Trek to MUSA KA MUSALLA---A Winter Warm Up
Yes it was a Winter?s Warm up as??We received a call from Musa Ka Musalla and after a three days tough struggling with the trek, we came to know that it was not a PROPER CALL from MKM but was actually a MISS CALL from him, AS he was just kidding to us. Right then, he was reluctant to have a meeting with us, so we are forced to postpone our meeting with him and we came down from a height of 3600m just below the 500m from the summit.
We were in the mood to take a harsh weather trek in November but we couldn?t expect that it turned out to be a WINTER SURVIVAL too. A couple of early snow falls within a couple of days span indicated us to take it serious, we paid full attention to the forecast and delayed our plan for a day later. All went ok till the severe SNOW STORM which we faced at Nala Bagheer. It lasted one and a half hour and turned out to be a decisive act on our trek LATER ON.
All was started in a quick manner. I have the plan to MKM with The Trekkers but PW team insisted to make a plan by our own, So have to give up my initial thought and in a hurry we made the draft plan in such a way that Faraz @faraz74 was the main event manager of the tour.
Balakot ?A couple of hour?s Jeep Trek?Naddi Bangla-?. Kachal Katha(jeep can go uptill this point). Bagheer Nala trek(6/7 hours)? Khanai Dhara(Last Hut before the Thandi Gali)-(2hours)? Thandi Gali Top ? Bagheer Meadow ? Nadi Bangla
Itinerary:
November, 8[SUP]th[/SUP]:
? 22:30 Start from Faisalabad(Rasheid, Faraz, Safeer)
? 23:00 Start from Lahore(Amer Waseem and Joined him Imran Arshad on the way)
November, 9 ? 04:45 reached Mansehra. Waited for the guide, Lahore members and High roof.
? 07:00: Reached Balakot in one hour. Breakfast there and purchase some necessary items from there.
? 10:30; Reached Nadi Bangla(2280m) and then onward to kachal Katha(2100m).
? 11:00: Trek Started from Kachal Katha
? 12:45 Reached Bagheer Nala village(2500m) and encountered a Snow storm here. Restart the trek when intensity came under control at 14:15.
? 18:00 Reached at Khanai Dhara(3200m).
November 10 ? 07:30: Start trek for Thandi Gali
? 11:00: came back just before Thandi Gali top(3600m)
? 17:00; Reached back Nadi Bangla and Night Stay
Novemebr 11 ? Early morning departure from Nadi bangle, reached Balakot then Mansehra and then our destinations for different cities. Reached about 20:00 in Faisalabad.
: We were six persons for the trek but a day before the trek Tauqeer @Huazifa slipped due to a genuine reason. So we five were enjoyed the hardships of the trek for three days.
? Faraz @faraz74
? Imran @imarshad
? Safeer @msafeer
? Amer Waseem @waseem14pk
? Rashid @emmaar
? Mr Naseer and Mr Hanif were in our porter c u m guide team
Variables which forced us to withdraw from summit.
? Snow level was about 2/3 feet near Thandi Gali Top
? Our Guide seems uncertain while finding the actual trek within snow covered top and team wasn?t in the mood to follow the Guide in uncertainty then.
? Time needed for the summit seems to be doubled as compared to normal and it was all due to snow level at that point.
Some important expenditures:
-
? Guide + porters for three days:8000
-
? High Roof from Mansehra to Balakot:1300
-
? Jeep rent from Balakot to Kachal Katha: 3000
-
? Jeep rent from Nadi Bangla to Balakot:1800
-
? Per person expenditure from Mansehra to Manshara: 4320
Rest we will discuss in detail and in GO WITH THE FLOW
Here is the approximate google earth map of MKM Routes..
Red : Shinkiari-Munda Gacha-Gali Route
Blue : Shinkiari-Kund Bangla-Shaddal Gali Route
Yellow: Balakot-Nadi Bangla-Maidan-Shaddal Gali Route
Pink : Balakot-Nadi Bangla-Kachal Katha Route ( The one we opted)
Green : Our descend route to Nadi Bangla via Bagheer meadows