Sunni Bhunku Pass (Jot) 5060m – accursed pass to Lahaul from Kugti

 

In today’s world of information overload and the omniscient Google, it is rare to discover a pass, trail and a lake that is completely unknown to the outside world at large, save for a legend and folklore amongst the local shepherds and herbs collectors. Such is the way we heard about this pass along with a mysterious lake from the shepherds of Kugti during our trip to the Nikora Pass and Ravinder and I headed to discover this unknown region few days later. This trip was a real exploratory one, purely based upon some stories from the shepherds and we discovered a hitherto unknown and undocumented valley and a pass along with a marvelous lake barely a spitting distance from the popular Kugti Pass. Before retelling our journey, it is important to briefly narrate the legend of Sunni Bhunku, after whom the pass is named by the Shepherds. This name is purely local and has no mention in any survey of India maps or Google anywhere.

 

Natural rock formations, perhaps a geologist can tell us how this is formed

Sunni Bhunku Folklore – akin to the immortal tale of Romeo and Juliet, this folklore too has many versions, depending upon from whom you heard it. We heard four different versions and here I present the version that I personally heard from a herb collector. This version is also the most fantastic one peppered with unbelievable anecdotes hence my favored one. It so happened, long time ago (no one could guess the vintage), a handsome, free-spirited shepherd from Kugti named Bhunku crossed the Kugti Pass along with his herd into Lahaul for summer pasture grazing as is the tradition with them. In the Lahaul Village near where his flocks grazed, one day he called upon a house to seek food, whereupon the house girl named Sunni served him. She too was young, beautiful and free-spirited and the young couple instantly fell in love even though they belonged to distinctly separate community and castes. In such conservative society such relations were shunned and forbidden but then love is blind I suppose. Bhunku forgot all about his herd as he started living with Sunni and they were delightfully happy. Soon the Lahaul men got wind of this and they were justifiably enraged and wanted to harm Bhunku and drive him away from the village. They gathered in strength and started to find Bhunku in Sunni’s house. When Sunni, who had special powers, learnt of this, she transformed Bhunku into a sheep in day time, so when the men arrived they couldn’t find him. Even though he was grazing peacefully right in front of their eyes. After they left in the evening, Sunni transformed Bhunku back into human and thus they lived happily. And this continued. Bhunku would be a sheep during the day and turn back into human at night. Until the enraged men learnt of this secret one day and then they decided to come at night and kill Bhunku. Learning of this, the night he would be attacked, he ran for his life and in the darkness he found another valley next to Kugti Pass to return to Kugti side. He ran all night, crossing the valley and its glacier till he climbed atop the now named Sunni Bhunku Pass and descended on the Kugti side. Thereafter fearing for his life he couldn’t return to his Sunni. Soon the miscreants spread the rumor that Bhunku had died while returning to Kugti and hearing this news Sunni jumped off a cliff and killed herself in order to join her lover in heaven. Later on hearing Sunni’s death, Bhunku too committed suicide. Thus ended the saga. Since then lot of misfortune visited the Lahaul Villages and people and it was believed that Sunni had cursed her people for her misfortune. Thereafter a temple was consecrated in Lahaul where Sunni and Bhunku are revered as deities. Few shepherds did cross the Sunni Bhunku Pass but each one of them faced some mishaps and soon they believed that the pass is accursed and they stopped using it. We heard that many years ago one foreign girl had been seen crossing this pass but was never seen again on the other side and she never returned. I have no idea if this story is true but sounds about right. Our intention was only to climb till the pass top and return the same way back to Kugti so we felt we were safe. Yet there are things that are beyond explanation and eventually we did face some serious challenges. Now for our trip story…

 

