there on the top till 6 PM.

Golden dusk @ Pustirang,

Our camp @ Pustirang

After returning I felt really relaxed and quite comfortable and took an oath I will never hog on Aloo pakoda on high altitude. It was quite cold there. After finishing dinner quickly we retired for the day. Next day was the climb for Bhabha pass.

4th Day of Trek Friday, July 12th - Pushtirang to Bhaldar via Bhabha Pass: And finally were about to scale the Bhabha Pass. We started quite early @ around 8 AM because we had to climb Bhabha Pass and cross valley to reach Spiti side. Initial route was gradual ascent and then steep and after that snow filled valleys with ups and down. It was the first time in my life when I was walking on the snow. It was quite thrilling and amazing. I forgot my shades at home and it was eye dazzling. I covered my eyes and face completely. We were climbing from 12900 ft to 15900 ft.

@ 11:15 AM we were on the top, it was really a great feeling there, finally I climbed one more mountain and gain little more altitude.

 During my last Himalayn trek I reached an altitude of 12600 ft (Tapovan) and it was 15900 ft. Thank you God for allowing me to reach this altitude smoothly.

We were surrounded by snow capped mountain ranges. We spent 45 minutes clicking pics and enjoying this serene beauty of Bhabha Pass. Time passed by so fast we could not realize. It was around 12 Noon Premji called us to start moving. The initial descend was little steep then snow filled valley and again steep down through boulders. We followed Premji and he was quite fast to cross these snow filled areas. To some extent all walked, somewhere little slippery but well manageable. It was like climbing down, walking, slipping and then started sliding. The great fun it was. First time in my life the descend was a slide through snow filled terrain.

At 2 PM we were down. We came all the way down leaving Bhabha Pass behind. Trails were still visible.

We reached Spiti valley, the cold desert zone of Himalayan region. Now it was more of crossing valleys after valleys to reach Bhaldar, our campsite for the night. We were walking on snow filled river bed, somewhere small boulders and somewhere snow. We halted for lunch. Few of us were exhausted by then. After finishing the lunch we continued.

We halted for a while

The place where I got badly struck, but finally got down.

In the above photo, it may look like just a step down to reach the snow filled area. But it was not. It was quite steep and slippery due to loose stones and dry mud, hardly any trail to step. I was at the last. I was taking pics and saw guide took one direction and few followed him rest followed Govind. Hahhahaaaa...I was in dilemma whom to follow and got struck badly. I saw Sudhir sleeping a bit and moved on. Frankly speaking I got scared a bit, but finally managed to get down at a tortoise pace.  The final reach to the campsite was a one long steep down but easy.

We came down from that trail and reached to Pin valley, Premji told the Pin Parvati trek starts from somewhere nearby...

Steep down to the campsite near to Bhaldar, Spiti Valley

@ 5:30 PM we were at our campsite

It took us almost 9:30 hours to reach our campsite near Bhaldar. But believe me we enjoyed like anything. I feel fast walking may not give so much of fun and enjoyment. After a quick rest and snack with tea, I tried to capture the beauty of this cold desert mountain ranges.

The day ended with lots and lots of great memories.

5th Day of Trek Saturday, July 13th - Bhaldar to Mudh to Dhankar village: We were reaching to the end of the trek. It was going to be another long day. But we were relaxed and easy. We got up late. Morning was beautiful in the Spitian vally of Bhaldar.

we started the trek at 9 AM

Our route for the day was through beautiful dry cold desert moraine and valleys of Spiti region of Himalaya.

It was around 10 AM when we reached Bhabha river. It was quite wide and furious, difficult & risky to cross. Premji asked us to wait and he went other side in search of a place where stream is possible to cross. But none of us heard that and look what we did.

We collected 2-3 wood slabs and walked along side the stream to cross over but alas, in vain. Premji returned quickly and told us that we have to walk on a glacier to cross over. The small trail on the other side of the river was looking really scary. Premji asking us to move quite fast because as the time passes the day becomes warmer and turning the glacier walk difficult. Soon our horses arrived and they crossed over the glacier quickly and disappeared.

At around 11:40 we had crossed the Bhabha river and reached to a meadow ...

And our journey continued...

The prayer stone

We were about to reach Mudh village.

@ 2:55 PM the first glimpse of Mudh village....still we were to reach there...

A closer view, next to it a glacier...

We walked down to a bridge and then walked up to Mudh village.

the hanging bridge....a superb experience to cross over..

walking up and passing by peas farming towards Mudh village

And finally reached Mudh village @ 4 PM

We walked inside the village. It was my first time experience with such a high altitude remote village of trans Himalayan region. I never saw houses like these. I was curious to know about it. I spoke to a villager. He mentioned, in order to beat the cold they put layer of dry wild grass and a special plant on the roof top. During winter 5-6 feet of snow will cover all the places. During this year it was heavy snowfall. These villages would be cut off from the rest of the world.
Hats off to all of us. We finally completed Bhabha Pass trek against all the odds. We rested in a small hotel for a while. And left Mudh by a pre-booked vehicle to Dhankar village.

Our trip continued, please check the next blog "Visit to Dhankar and Trek from Lalung to Demul to Comic". http://prataphimalayantrek.blogspot.com/b/post-preview?token=c8JYk0ABAAA.iPzPfJiLQyyPpgHGJkCXdw.k3A6cyEQcSL-YdRwu2cmYg&postId=5229647157460799579&type=POST

Photo Link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/117144221978749494916/TrekToBhabhaPassLalungToDemulAndTripToKaza#

Few important suggestion and information about the trek:

• Acclimatization is a must for this trek. The right route is from Kafnu to Mudh. In opposite direction trek one gains altitude in a jiffy which make the trek punishing.
• Ensure  no one in your group litter and dump garbage anywhere during the trek, until you reach Manali. Don't act nonsense saying "THERE ARE SO MANY GARBAGE WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF I DISPOSE THIS PLASTIC BAG". Please try to understand that, we already have polluted our cities and towns, please for God's sake lets try to keep these places pollution free. If possible kindly do some clean up activities.
• Please respect the local people and their culture.
• Our guide's name and contact number: Prem Dorji, 09816343024 ; 08988235022
• Vehicle from Mudh to Dhankar:Sachin, 08988203700. Most of the time he may not be reachable as he touring around. If you are not able to reach him, Premji can fix it.
• Vehicle from Shimla to Kafnu: Thakur, 09816050551.
• If you have some time at the end of the trek do stay at Mudh. It a beautiful village.