One wrong step led to some trials and travails but, at the end of the day, it was more than worth it.
I was embarking on the trek to Alpine lakes located high up in the foothills of Bramsakli for the third time in as many years. I, along with some friends, left at the crack of dawn, immediately after the morning prayers. The eight of us, including some professionals and experienced alpinists, drove straight to Halan hamlet in Kulgam which is the starting point to what are now widely known as trekking routes of Chiranbal meadow, Bramsar and Chirsar alpine lakes.
We divided ourselves into two groups – the one headed by me chose to trek up the Halan gully to reach Kadlabal, a meadow with a log bridge over the ZajinarNullah connecting Hakwas and Zajimarg to the South West with the hills of Manzgam and D.H. Pora.
My group trekked somewhat frolicsomely all the way to Kadlabal passing through dense fir and pine woods and lush green meadows to reach Kadlabal above Chiranbal meadow in 2 hours or so. There, we waited for the other group which had Inayatullah and Rouf, two ace trekkers, leading it. We waited for some 40 minutes but found no trace of our trekking mates for miles. Presuming that Inayat’s group might have gone ahead of us and that it would be possible to locate them from a distance in the vastness of the Hakwas meadow, we again got up and marched on. We walked and waited, walked and waited but there was no trace of the group. Finally we decided to cross the right shoulder of the upper Hakwas and to cross over to Chitti Nadinullah so as to trek to Chirsar and Shahsar. We crossed into a ridge overlooking Chitti Nadinullah and meadow to the west, walked into gullies with scree and snow avalanches having made their way to the lower reaches, walked some two kms of terrain with huge rocks which made it considerably difficult to move on without exposing ourselves to the danger of falling off the ridge. After 30 to 40 minutes of careful trudge, we were on a high rocky patch that gave us first glimpse of the tranquil, turquoise waters of Chirsar. I could see Bilal and Aadil, my fellow trekkers, in distance slogging their way towards me. In a few minutes they joined me. In seconds we were at the shores of the lake, soaking in and trying to absorb the divinity of Chirsar and the allure of mighty Bramsakli peaks up above. The fresh snow fall had added to the mystical beauty of the place. Chirsar is a mid size alpine lake located at an altitude of 3520 mtrs approximately with milky blue water that flows into it from the glaciers of Bramsakli peaks. Chittinadi meanders its way out of Chirsar and joins Zajinar Nullah only to merge with waters of Vishow Nullah at Sangam some 6 Kms above Aharbal. We unpacked our backpacks, took out lunch boxes and helped ourselves with whatever we found inside them. Post lunch, Bilal served hot cups of tea and after an hour or so we were on our feet again.
We headed towards the south East of Chirsar, negotiating the slippery snow and rocks that dot its eastern shores. In 15 minutes we were walking right through a beautiful and green carpeted water meadow with a number of streamlets making their way into Chirsar. A daunting task of hiking up a wall of rocks was staring at us. Bilal and I took up the challenge to trudge on. Adil followed. It took us some 30-40 minutes to reach a rocky plateau which was still buried under layers of snow, some of it fresh. We meandered our way bypassing boulders and patches of snow which we thought could cave in under our feat. What we saw at the far end of the plateau was something we had only imagined. A deep bowl surrounded on one side by the peaks and glacier snout of Bramsakli, which tower over everything and the plateau, and on the other Shahsar or what the tribals there call Konsar sar, a veritable jewel hidden away from the human gaze. Located at an altitude of 3700 meters, the lake is directly fed by Bramsakli glacial melt and is frozen for most part of the year. As we could see, several inches of deep fresh snowfall had occurred only a few days ago and the rocky shores of the lake were still under heaps of snow.
We clicked some pictures and shot some videos of the lake and decided to set off to ascend to the highest point on the left shoulder.
We might have walked some hundred odd metres when we noticed fresh pugmarks of some wild animals, most probably leopards. The foot prints were going all the way to the middle of the ridge we intended to reach. On further examination of the surroundings, we noticed more pug marks going up and down the plateau and disappearing in a gully in distance. We decided to halt and take stock of the situation. After a few minutes of discussion, we decided that any further movement could be fraught with danger so it was sensible to back off and descend from the plateau. It took us an hour to reach Chirsar and from there some 2 hours to reach Kadlabal. When we reached the top of Halan and Mainzpal forests, it was pitch dark and we had to switch on our solitary headlight to walk.
Things went uneventfully for long till we reached a point where we missed the track and instead of going left, went right only to find ourselves in a thick forest which took us further away from the trail head we were supposed to reach. It took us more than two hours in pitch dark and scary conditions to reach the shoulder of the hill wherefrom we could see lights emanating from the Halan Village household. Thanks to Strava and some Gujjars who volunteered to guide us on a moonless night for a kilometre or so, we could finally manage to get back on the trail and reach our vehicles safely at around 10:45 pm, braving all the trials and travails thrown up by one wrong step on the trek.
Meanwhile, Inayat’s group was still descending from the hill top above Halan and it would take them half an hour to reach us. They told us they had trekked to Bramsar and Novsar, which is an offbeat tarn, a few hundred feet above Bramsar and nestled in and fed by the glaciers of Bramsakli.
P.S: Shahsar and and Novsar were discovered by a group of trekkers, of which I was a member, in 2020. Since then, a couple of trekkers/ trekking groups have visited these rarely explored tarns.
Shahnawaz Khanday is a college teacher and an avid trekker who also loves to travel and read.
