Trek record
24 May 2017
Trekking, as we know it, is actually a spin-off of the work of the early 19th century European explorers, surveyors and map-makers. Hiring local hunters and shepherds as guides, they followed the barely marked trails plied by earlier natives. The first adventurers, in the true sense, were mountaineers who had little to do with exploration and map-making, but were obsessed with climbing the virgin snows of the system.
By the 1920s, yet another breed of adventurer was roaming this great knot of high peaks and glaciers. This bunch did not climb per se. Driven by curiosity, they simply walked the trails. Their purpose was largely historical and sociological studies and they worked on shoestring budgets. There was, of course, another sub-caste: wealthy, highly educated, cultured persons of the world. Theirs was the best written record.
Read more »Labels: Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Trekking
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Trek through the Himalaya, Karakorum and the Hindu Kush
04 February 2015
"Let's go, let's go. The donkey is here," said the foul smelling man impatiently as he burst into the room at precisely seven o'clock in the morning. Mohammed Rafi, the drover, spoke only his native Brushaski and owned a perky little animal that trotted along and within minutes we had left Darkot behind.
Two hours later as we passed the village of Umalsat I suggested we stop for tea. Rafi pointed into the distance where, he said, was the house of some uncle who was waiting for us with tea and something to eat. We carried on for another two hours in the course of which I repeated my suggestion at least twice to be met with the same response on both occasions. Finally I tried another angle.
"Where is your uncle's house?" I asked.
"In Darkot," came the bland reply.
"You fool, you mean there is no uncle up front?"
"Uncle. Yes." he said pointing into the distance.
"Screw your uncle. We're stopping right here to make some tea," I said.
"No, no. We'll have tea at uncle's house," he protested.
Read more »Labels: Adventure, Between Two Burrs on the Map Travels in Northern Pakistan, Books, Gilgit–Baltistan, Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Northern Pakistan, Trekking
posted by Salman Rashid @ 08:00,
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Early explorations in the Karakoram-Himalayan
18 September 2014
This article was published in The News on Sunday in January 2006 was written as if by a reporter in the year 1906. The reporter’s beat was exploration work being done by Europeans, mainly the British, in India and Chinese Turkestan. It notes the major expeditions in the works for the year 1906 with some reference to recently finished work.
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| Aurel Stein |
So far as archaeological exploration in Central Asia is concerned, 1906 promises to be remarkable year. This year promises wonderful discoveries and quantum additions to our knowledge on the history of this area as two of great names of Central Asiatic exploration head out into the region once again.
We have Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer, already famous for his epoch-making work in trans-Himalayan regions. He is the man we have to thank for, among several others, the discovery of the source of the mighty Brahamaputra River. Unable to reach Lhasa in two earlier attempts, he prepares to try yet again to enter the Forbidden City in 1906. His earlier attempts were thwarted by Tibetan xenophobia and suspicion of everyone who is either not Tibetan or Buddhist.
Read more »Labels: Himalayas, Hindu Kush, History, Karakoram, Travel Literature, Travel Writer, Travel Writing, Trekking
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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Between Two Burrs on the Map
02 December 2013
Between two burrs on the map
Was a hollow-headed snake
The burrs were hills, the snake was a stream
And the hollow was a lake
The first line of this poem by Robert Frost became the title of a book of mine published in 1995. This was the story of a journey I undertook in the summer of 1990 in the footsteps of some of the great explorers who had opened up what is now Gilgit-Baltistan to the reading public of the world. Having read the works of men like Robert Shaw (Visits to High Tartary, Yarkand and Kashgar), his nephew Francis Younghusband (The Heart of a Continent) and Eric Shipton (Blank on the Map), I was inspired to see what these remarkable men had seen decades before I was even born. Though the list of men who aroused an interest in seeing my world is long, these three names suffice.
These men (and many others I have not mentioned for the list would be interminable) had explored the Himalayas, Karakorams and the Hindu Kush. Of these three ranges, I had access to the western edge of the first, the Karakorams in full and much of the Hindu Kush because they lie within the geographical bounds of Pakistan. And so, in 1990, I devised what a rather fancifully called The Western Himalaya Karakoram Hindu Kush Expedition that would take me some 1100 kilometres across the mountains of which 800 would be on foot. At that time such a one-man expedition cost about Rs 80,000.
But having lost all my meagre wealth in a foolish investment only a couple of years earlier, I did not have the means to do what I ached to do. My childhood friend Parvaiz Saleh who was then in politics single-handedly raised the money and sent me off in May 1990.
Read more »Labels: Between Two Burrs on the Map Travels in Northern Pakistan, Books, Gilgit–Baltistan, Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Northern Pakistan, Trekking
posted by Salman Rashid @ 00:00,
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The Great Asiatic Divide
14 May 2013
The Himalayas, Karakorams and the Hindu Kush form a great barrier, in total extending for nearly 3000 km from Bhutan to Chitral. These mountains divide the waters between the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia: on the south side the waters feed the Indo-Gangetic river system and on the north they drain into the great Central Asiatic wildernesses. That in a nutshell is the Great Asiatic Divide or the Great Asiatic Watershed.
To cross it is a momentous feat because you step from the subcontinent into Central Asia. In Pakistan you can do it on the Lukpe La and on Shimshal Pass. Nowhere else. India, Nepal or Bhutan do not have this singular honour of straddling the continental divide.
Had I been able to cross the West Muztagh Pass in 2006 (we did not because of fear of Chinese soldiers), I would have again crossed into Central Asia.
Labels: Geography, Himalayas, Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Northern Pakistan, The Great Asiatic Divide
posted by Salman Rashid @ 19:59,
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