There are so many treks in the northern areas of Pakistan which makes it hard to choose a trek among them. September is the last month in which you can do an adventure trek in the north because after September the weathers gets cold and snow falling season starts in some of the areas.
If you are planning to do an adventure trek in the coming month of September and finding it hard to decide which one to do then go through the following list of 4 treks and choose the one which suits you best.
Chitta Katha Lake Trek
Chitta Katha lake is an high altitude lake (13,500 feet or 4,100Β m) situated in the Shounter valley (a sub valley of Neelum Valley), Kashmir, Pakistan. Chitta Katha lake is accessible from Kel by a 20 km long jeep track and then further 5-6 km hiking trek leads to the lake.
The best time to do this trek is late August and early September because this is the period in which the lake melts fully. This trek can be done in minimum of 3 days starting from Islamabad.
Kel is mostly used as a base camp for this trek. You hire jeep from Kel and set out early in the morning. Reach upper Domail village in 2-3 hours. You can also visit Shounter Spoon lake which takes around 30 minutes by jeep from upper Domail village. From upper Domail you start hiking towards lake and camp at Deck-2. Next morning you start hiking towards lake. Reach lake in 3-4 hours and then you can descend and reach Kel by evening unless you have different plans.
Dudipatsar Lake Trek
Dudipatsar is one of the beautiful lakes of Pakistan. It is part of the Lulusar-Dudipatsar National Park and lies in the extreme north of the Kaghan Valley (Mansehra District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). The best time to do this trek is late July till September.
Start the journey from Islamabad to towards Naran. Reach Naran in 6-7 hours. Hire jeep for Besal from Naran. Reach besal in the evening and spend night in camp.
Start trek towards Dudipatsar lake early in the morning and reach there in the 6-7 hours. Spend an hour there and trek back to Besal. Reach Besal in the evening and spend night in the camp there. Start journey towards Islamabad the next morning and reach there in the night.
Nanga Parbat Base Camp Trek
The best time to do Nanga Parbat base camp trek (Fairy Meadows side) is from June to end of September, unless you are an extreme adventurer and want to do it in winter. From Islamabad to Islamabad it takes 5 days to complete the trek.
Start your journey from Islamabad and reach Chillas for night stay in a hotel. Reach Rakhiot bridge in the morning, hire jeep to reach Tattu village and start hiking towards Fairy Meadows. It will take around 4 hours to reach Fairy Meadows.Β Spend night at Fairy Meadows in a camp/hut.
Start hiking towards Nanga Parbat base camp in the morning and reach there in 4-5 hours depending upon your stamina and fitness. The best thing about Nanga Parbat base camp is that that you can have a bowl of noodles’ soup and tea as there is a small hut hotel which provides these food items. Come back to Fairy Meadows and spend night there.
Start your journey back towards Islamabad and reach there by noon on the 5th day of your journey.
K2 Base Camp Trek
The best time for K2 base camp trek is from mid June to early September. The optimum number of days required to complete this trek is 18 which gives you a couple of rest days in this long and strenuous trek.
Start your journey from Islamabad towards Skardu. Reach Skardu in 30-32 hours by road provided that the journey goes smoothly or you can go by air in an hour.
Start jeep trek from Skardu to Askole. Reach Askole and spend night in camp. The rest of the trekking days are as follows:
- Askole to Jhola
- Jhola to Payu
- Payu to Urdukus
- Urdukus to Goro-II
- Goro-II to Concordia
- Concordia to K2 base camp
- K2 base camp to Concordia
- Concordia to Goro-II
- Goro-II to Urdukus
- Urdukus to Payu
- Payu to Jhola/Askole
- Askole to Skardu
- Skardu to Islamabad either by road or by air
Traveling is living!
Photography by:
Dr. Shahid Iqbal
August 20, 2014 at 4:20 pmThat is wonderful article. I have done all the treks.
The Silent Traveler
October 3, 2014 at 5:47 pmThat’s great to know.