this year i planned a winter survival trip to Kalam. the aim was to trek to Byun village and depending on snow condition trek ahead of Matiltan village. The team consisted of 4 ppl.. myself , Safeer , Naeem and Salman....
we left pindi for mingora from darbar swat coach service at 1 in the night and reached mingora at 6 am. there we joined dalman who came from lahore and moved ahead to kalam via hiace. we reached Kalam at abt 1 pm where we first settled in marcopolo hotel. had lunch and moved towards Byun village.... there was abt 1 feet of snow in kalam and abt 3 feet at byun. this is very less snow than what is expected at this time of the year in Kalam.... well andy wayz we reached byun in abt 1.25 hours and returned my magrib to kalam..... then dried ourselves up in a bornfire and went top sleep in our hotel.....next moning we packed our luggage and went to matiltan village by jeep..... there we offered juma at village mosque and got in touch with our contact in the village.... he guided us on our trek till ahead of the glacier... we retured at magrib and stayed at our host's home... it was warm and cozy with a good fireplace and we had a geat home cooked dinner there.... our host was ofcorse a guide so we discussed many treks in the area with him and learned a lot.... made many new future plans :).
after a good nights rest....... we headed back to Kalam from where we left instantly for mingora....
we had adjusted our plan a little to include Malam Jabba in it as it was going to snow there.....
raat ko kafi snowfall ho rai thee jab ham MJ puhanchay... we booked a room at 3 star Hotel and had a good snowfall wal till top at night in the dark... it was quiet there and we enjoyed the lonelyless.... there were many tourists at MJ.......
next morning we left MJ and walked all the way till the snow vanished were we got our ride to mingora... then all way back to pindi..
some highlights of trip :
1- byun village is an excellent winter camping spot.....
2- kalam forest loos great in snow
the team........
Winter Survival 2015 Team by Asif Saeed [......WINTER SURVIVAL 2015.......], on Flickr
