Asad, the road till Naran is perfectly fine and dry, apart from some dirt patches where road work is being done. In Naran, about 5-6 hotels were open, about 5-6 restaurants were open and acouple of stores were also open. total of about 15-20 people altogether in the bazar. one tireshop was also opened, which saved our lives since we had a puncture near naran.
The track up till lake is fine and dry about 90% of the way. the last 10% is icy conditions, with dirt thrown over by the locals to help with traction. we did see a couple of jeeps there and locals drive tourists there daily so you should find jeep tracks that you can follow, but be very careful on icy patches.
Road beyond Naran was littered with small rocks and dirt from land slides. we encountered about 50 instances of landslides till jalkhad, nothing serious though, you can easily navigate through them. just need to be careful not to over speed.
there were also icy patches about 10 or so where you have to really slow down, shift into 4x4 and drive slowly. we did the naran-Jalkhad in about 1 hour. the best part was that we only saw 1 person the whole way. there was nobody in the remote villages of batakundi, burwai, jalkhad etc. not a single person or car...kinda eerie.
we wanted to go to Lulusar but was getting late so turned around about 2-3 kms before the lake. the track seemed ok, a bit Icy though..
have fun. take snow chains with you if possible.
