Punji Pass Day 2
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2003
1
60
94
Trip End
Mar 28, 2005
Darkot, Northern Areas, Pakistan
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
Day 2 ascent: dep Boimoshani (3960m) 0800 arr Punji Pass (4680m) 1400; 4h30 walking and climbing, 1h30 rest; ascend 720m
We moved from grass on the trail to snow almost immediately at the start of the day and this was a sign of things to come. The snow got progressively deeper and the trail got harder to follow.
We followed the first couple of hours of the trail roughly on scheduled time. But the last hour and a half of the trail to the pass was completely snow covered and unusable. We had to take a steeper route as the flatter, smoother trail was snowbound.
What was supposed to take an hour and three quarters took us four hours as we had to raise our knees and feet high to make our way through the deep snow. This was extremely tiring, but somehow none of us sat and thought, "Hmmn, you know, maybe we should turn back." Thoughts were always based on how long until we get to the pass.
The last section was a snow covered 70 degree slope and I still wonder quite how we made it up. On reaching the pass, I could barely breathe, was completely shattered and was in a foul mood as I kept sliding back down the steep slope to where I had come from and climbing back up to where I had just reached took more energy than my body contained.
At the pass, I just sat, ate chocolate and waited for my body's massive energy deficit to return to positive, grumpy and tired for about ten minutes.
Only after resting did I feel able to look around me and take in the views - oh, and what views! - and look down through the snow path we had worked so hard to create.
Day 2 descent: dep Punji Pass (4680m) 1450 arr above Holojut (3970m) 1730; 2h20 walking, 30 min rest; descend 710m
Getting down wasn't initially much easier as the path down was also impossible to find. We used a lot of time searching and progressing slowly and dangerously down. Another section to add to my grumpy mood was a 60 degree scree slope that we traversed. I fell into the mountain a number of times and trying to push myself back to my feet five times on scree that was rolling down the mountain was energy sapping.
We did find the trail where the snow relented and were able to set up a campsite forty minutes from where we were scheduled to camp. This was necessary as dark was fast approaching.
This tough day was a product of the weather that made the walking so much tougher, but offered scenery so much more spectacular than it otherwise would be.