Keylang Temple 3100m

Day 1 – we started at 0700hrs from Kugti Village, following the well marked trail to Keylong Temple. After some tea at the temple we set off further upon the Kugti Pass trail and reached Duggi Got. At 3200m it is a wide open shepherd camping ground. Here we crossed a stream across a bridge then reached the cave shelter point, from this point we diverted from the Kugti Pass trail and took the path going straight further east following the Dudhil Nullah stream true right bank. Soon we arrived at Chunji Ghori (a massive pyramid shaped boulder) and a major shepherd camping place. We walked further along the stream and turned left to enter inner Dhamiel Valley. By now we had massive hanging glaciers to our east and northeast. The valley narrowed further as we crossed several more tents that belonged to the herb collectors. We camped at the snout of glacier from where Dudhil Nullah stream emerged. Our camp ground at around 3900m was spectacularly beautiful with clear ground spring flowing barely a meter from our tent. We found a big boulder for our kitchen shade and cooked some rice pilaf. In the evening we met a group of herb collectors descending from the glacier, including our friend Lovely, and they told us there was another camping ground further above that could be our base camp for exploration.

 

Our Day 1 camping at 3900m

Chunji Ghori area

Summary – 0730hrs started from Kugti Village (2600m), reached Keylong temple (3100m) at 0900hrs. Crossed Duggi Got (3200m) at around 1000hrs, Chunji Ghori at 1200hrs and camping ground at around 1330hrs.

 

Glacier peaks panorama en route to Murali Lake

Murali Lake with Kugti Pass behind

Our kitchen with herb collectors

Our camp at 4200m

Day 2 – we followed the trail right atop the true right lateral moraine of the glacier to reach the camp ground at around 4200m where we found three more pitched tents of the herb collectors. We pitched our tent, had some tea and decided to hike up to the mysterious lake that our friends had told us about earlier. We had seen this lake marked in Google as a blue spot without any name. The hike started right from our tent, straight up through big boulders. It was a steep trail. Soon we spotted our neighbors bent upon the slopes digging out karu. We crossed them while they shouted encouragements through the morning air. As we got higher the glacier and its ridge line peaks rose like giants to our east, most promising among them a 6000m goliath right at the northern edge where we guessed our elusive Sunni Bhunku Pass resided. More of this peak later. Being light, we gained ground rapidly and soon topped the ridge and just on the other side about 50m below lay the most beautiful lake of emerald and turquoise. We had taken an hour and half to reach 4750m. The lake is roughly heart shaped, about 30m across and 20m wide with sizeable ice sheets plastered along the shore. Right behind it we could clearly see the notch of Kugti Pass and its trail going up from the valley. Further up from the pass we saw a peak that Ravinder had climbed along with a military school team some years back. It’s 5600m high and as we believed that is the only ascent of this peak. They had named it Kartik Peak. We lazed around the lake a bit, ate some snacks enjoying the glorious sun. Since the lake is nameless, Ravinder suggested we name it Murali Lake after a local deity. We got back to our camp and cooked some much needed dinner. In the evening the herb collectors returned and we had a nice chat about local customs and culture post dinner.

 

Summary – started at around 0800hrs from 3900m, reached camping ground at 4200m around 0930hrs. Hiked up to Murali Lake at 4750m and down in three hours.

 

