Buran Ghati: A divinely beautiful trek in Himachal Pradesh

Anu and I wanted to do a trek in the Indian Himalayas in 2025. We were searching for interesting treks in Himachal Pradesh, a region that we had not explored recently. We chanced upon the Buran Ghati trek on the Indiahikes.com website. We immediately registered. Buran Ghati is a long 25 km valley with tall mountains on both sides culminating in the Buran Pass.

Srijitha was our trek leader. Our 23 team members were:

Jai (Gujarat), Dashi, Abhijeet, Reshma (Hyderabad), Dev, Khushi (Mumbai), Abhay (Delhi), Aman (Banaras), Shashirekha, Puneeth, Abhishek, Khushali, Tejaswini, Yashaswini, Dhruvit (Bangalore), Samiran (Bengal), Govind, Gokul (Kerala), Hessel, Ilya (The Hague, Netherlands) Ashish, Samir, Anu (Pune)

Here is a day by day itinerary of the trek:

Day -1: Tue, Oct 7: Chandigarh, Shimla

We landed on Tue, Oct 7 in Chandigarh around 4 pm from Bhubaneshwar.

Our cab picked us up around 4.30 pm and we headed to Shimla. It was pouring as we exited the airport and all the way Shimla. There were landslides, fallen rocks, low visibility on the highway and our taxi also got a flat tire which took about 45 mins to fix. It took us 6 hours to get to Orchid Hotel in Shimla and we reached at 10.30 pm.

Day 0: Wed, Oct 8: Shimla, Rohdu

We met Kamlesh and Meeta Pant in Shimla for breakfast. Kamlesh is my classmate from IIT Kanpur and an IAS officer in the HP cadre. It was great to see them.

We explored Mall Road in Shimla before heading off to Rohdu (often spelled as Rohru in English). It was raining constantly.

Our taxi dropped us off in Rohdu around 4.30 pm. We stayed at Hotel Riverview, a non-descript but clean hotel in Rohdu.

Day 1: Thu, Oct 9: Drive Rohdu to Janglikh (start of the trek)

We reported at Rohdu at 8.30 am. However, with rentals, cloak room and trek instructions it was almost 10.15 am before our team of 23 trekkers started for Janglikh in multiple Mahindra Boleros. The scenery was amazing but roads were almost non-existent. It took us nearly 4 hours to travel 34 km.

It was raining on our way from Rohdu to Janglikh. Our trek coordinator had already warned us our trek may be cancelled due to excessive rain and lots of snow at Buran pass. We were mentally prepared that we would have to come back after starting the trek.

Our last couple of hundred meters were through apple orchards up to Janglikh base camp. These apple orchards grow the famous Himachal apples. We were welcomed with claps and drums. We reached around 2 pm.

Our trek leader Srijitha, a former flight attendant who had pivoted in her professional life, briefed us on what to expect. We were again told about the bleak prospects of the trek due to bad weather.

Lunch was in the dining room at base campl. We had to carry our own lunchboxes and they would serve us in those lunch boxes. We had to wash the lunch boxes ourselves after every meal. Indiahikes had created a contraption to save water during box washing.

We walked around Janglikh village in the evening.

It was Indiahikes’ foundation day having completed 17 years since Oct 9, 2008. We celebrated the day with a cake baked freshly for us. Dhruvit, a 11 year old fellow trekker, was given the honor of cutting the cake along with trek guides.

We at dinner at 7 pm and slept at around 9.30 pm in dormitory style beds, ready to do the trek the next morning, but a little worried about weather, rainfall and snow. We were given a time of 7-8-9, meaning 7 am wake up and tea, 8 am breakfast, 9 am we start trekking. It was a good first day.

Day 2: Fri, Oct 10: Trek from Janglikh to Dayara (7.5 km)

Though we had planned to start at 9 am, it was almost 9.45 am when we started. Typically, on the first day, trekkers are getting used to the morning preparation with packing the bags, eating breakfast, finishing your daily motions, hence the delay. Srijitha was very strict about starting on time.

Luckily, the day started off bright and sunny, not a single rain cloud in sight. This was a relief compared to the earlier days when there was incessant and heavy rain. The trek route was a gradual climb and the trail was easy and wide.

