Buran Ghati, an unforgettable experience

 Summits inspire us, but it's the climb itself that counts.– Conrad Anker

When we finished Everest base camp trek last October, I told Giri, my friend and co-trekker, that I may not do a Himalaya trek again. He laughed and asked me to wait. He also suggested that I should do a summer trek as most of my treks seemed to be in October. We discussed about Buran Ghati, a trail very beautiful in May, June. Our dates didn’t match, and Giri went to Buran Ghati for the 9^th to 16^th May batch. We had four enthusiasts from our trek group, three of them first timers. With good experiences from the past two treks, I was clear that we will go with Bikat adventures. We also got a discount as I was a repeat trekker. Poornachandra (Poorna) booked his ticket while I booked tickets for Sujith and Shashank, Naveen was to fly from Goa and he booked his onward ticket. As I delayed booking the return ticket, we had to pay more for the return ticket.  

We flew by Indigo flight on 16^th evening and reached Chandigarh airport at 19:20. Naveen was already there with the taxi. It took another hour for Poorna to reach. We left the airport at 20:35, and proceeded to Shimla. In an hour’s time, we stopped for dinner at Sharma’s dhaba at Solan. We reached our hostel, Oxford Abuzz, around 23:00. We had a dedicated room with bunk beds.

Ready to fly

With Joginder Singh

Oxford Abuzz at Shimla

Day 1, 17^th May 2026: Shimla (2206 M) to Janglik (2804 M): We left the hostel at 7:15, and took the stairs down to reach ISBT, where we met Subhrangshu, our trek leader. As there was still some time, we had tea at a stall at ISBT. There were two Bolero jeeps and 7 of us were accommodated in each. In our vehicle, other than five of us, we had Mini and Keert from Vadodara. Around 9:45, we stopped for breakfast at Theog, a town on the way and tasted delicious parathas. The road after this got more winding along the Pabbar river, and we could feel the elevation increasing. Around 13:00 we stopped for lunch at Annapurna restaurant at Chirgaon. It took quite long to get served. After this the road got worse. The vehicle passed through metal bridges over deep gorges and on unasphalted winding roads. Driver Sushil seemed to know all the returning drivers and there were pleasantries exchanged. It was 16:00 when we reached Janglik campsite. Five of us got to share one room. We dropped off our bags and went to see the temples that were behind our camp. Lot of wood carving was seen on both the temples. One of them also had a display of cups and shields the local teams had won in different sports. There is a school nearby and a ground where kids were playing cricket. We went around for some time and returned.

Local shepherd girl

That evening there was a briefing and the trek leader collected our documents. Our group size was 14. There was also an introduction session. We had dinner later and retired for the day.

Day 2, 18^th May 2026: Janglik to Dayara Thatch (3366 M): Our timings were 7-8-9, wake up and black tea at 7:00, breakfast at 8:00 and starting the to trek at 9:00. Breakfast had egg toast and sandwiches. There was one more trek leader, Sanoj, and a guide, Praveen. We started moving up and visited the temple on the way where we had warm up exercises. Subhrangshu also explained some dos and don’ts. We took a group photo and started moving. We crossed the village and passed forest trail to arrive at a meadow after about an hour. We rested here for some time. After continuing, we arrived at a maggi point at 11:40. There were other groups here too. The trail from here was switching between grassland and forests. In many places we were walking next to the river. Around 14:30 we crossed a wooden bridge across the river and reached our camp at Dayara thatch at 15:00. Based on Garmin, we had walked 8.5 kms with an elevation gain of 670 meters.

Sujith and I shared a tent. There was a marked improvement in the quality of tents and sleeping bags comapred to what we had seen during earlier treks.  Dayara Thatch campsite was beautiful with Karuntu dhar mountain on one side and the river flowing nearby. We had freshly prepared lunch of rice and dal. After lunch we did photography. Some of them played cards in the tent. In the evening, we climbed the nearby hill as an acclimatisation walk. After coming back, Sanoj demonstrated the use of sleeping bags. After a delicious dinner of chapati, sabji, rice dal and sweet of Shahi Tukda, we played bluff for some time and retired for the day.

