As'salam o alykum
Dear We have visited miranjani on this sunday , it was covered with heavy and dangerous snow, We were four friends
We left Rawalpindi at 7 in Charade 84 model and reached Dunga gali Mushkpuri starting trek point around 9:00, We had our breakfast there with Paratha Omlet and tea , i unfortunately forgot my jacket at home which i found to be good to forget after sometime when we started hiking as we started feeling little hot during hiking and it would be an extra burden to carry. We had planned to reach the starting trek point for Miranjani at 10:00 am so that we could reach at peak maximum around 1:00pm
Around 9:40am we packed up and started moving towards our main point. We had to cover around 15 minutes further towards nathia gali main bazar from where the road towards right goes upside for Miranjani starting trek point, but unfortunately we forgot that point while having chit chat with each other and entered in khaiber pakhtun khawa territory, Kalabag cant. area. We came to know this when we saw the Peshawar university board and abbottabad distance mile stone, then we moved back around 15 km back towards nathia gali bazar, People were guiding us two routes to reach the starting trek point for miranjani. We adapted the one which goes from Tajmehal hotel towards Governor House road. There was complete silence all around and it was really hard to find any person to find out the exact route. And again we move towards the wrong side from one diversion which came to our place and luckily we found a person who guided us to go back again and moved towards church side. It was so unfortunate that there was no directions mentioning anywhere for Miranjani trek. Finally we reached at the starting trek point around 11:00. There was a hut over there which is in the supervision of one person, We parked our car there and he told us the charges for that 500 Rs. On the way we found two person who were guide and we just inquired for our information about their charges, and to our surprise they asked for 3500 Rs, We were like,,, thank you so much barii meharbani :-). It was so unfortunate that we did not find any directions for Miranjani Trek. We reached at that starting point at 11:00am
Anyways that person at hut, was cooperative and he gave a hiking stick to one of my friend, I had umbrella with me for hiking which really helped:-)
I with my one friend are a bit fast hiker and have good stamina so we lead and moved ahead, the other two remained at back, but after crossing some distance, health of one friend got down, his BP got extremely down with stomach ache so they tried to move ahead but he couldn't make and finally both of them moved back towards hut. Now we two just left, the friend with me has very high stamina and practice as he belonged to a village ahead from muzaffarabad so they are used of such hiking, and he moved without hiking stick , guiding and helping me also. The environment was so scarey for two of us. That it was complete silence in the jungle, The weather was fine but wind was blowing and we were listening the movement of leaves and we felt the scene like in horror movies
The starting trek point was tough but after covering some distance the trek becomes little straight, We came across two local person on the way, One female with strong physique holding axe in her hand was cutting the trees, their branches and a boy with him was carrying the woods. These two person were the only one which we found at start of our trek. Anyways we moved ahead, Snow covered the majority of the trek, and to our right side it was a great depth enough to take you above skies The snow was slippery so we had to take extra care, And when we crossed this initial patch and looked towards further and to our surprise it was extra ordinary snow ahead, The other friend lead me and i was placing my feet on his foot steps and moving ahead, and there were signs that snow took place last night in that area, We found some light foot prints , to which we started follow, as it became difficult to guess the trek in snow.
We reached at point from where confusions took place as now the foot prints were moving to the different directions, One towards lefts side and the other towards right side. It really confused us and finally we moved towards right side which was the toughest trek to reach peak, There were foot prints of an animal also along with that there were some humans foot prints which convinced us to move towards this route.
We mostly crossed huge snow portions where snow took our legs till our knee. And at one point my one leg got stuck even above my knee, i tried to place my hand for balance and my hand also moved inside the snow and then luckily there was a tree besides me towards my left and i gripped that with other hand and moved out from snow and then sat on tree like monkey lolzzzzzzz. and i was like i am not going ahead on this trek, The other friend had already crossed this inclined patch and he was asking me to give him hand so that he could drag me up, finally i gathered courage and moved fast and crossed that inclined patch. And after crossing that i was unaware that one more tension was waiting as after crossing some snowy trek we reached to the edge of the mountain and to our right side it was a greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat depth. And now we starting hiking on the edge of mountain and upon looking towards right side...... enough to make you scared. we felt like the people to whom we watched to move on the mountains in movies, Completely at the edge of mountain,complete silence all around, cool breeze was blowing, noise of leaves and wind, no signs of any person anywhere, watching the big mountains at your level,, it was an extremely dangerous point which lead to the peak from other side and moreover just imagine it will be a snowy trek and snow which could reach easily till your knee, just a slide way towards that steep decline depth where you can also move by holding some bushes and we adapted that way. But on some points have to moved in snow to avoid falling from edge of mountain. And here snow again gripped me till me knee and then i gripped bushes and moved out from that, So in short snow took us on all points, it became a scarey hiking.
The other two friends were calling continuously as they were feeling bore down. On our return we started sliding on the snow, our shoes were wet like anything, socks wet completely , feet got frozen due to continuously moving in snow. We stayed at one point near tree, i offered prayer there and then started to feel the glory of Allah subha na hu Ta'ala, complete silence,sitting at edge of mountain, in the noise of trees, wind, it was wonderful to feel that, my friend made a small snow statue meanwhile,We took lays, water bottle, chocolate, juice and some orange candies, we took juice, lays at this point.
To cut short we rushed towards down while running and falling in snow, taking snaps all the way and reached to our friends around 3:20pm and started our journey back to Rawalpindi and reached Pindi from that point in 2 hours before magrib prayer which was surprising.