Trekking to Bhaba Pass in August 2010

On 25ht of July 10 sitting idle in office I notices that I can take a 4 days leave wow that’s gr8 I pick the phone & ring to four or five friends that we are having weekends & national holidays with only one leave we can make a fantastic trip after sms’g & calling five showed the same interest level, one thing which all of us are sure about is that we want a adventures holiday because we enjoyed a lot over beaches in Marve in Mumbai so this time we were looking for mountains,snow,white water rafting etc.
August 1st we planned for Leh trip & I booked one way flight on 20th Aug from Mumbai to Chandigarh without any basic knowledge just on time when news channels are repeating the cloud bursting report on every news channel but we all were firm on our decision to go ,after a couple of days understanding the seriousness of situation we again started searching places to go in north where we could find snow peaked mountains in the month of august, I surfed a lot of sites but disappointed when I got to know that we couldn’t find snow in august month atleast in India .
I decided to have white water rafting in Rishikesh & trekking to Okimath Temple but again this time landslides & heavy rain forced us to change the plan.
Then I make a firm plan to go to BHABA PASS whatever be the conditions, I was exited about this because I read in blogs that this pass is the only one in India which is snow bounded throughout the year every one agrees on the above,I started collecting more & more information about reaching Bhaba Pass & found that its not a 4 to 5 day job so I decided to plan my own itenary which was like this .

Group Members: Sandeep, Shads, Vikas, Shweta & Rao (3M+2F)
Start Date: 20th Aug 2010
Return Date: 25th Aug 2010
Trip Objective:
(1) want to see snow/Glaciers
(2) Trekking & camping
(3) If possible water rafting also
Will not compromise on:
(1) liquors e.g. no shortage of whisky,rum,brezzers
(2) luxury traveling e.g. NO to public transport
(3) Typical north Indian dhaba style food (veg & Non veg both)

Budget: Which is a constraint for ALL…that is Rs 12000 per person only including return airfare from Mumbai

Day Date Arrival time place departure time place Distance
Day-1 20 9:30 chandigarh 15:30 shimla 120
Day-2 21 7:30 shimla 17:30 wagtu 183 kms (50 km to kinnaur)
Day-2 21
17:30
wangtu 19:00 kafnu 35 KM
Day-3 22 7:30
kafnu mulling (15 Km) 5 hrs
Day-3 23 mulling khara 6 Km (3-4 hrs)
Day-4 24 8:30 khara 14:00 bhaba pass I,II,III 19Km (9 Hrs)
Day-4 24 14:30 Bhaba 17:30 bulder
bulder mudd
mudd village kaza
kaza manali
Da-5 manali delhi









I was not sure about the return date so after discussion with friends I make it on 26th August 28, 2010



DAY-1 :Inspite of drama in between we have started our journey on 20th August from Mumbai domestic airport we boarded our flight to Chandigarh the flight was on time & we arrived Chandigarh @ 12:00 noon ,a day before I booked a radio cab but it was canceled because my fone was unreachable so I tried again & rebooked it by the time it come I started taking rates with the taxis standing there without knowing that this will pull me in a trouble ,when my radio cab arrived this local taxi drivers started fighting with me & cab driver that this passengers are there passengers & they will go from here in there taxis ONLY after a heated dispute we walked from there with our bags towards the highway ..After walking outside the airport boundary the cab picks us all & we escape from there the cab drops us in SEC 22 taxi stand we negotiated Inova @ Rs 11500 for a 5day trip including toll & entry charges, after stocking liquor from Chandigarh we started towards Shimla @ around 2:30 hrs had our lunch in between.
We have decided to take night halt in Rampur but our driver suggested us to halt in between so we had our night stay in a small village before Rampur .The rooms were good but water shortage was there we have taken 2 rooms for 5 people @ Rs 700/Room .