Acclimatization

Sleeping bag demo

Day 3, 19^th May 2026: Dayara Thatch to Litham (3533 M): Once again the timings were 7-8-9. Morning view around the camp was beautiful. After breakfast, we had warmup session and left the camp around 8:50. Initial trail of forests lead to large meadow. Here we stopped for a group photo. Further trail through the meadow showed icy mountains and gushing river. We walked through lush green meadows towards the Gunas Pass. After we crossed a stream, the view of the Dhauladhar range was captivating. Here we took many pictures. We also met some people from Bangalore who were trekking with Trek the Himalayas (TTH). Theirs was a large group. In about two hours, we reached a maggi point. Later we crossed the forest of Bhoj trees (Silver Birch) and came across another stream. After crossing it we got the first view of Litham. After walking through a ridge in the grassland, we crossed the Chandranahan stream and arrive at our campsite at Litham at 12:30. Here I met Pritam, who was our cook at Tarsar Marsar trek, and is now in trek management with Bikat. The Litham campsite is located on beautiful riverside meadow, with a gorgeous view of a waterfall emerging from the Chandranahan lake at a distance. The Litham campsite also had a previous batch of Bikat. I met some people from that batch.

Trail

With Pritam and Sanoj

After choosing our tents and settling in, we had freshly prepared lunch and went around after lunch to see the beautiful locales around the camp.  Later in the afternoon, we were taken to the hillock behind our camp. Trek leaders demonstrated different kind of knots using lifelines and all of us from both batches got to try rappelling from a ridge.

Once again, we had delicious dinner, this time the sweet being hot jalebis. That evening after dinner we played Mafia, which was an instant hit. These sessions also allowed us to know our teammates. There were five ISRO, ex-ISRO people from Trivandrum and Gurugram viz Swastika, Shailesha, Rishab, Roopak and Gaurav. Nitesh from Gurugram, Gauri from Mumbai, Mini and Keert from Vadodara. The connect and camaraderie within the team was great. Also, the two trek leaders were very friendly and helpful.

Night view

Day 4, 20^th May 2026: Litham to Chandranahan (4029 M) and back: The morning view of the campsite was beautiful. At 9:00, we started trekking towards Chandranahan lake that was behind the mountain and the waterfall.

Sunrise

Chandranahan is not just a single lake, but rather a cluster of seven interconnected glacial lakes. Because of their mythological importance, villagers from the valley treat all seven lakes with high reverence. They trek here to offer prayers and, as a mark of spiritual respect to the gods, walk barefoot on the glaciers surrounding the water. The name itself is derived from "Chandra" (Moon) and "Nahan" (Bath), as a legend states that the Moon God bathed here, giving the waters mystical, purifying powers. Furthermore, it is considered the holy abode of Devta Shikhru Maharaj, the local deity who is believed to visit the lake for ritual baths. Another legend says that it is the moon on Shiva’s jata that had fallen here.

After crossing the stream, it was a steep hike towards the waterfall that was seen from the campsite. We took few photo stops and arrived at the lake at 11:00, couple of hours for about 3.5 kms. The view of the lake was breathtaking and divine. Most of us removed our shoes and went close to the water to offer our prayers. We also had a group phot at the lake. There were also trekkers from other groups near the lake. After spending about an hour near the lake, we came down to see the waterfall from the top angle. Then we descended to the camp and reached at 13:10. This was a good acclimatisation trek.

Chandranahan lake

After lunch I did some photography around the camp. At 5:30, we had the surprise snacks of panipuris (gol gappa) which was an instant hit! After the snacks, the leaders conducted some games that worked as physical exercises. At 23:00, I tried some star photography.

Golgappa

Night sky

Day 5, 21^th May 2026: Litham to Dhunda (4025 M): After breakfast, we started from the camp at 8:50. Initial trek was through grasslands along the Pabbar River. The view of the river flowing from the valley between the hills was spectacular. In about an hour, we crossed the river where the flow was less. On the way there were meadows and treelines in some places. Another river crossing around 12:00 led to a steep climb through boulders led to the campsite. We had reached around 13:30. We had walked about 6 kms. Once we reached the site, Sujith led the cooling down exercises in his unique style.

Sunrise

Before the start from Litham

Dhunda trail

River crossing

Selfie time!

Energy!

Kattappa moment!

On the way to Dhunda

With Gaurav, Rishab and Keert

With Sunoj, Sujith and Subhragshu

The campsite was stunningly beautiful, by far the best. It was surrounded by snow clad mountains. The river flowed in full speed just next to the site. Subhrangshu said that when he was here with Giri last week, the whole campsite was covered with snow! Now there was no snow in the campsite that made our stay easier.

Dhunda

View from the tent

Trying knots and hitches

In the evening, we had a demonstration of different knots and hitches. Before dinner Sunoj said that we will start the next morning at 4. Like every day, they checked everyone’s oxygen levels. After dinner we played mafia for some time and slept early.

Day 6, 22^th May 2026: Dhunda to Manerang (3338 M) via Buarn pass (4575 M): It was our most important day of the trek. We got up at 2:30, had breakfast of chickpea usal and daliya, get our packed lunch and started at 4:05. The hike was steep from the beginning. As the snow was not fully covered, we didn’t wear our crampons initially and wore them after about half way through. I reached the pass just before 7:00, after about three hours. The distance covered was 2.84 kms and the ascent was 475 m.

