Buran Ghati Trek

The Buran Ghati crossing begins with a drive from Rohru through the apple belt of the upper Pabbar valley, the road climbing steadily past Chirgaon and Kupdi before narrowing into a rough mountain track that ends at Janglik, the last motorable village before the trail proper takes over. Janglik sits on a sunny shelf above the Pabbar's Rupin tributary catchment, its slate-roofed houses and terraced potato fields backed by a wall of forested ridges that hide, for now, any hint of the ice and rock waiting five days ahead. This is deliberately an easy first day, built around arrival, gear checks, and acclimatisation rather than distance, and the short evening walk through the village gives a first taste of the Jaunsari-influenced culture found in this corner of Shimla district, distinct from the Kullu customs on the far side of the pass. Village elders are often willing to talk about the old trade movement across Buran Ghati, historically used by traders and shepherds moving between the Pabbar and Sutlej systems long before it became known as a trekking route, and their accounts of the ice wall lower down the pass, still forming and shifting slightly each season, set a tone of respectful anticipation for what lies ahead. Local guides based in Janglik, many from families that have crossed the ghati for generations, join the group here, and their knowledge of current snow and ice conditions is treated as the final word on whether or how the pass will be attempted this season. Dinner is simple and hearty, and the evening briefing covers the week's itinerary in detail, including the group's fitness expectations and the technical rope and ice-wall system that will be used near the top. Stars over Janglik, undimmed by any significant light pollution, offer a fitting, quiet start to a trek that builds in intensity every single day from here.

Leaving Janglik, the trail climbs immediately into a mixed forest of pine and oak, the gradient easing occasionally onto short stretches of open ridge that offer the first real views back down the Pabbar valley toward Chirgaon. Underfoot, the path is a mix of packed earth and exposed rock, well used by shepherd families who graze sheep and goats on the high pastures above Janglik through the summer months, and their temporary stone shelters appear at intervals along the route. As the forest thins near the day's midpoint, the trail crosses a series of small streams fed by snowmelt still lingering in shaded gullies even in peak season, and these crossings, while straightforward, are a useful early test of balance and footwear grip before the trickier ground higher up. Dayara itself is a broad grazing meadow tucked against a forested slope, used seasonally by Gaddi and local shepherd communities, and it offers the first unobstructed view of the ridgeline that the trek will follow over the coming days toward Chandranahan. Wildflowers carpet sections of the meadow in the early summer window, and the campsite's relative shelter from wind makes it a comfortable, if increasingly cool, place to spend the night. The guide typically uses the evening to explain how the terrain will change dramatically over the next three days, from forest to alpine meadow to the stark glacial basin around Chandranahan lakes, and reinforces the pacing strategy needed to arrive at the pass in good condition. Campfire conversation often turns to the ice chute that gives Buran Ghati its regional fame, with guides sharing firsthand accounts of past crossings, some easy, some considerably more demanding depending on that year's snow accumulation and how the ice wall has formed.