DAY-2: after having Allo ka paratha & chai we started our journey towards Wangtu had lunch in Dhaba in between after Rampur Kinnuer belt start which is a beautiful place & now we finding it worth keeping a car with us we use to stop & take pictures of mountains , the deadly Turing roads ,we reached Wangtu @ around 3:00pm after having tea we started for Kafnu which is a small village this will be going to our last motorable village from here our trekking start after many spirals turn we reached Kafnu @ 7:30 pm hrs ,we stayed there in the only available hotel “Hotel River View” we negotiated the rates & bring down tariff from Rs 1200 / room to Rs 600/Room then we got to know that there are no arrangement of food in this hotel & there is only one available gumti opp to the hotel ,I rushed there to order dinner but the person told me that for 5 people he is not having sufficient food ,I requested him to manage & he provide us 25 chapaties & curry & omelet ,after dinner we gone to bed

DAY-3: we started in morning @ 8:00 searching for the Guide who can take us to Bhaba pass & our search ends up with a Guy Surendra Negi he runs his own trekking tour agency by name “DIVINE EYE” I strongly recommend Mr Negi to all, he is a very cooperative guy, we fixed up trekking to Khara & back for 3 people in Rs 3100 including tent charges & sleeping bags rental & one hourse.after not finding any horse to carry our luggage we decided to carry our own luggage, Mr Negi along with his assistant was carrying the tent & sleeping beds for 3 of us.
We started the Mulling trek @ 11:00 am after a 2 -3 Km trek towards glacier two guys give up & went back to hotel ,I would say Mulling Trek was the most beautiful encounter with nature & mountains for me ,I had only seen such a view in discovery channel before ,in this trek we have crossed 8-10 rivers which it self was very adventurous ,water was coming from glacier it was so chilled that we cant dare to hold it for a minute it to our hand & we are crossing this rivers by holding hands ,making bridges & 35 degree trekking it was amazing.
Then comes two jungle which looks like a set of any Hollywood horror film with tall tress all around & humming sound of insects if you are lucky you can see bears we encountered with wild monkeys.
After walking 6 hours we totally exhausted & decided to camp 3-4 ms before Mulling, our camp site was beautiful surrounded with mountains grounds & glaciers, after campfire dinner & drinks we went to sleep.

DAY-4: started 6:30am for Mullling we reached there @8:45 am, relaxed near the river for almost 2 hrs finished our morning jobs & the brave act had a bath in chilling river.
After breakfast we started back because our friends were sitting idle in to the hotel room khara was another 6-7 km from Mulling one villager who was coming from Leh on foot that last night there was a snowfall at Khara & snow was still there, we exited but so tired that we decided & started to go back to wangtu.
Reach Wangtu @ 3:45 pm from Wangtu we drive back to Shimla.
We stayed in Shimla that night & in Morning started for Chandigarh via kausoli, after having dinner in Chandigarh we hired a innova car for Delhi airport for Rs 3000 & boarded Mumbai flight early morning 6:00am



Lesions from the trip:
(1) Trekking is more to do with a determined mind, team work & less with your physical abilities
(2) Do not de-motivate team members even if you are exhausted
(3) Brush-up everyone mind that this is not a luxury trip it’s TREKKING!!
(4) Decide a group leader & blindly follow him…
(5) Carry some essential like lighter, Swiss knife,deo spray( to light wet grass )torch, processed food e.g. Maggi,cokkies




I thanks to the following blogs which guide me to plan the above trip ….

http://www.dreamroutes.org/dreams/bh...s_trek_sp.html
http://www.shikhar.com/package.asp?PackID=26
http://books.google.co.in/books?id=T...epage&q&f=true

Special Thanks to Mr Negi (Guide) his contact details are as follows -strongly recomended
DIVINE EYE,near bus stand Kafny Bhaba ValleyDistt Kinnaur(HP)Mob No:+919816920500,9816920241
for pictures please visit next thread...
I hope this is usefull ,wish to go Bahaba pass & this time up to Spiti Valley

fantastic Sandeep Keep it up

good one..

Roughly, how many kilometres is the trek in all?

its about 22 Km of hard trek

Two of us going for Bhaba Pass trek on 3rd September. we will be staryting from Kaza side. I contacted Mr Negi regarding that. The charge they are offering is exorbitant..hard to digest ..
Guide charge : 1000/- per day ( will charge for 7 days for 5 days trek)
Horse charge: 500/- per day ( will charge 8 days for 5 days trek)
Cook charge: 800/- per day ( will charge for 7 days for 5 days trek)
+ have provide extra charge for kitchen tent and cooking utensils .. its going above 22k :O

can anyone provide alternate Guides contact.