Ravinder offering prayers at the pass, we have left the symbolic holy cloth

The glacier on the Lahaul side from the pass

Climbing to the pass

Walking on the lateral moraine 

Peaks on the glacier

The pass is at the V notch. The peak rising from there is 6000m

Day 3 – the night temperature had dropped drastically and everything had frozen. We woke up early, I noticed the barometer had dropped by 7mb which seemed alarming indicating bad weather later. We started off at 0630hrs. Following the herb collector’s trail we first walked along the mud-caked top of the lateral moraine and then descended on the flattish ground next to it. All we had to do was follow the glacier till its beginning and then head straight up. The glacier was indeed wide and long, the longest of all in the region that I had seen so far. It still had massive volume of ice and moraine. We found several streams further up and considerable amount of flat ground for camping. If our purpose is to cross the pass then we should camp further up at around 4500m. Meanwhile, the weather that had been brilliant until now had started deteriorating rapidly. The wind had picked up and all the peaks were immersed in thick fog and swirling mist. I could sense imminent snowfall. We hurried along. Soon we had to step back on to the moraine and then on the glacier ice, that turned left from the main axis, at the head of which we could see some sort of stone cairn that indicated the pass location. The ice had sizeable sastrugi hence posed no problem even without ice axe and crampons. We just stepped through the maze. Slowly it steepened as we got higher. The ice ended at around 4900m. The rest of the way was through loose slab rock strewn constantly sliding scree. By now a moderate blizzard had commenced. We both were experienced in scree, yet it was tough going, as we slipped and slid from one rock to another, often disgorging copious amount of dust and loose stones. We stuck close to each other for safety. Finally we emerged at the top at around 1000hrs. To our left we saw the ancient cairn. We decided to explore the other side first. We turned right and looked down upon the glacier below. It was gentle enough to descend safely towards the Lahaul side. It was quite wide and large with big exposed crevasses as it curved north. We spied a solitary ghuggi flower (Saussurea simpsoniana) sprouting from a stone block. This flower is considered highly sacred and are found in the Himalaya between 4000-5500m altitudes. It also has medicinal properties. Following the top ridge we looked down at a frozen lake that is marked as Neelkanth Mahadev in Google maps. But I think this nomenclature is an error. The frozen lake further leads to the glacier bed on the Lahaul side from where one can exit to Chenab River and further to the villages of Tokaring and Mangrotu. By now the blizzard was at its full fury. Temp must be well below freezing. We got back to the ancient cairn and did some puja ceremony. It’s a pity that we couldn’t see the top of the 6000m peak since it would be a tremendous climb from the frozen lake. We could only see the ice wall disappearing into the clouds above. Google map marks this peak as Sanakdeik but I doubt if this is correct. I will have to see a survey of India map to confirm this name. Till then I will just call it 6000m peak. To my knowledge it is unclimbed and unattempted and is among the highest peaks of Pir Panjal Range. After clicking few pictures we rapidly glissaded down to the ice and then further down. We were caked in snow. But as soon as we left the ice and stepped upon the moraine, miraculously the snow stopped and the wind eased up. We wondered if it was the ancient curse that was working since soon enough we could see the blue sky and sun. We returned to our camping, much to the relief and delight of our friends, who were apprehensive about our welfare. That night the cold was bone chilling, my watch recorded minus twelve. It was 27^th September pretty much end of the season, with impending winter. All the shepherds had gone down and the sturdy herb collectors too were preparing to go down. At night we gathered around a campfire along with the herb collectors and told them of our ordeal. We had gone to the pass offering peace and homage to the deity so I was sure that the spirits of the lovers had indeed blessed us. As a future project I intend returning to cross this pass to Lahaul and also to attempt the 6000m peak.

 

The sacred Ghuggi flower. We found this solitary flower at the pass

Summary – started at 0630hrs from 4200m and reached the pass top at 1000hrs at 5060m. Returned to our camping by 1430hrs.

 

Day 4 – we had to dry our tent and wait till the sun hit our camping ground so we left at around 9am, reaching at Kugti Village around 1400hrs. Hitched a ride in a pickup carrying bricks back to Bharmour. Needless to mention that our backpacks were caked in red dust as did we.

 

Note – Sunni Bhunku Pass at 5060m is slightly higher than the Kugti Pass, which is the most popular trail from Bharmour to Lahaul, used by hundreds of shepherds each year. In my opinion Sunni Bhunku is an easier pass compared to Kugti though it might take a day longer yet I wonder why no one crosses this pass and no outsider knows about it. Perhaps the curse is true and the locals fear to enrage the deities. Besides the pass, I am more fascinated by the 6000m peak that rises abruptly like a raised cobra hood from the pass. I also learned later from a shepherd I met in Bharmour that from the Lahaul side they call it the Bot Pass. Though I can’t confirm if that is the case. Even if you don’t go to the pass, I think a hike up to Murali Lake is rewarding enough. In case you do go to Bharmour and wish to tackle these treks in the region, including a hike to Mani Mahesh then your best bet is to contact my friend Mr Sarwan Kumar, mob: 9816455505. He knows it all and has all the support staff and logistic wherewithal to assist you.