On the way to summit

With Sunoj, amazing trek leader

It took some time for the rest of the team to arrive. Once everyone was there, we took individual and group photos with the Bikat banner. I met Naveen from the TTH batch who lent a Karnataka flag, with which I got a photo clicked. The groups that had reached the pass slowly started descending down. In our team, I was the fifth one to start rappelling. My turn came at 8:30. Rappelling down wasn’t as easy as it was during the training! The lifeline receiving wasn’t smooth. After rappelling down to about 200 meters, Praveen untied my harness and asked me to slide down.

ಸಿರಿಗನ್ನಡಂ ಗೆಲ್ಗೆ

RCB!

Team at Buran pass

Slide

It took long time for others to come down. It was very windy and freezing. It was already more than an hour since we landed down. Some of us decided to walk. As we started walking it started snowing hard. We continued further. It started raining heavily with strong wind! I tried wearing the poncho, but it was difficult with the strong wing. I couldn’t even get rain cover on my bag!

Next movement was an ordeal. Whenever there was slope, we slid through and walked in other places. The shoes were soggy, making it difficult to walk. At 11:30, we arrived at a maggy point. Here we finished our packed lunch and had hot tea. The trail got muddy and slippery as we proceeded. I saw so many people falling several times. I did slip a few times, yet managed not to fall down! The walk was about 6 kms, and we reached the camp around 14:00. I changed into dry clothes. The phone, cable and powerbank in the day bag had got wet. Powerbank never came back to life!

Maggi point on the way to Manerang

View from Manerang

Later the weather improved as sunshine came. We tried drying some of our clothes and shoes. The camp was on a slope and we saw a boulder coming down and parking at some distance from us! The view of mountains from the camp was amazing.

Dinner had yummy gulab jamuns for desert.

Day 7, 23^rd May 2026, Manerang to Barua (2510 M): Sanoj had returned back to Janglik from Buran pass and we had only Subhrangshu and Praveen. Subhrangshu introduced the Bikat team of cooks and porters. We took a group photo with all of them and started the trek downwards. 

The clear trail passed through grasslands and forests of pine trees. After an hour we crossed a bridge across the river after which the trail was too steep and tricky. Later the trail got flatter and scenic offering views of Kinnaur Kailash peaks. We arrived at a restaurant at 11:30. We wanted to taste Siddu, but it was over. We tried fresh ground apricot juice and bought dried apricots and walnuts. We then proceeded in the path surrounded by jeera(cumin) gardens and arrived at Barua village at 13:00. We had covered 7.56 kms in about four hours.

Jeera fields

We once again took a group photo before catching the vehicle for Shimla. We got into a new Bolero, that was clearly not enough for seven of us. As it was already lunchtime, we asked the driver to stop for lunch soon. The road for the first half an hour was unbelievable with no asphalting and dangerous curves! Later it got better. The drivers of both the vehicles stopped at Rampur around 16:30 for lunch! We were hungry and famishes. When we went in the restaurant already had large crowds including our friends from TTH group. The service was slow which annoyed our teammates and couple of them went out to different restaurant. It was quite late by the time we reached Shimla. There was some confusion as to where the vehicle has to drop us. We picked out left baggage from new ISBT and requested the driver to drop us at our hotel, Kudrat homestay at Bagh. At was 23:15 by the time we reached and it was late to order food. The homestay was comfortable.

Next morning we had breakfast at the home stay. We had booked a, Innova taxi for 10:00, but he arrived at 10:45! On the way to the airport, we met Sharmaji, my friend, at Haveli restaurant near Solan and had lassi. After that we stopped at Gopal sweets where the service was slow. It was getting late for Poorna to catch his 15:05 AI flight. It was 14:20 by the time we reached the airport and Poorna had to literally run to his boarding gate. We had lunch at the lounge and caught our Indigo flight that took off at 16:40. On arrival at terminal 1 in Bangalore, Sujith, Naveen and Shashank went together while I booked a Rapido only to find out that that involved walking to the parking lot 4! This led to a lot of delay and I reached home around 22:00.

With Sharmaji

Buran Ghati trek was unique in many ways offering diverse landscapes. Amazing natural scenery, birds, butterflies and wild flowers made the trails spectacular. While the rappelling and sliding experiences were thrilling, trekking after the summit in the heavy rain and strong wind through slushy paths was a real challenge. Thanks to Bikat adventures for a well managed trek. Thanks to my teammates for the wonderful company.