We occasionally stopped in rest areas.

We stopped for a quick snack where we were served Siddu, a traditional Himachali dish. Notice the clear blue skies. whew!

Srijitha had assigned trek buddies in groups of three. The exercise for the day was to trek with the buddies and find out about their life. It was an interesting way to get people to know each other. Dashi from Hyderabad and Abhay from Delhi were my trekmates. I learned many things about them including the fact that Dashi is a very senior executive about to join Deloitte and Abhay is interested in theater.

Amazing trails and views greeted us. The weather was very pleasant and sunny.

We finally reached the Dayara campsite at 2.05 pm, about 4:25 hrs to cover 7.5 km and 2,000 ft of ascent.

In the evening, the scenery became even more stunning with hues of pink and red in the clouds.

The weather was fantastic during the day, but the evenings and nights still brought in their share of dark clouds. We were still worried about the next day.

In the briefing at dinner, Srijitha told us that we would not be starting the next day morning for Litham camp. This was because there was a lot of snow at Dhunda and a lack of water. Hence, unless the Litham camp team moved to Dhunda, we could not proceed to Litham. Still a lot of uncertainty around the trek and summit. It was still wait and watch!

Day 3: Sat, Oct 11: Dayara to Litham (5.9 km)

Since we were not starting for Litham in the morning, everyone woke up at leisure. Luckily, the skies were crystal clear, but we did not know what lay ahead at Buran pass.

Around 10.15 am, we went on an acclimitization trek, climbing to 11,850 ft from Dayara. We came back around 12.30 pm.

As we climbed, there was snow at the top. That made us worried about how the conditions at Buran Pass would be. We took some pictures with Hessel and Ilja, who were traveling in India from 4 months from The Hague in Netherlands. They were just wandering around exploring the country. Hessel is a chef and Ilja just graduated from university. Ashish Datar was from Pune.

I also conducted a meditation and pranayam session at the top of the acclimitization trek to help people adjust to the altitude much better.

When we got back, we were briefed that the team would proceed to Litham since the weather had improved. The team was joyous because we got to move forward. We started around 2.15 pm. The terrain from Dayara to Litham was simple and rolling, lots of greenery and variations.

As we approached the Litham campsite, we could see an increasing amount of snow dominating the landscape. We were still worried if we would be able to reach the summit.

We reached the Litham campsite at 11,485 ft (about a 470 ft elevation gain) at 5.30 pm. We were happy the weather had allowed us to get to Litham and there was still hope of completing the summit.

Litham campsite was glowing in the beautiful evening sunrays, a positive sign for things to come. We could not get enough of the hues visible in the mountain scenery.

Day 4: Sun, Oct 12: Acclimitization Hike at Litham

This day was a rest day to get ready for the summit push. We were supposed to trek to Chandranahan lake, but that was completely covered in snow. However, the day was blessed with beautiful blue skies, no rain or snow. We left at a leisurely time of 10.15 am and climbed up to a point where we could see the waterfall.

The trek to waterfall viewpoint was completely covered in snow. Microspikes were not available because the team that had gone to the summit were using them.

We reached an altitude of about 12,000 ft and then waited for everyone to arrive. We took some photos and also tried Chakrasan pose.

We got back to Litham by 1.45 pm and had lunch. It was followed by a long game of Uno, the new version. Fun times!

We rested for the remaining part of the day, preparing for our difficult climb from Litham to Dhunda the next day.

Day 5: Mon, Oct 13: Litham to Dhunda (4.6 km)

Srijitha finally committed that we were going to Buran pass, the summit, because of clear, sunny weather in these past 3 days. We were elated. We started at 9.45 am. This was going to be tough day with a 4.6 km climb from 11,500 ft to 13,500 ft, over a short distance and through a lot of snow.

We did two river crossings.

Girl power was on display during the trek. Our team had 33% girls. They were going strong throughout the trek.

The trek route was entirely through snow. However, due to the melting snow, most trails had wet slushy mud rather than snow. We met the team coming down from Buran pass and had a quick chat with them.

We could see Buran Pass as we approached Dhunda campsite.

