Gurwan Sar Lakes ---Pir Panjal Range

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Exploring Pir Panjal Range

Pir Panjal is a name of the basaltic mountain range with which the Vale of Kashmir is encompassed. It is the largest range of all lesser Himalayan ranges and bounding Kashmir from south. For trekkers in summer and for skiers during the late winter and spring, the Pir Panjal range is a paradise. It is known for its verdant landscapes, upland pastures, high altitude alpine lakes and lofty summits. It separates the valley from the plains of Punjab and a wide range of passes over its crest connects valley with other places.
Gurwan Sar I

 

3rd July 2022 | Sunday

Doodhpathri is a tourist destination at an elevation of 2700m on the lower slopes of Pir Panjal Range and is about 50kms from Srinagar. I along with my team ALPINE ADVENTURERS started our hike from Doodhpathri at about 7am in the morning. The trail first leads through the forest with a gradual ascent and then through a steep scree gully towards the top of the ridge(3350m) that surrounds Doodhpathri from west. Top of the hill offers a wide panoramic view of the Doodhpathri and the Kashmir valley.

Climbing up the steep scree gully

Further traversing the lush green slopes towards Chhanz, a upland pasture at 3400m. The beauty of this landscape was exquisite and was full of grazing sheep. It is at a distance of 7kms from Doodhpathri and is a perfect outdoor spot to spent some quality time.

Sheep grazing at Chhanz

From Chhanz, the trail has a gradual incline all the way upto the first lake of Gurwan sar and was surrounded with many alpine flowers like Bistorta affinis, Aster and from the family of Ranunculaceae.
Alpine flowers around the trail

At 12:00 in the noon, we reached at the first lake (3900m) and i took  a quick dip in it while rest of team reached. The lake was changing colours with sunlight and after spending some 15min there we left for the 2nd lake that lies SE of the first one behind the 4000m ridge at the foot of the Khari Lab peak. The slope on the other side was full of big boulders and we traversed over them towards the lake. It is a sad reality that this lake was a glacier water body some 100 years back but with increasing temperature of the globe, it has now become alpine lake fed by the small snow patches.

Gurwan sar lake II & moraines

Here i decided with my team-mates that rather than going back to 2nd lake, we will take another route towards lake 3 via a 4050m unknown pass. They all agreed and we made a steep ascent through the moraine section, sometimes we need to jump from boulder to boulder.  At 2:30pm we were at the last Gurwan sar lake just below the Nurpur Gali, which connects the Kashmir with Loran Poonch. It lies at an elevation of 4000m and is about 0.5km in length. There is small grassy area near this lake where we had our lunch. We can aslo see the pyramid shaped peak of Nurpur Neza and Nurpur gali from that spot.

Gurwan Sar III

It was around 3pm, everyone took a power nap while i decided to climb up a 4200m pass/saddle between the peaks of Farish and Guruwan Kharang. I had to gain an elevation of 200 and gradient was between 35 to 45 degrees. It took me about 33min to reach at the top. While climbing i got a full 360 degree view of the area and peaks on the other side of Nurpur Gali. They might be the peaks around Khare ki gali. This 4200m pass/saddle lies in the spur of Pir Panjal that separates Gurwan nala valley with Sinwar Nala valley.

Nurpur Neza & Gurwan sar

From the pass i also got a top view of Pamsar lake which is a part of Greater lakes Tosamaidan. It was an achievement to explore the all 3 Gurwansar lakes and Pamsar lake as well. We then started descending down to base and at around sunset, we reached back to Doodhpathri. 

Starting & End point : Doodhpathri Budgam
Distance:33.7 kms
Elevation Gain: 2365m
Total time :13 hours
Max Alt: 4227m

Some more pictures:






Location: RHW3+GF Forest Block

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