We reached Dhunda basecamp at 2.30 pm, walking for 4:45 hrs over a distance of 4.6 km, climbing 2,000 ft through snow. This was a challenging day!

Dhunda basecamp had a lot of snow after 3 days of bright sunshine. We were imagining how much snow the campsite had before the sunshine. Due to the snow melt, a water source was available to supply the camp. Otherwise, the trek would not have been possible.

We slept at 7 pm to get enough rest for the summit the next day.

Day 6: Tue, Oct 14: Dhunda -> Buran Pass Summit -> Litham

We expectantly woke up at 2.45 am and had breakfast at 3.30 am. They had made besan laddoos, which was a treat. We started the summit climb at 4.15 am. We wanted to reach the summit as a group, so it made sense to follow the people who needed more time. We were just following the footsteps of the person in front.

It was very cold, probably about -10 C. As the day broke, we could start seeing the trail.

Climb to the top was challenging. As we gained altitude, we were more out of breath.

We reached the summit at 6.30 am when we could see the first rays of sun on the tallest peaks. It had taken us 2:15 hrs to reach the summit. We could also see the other side of Buran pass, fully covered in snow and unpassable in the current conditions. It was windy at the pass, with windchill the temperature was about -15 C.

We were happy to have reached 15,000 ft with Anu not getting any altitude sickness issues. It was cold and windy, but we were content in our achievement. We took lots of pictures at Buran pass.

To add some spice to our enjoyment, some of us did 20 pushups at the summit. In the video below, I am the guy in the light blue, second from right, doing pushups with the backpack on (too cold to remove it!)

We started our descent around 7.15 am and reached Dhunda at 8.15 am, in one hour. As we descended, we saw the trail in daylight and realized the steep ascent that we had climbed.

We had some snacks at Dhunda, lazed around, now comfortable that the most difficult part of the trek was done.

We left the Dhunda campsite at 9.30 am and reached Litham campsite at 11.45 am. We had microspikes, so the descent on the snowy tracks was simpler. As got back to Litham, we realized that the snow had melted and the campsite had very few snow patches, a stark difference from just a day ago.

At Litham, we had lunch and then lounged around in the sun, enjoying the scenery and basking in the glow of our achievement.

We rested from the remaining part of the day. In the evening, we had a debriefing session in the community tent, where everyone talked about their highlights from the treks. We were elated that all 23 members had successfully completed the summit climb.

Day 7: Wed, Oct 15: Litham to Janglikh Trek, Drive to Shimla

This was a day where the descent was gradual and it was possible to go at a brisk pace. We were totally relaxed knowing that it was simply a matter of time before we got back to Janglikh. So team members followed their own pace. The scenery became slow devoid of snow, very simple to walk on the trails.

We got back to camp around 1.15 pm, removed our shoes, had lunch and relaxed. We were back in cell network, so we got a chance to make further bookings and chat with family. Most of the group arrived by 3.15 pm. Lunch was served immediately thereafter.

We got a nice team photo and left Janglikh by about 4.45 pm. We departed for Rohdu, knowing that we would miss being in Buran Ghati.

We reached Rohdu at about 7.50 pm. We had dinner at Rohdu and left for Shimla reaching at about 1 am on Thu, Oct 16. This was the end of a wonderful trek. We took the night flight from Chandigarh to Pune on Oct 16.

Impressions from the Trek

Anu and I made a lot of new friends on the trek. We were happy to share in their enthusiasm, their life stories, their trek fears and the fun games. We truly enjoyed our time.

This was our third trek with Indiahikes (Pangarchulla and Kashmir Great Lakes were the other two). We love the way Indiahikes conducts these trek. Their sustainable practices are praiseworthy. They provide amazing fresh cooked food (gulabjamun, besan laddoo, lauki halwa, suji halwa at this cold places). They conduct exercises that help in team bonding, interaction and self-discovery. The trek leader Srijitha was very organized and gave crystal clear instructions. One of the best I have trekked with! I did have a disagreement with her on the last day, when I was in a hurry to return to Janglikh and complete the trek, while she wanted us to go slow, but I apologized to her for me overstepping my boundary. The trek was not possible without the assistance of the campsite staff and the slope managers who opened the trail for us.

We look forward to doing another trek with Indiahikes again.