Nanga Parbat Rupal Face Trek

Duration: 6 Days
Distance: 37 Km
Standard: Easy
Season: June ~ October
Start / Finish: TARASHING
Zone & permit: Open
Public Transport: Yes

Summary: A Quick approach through lovely meadows leads to the base camp of NANGA PARBAT’s enormous RUPAL face.

NANGA PARBAT’s awesome south or RUPAL face rises 4572m from the floor of the RUPAL GAH, creating the greatest vertical rise from base camp to summit of any peak. The easy trails and two short no technical glacier crossings bring you directly beneath it for breathtaking close-up views, is less frequently visited than fairy meadows.

Guide & Porters
It’s prudent to hire a reputable, licensed guide who is accustomed to dealing with RUPAL porters and villagers. Porters come from TARASHING and CHORIT, which have decided that an equal number of porters for any party are to be from each village. This holds true even if you have just two porters. Porters, who transport loads on donkeys, ask for a flat rate of Rs.300 per stage, including payment for food rations and expect large parties to buy a goat at SHAIGIRI.

Stages
It’s a six stages total round trip from TARASHING:
1. HERRLIGKOFFER Base Camp
2. LATBOH
3. SHAIGIRI & (4-6) there stages to return via the same route.

Nearest Village:
TARASHING

Hotels / Rest Houses:
NANGA PARBAT TOURIST COTTAGE: owned by Mohammed Ashraf, has a large garden. The Camping fee is Rs.100 and rooms cost Rs.250 ~ 400.

HOTEL NANGA PARBAT: has a Rs.100 camping fee and rooms cost Rs.200 ~ 300.

Unless you organize a Gilgit ~ TARASHING special hire (Rs 2500/4000 one way / return), it’s necessary to change transport in Astor. The narrow jeep road to Astor leaves the KKH at Jaglot, 60Km south of Gilgit and 30Km north of Raikot Bridge, crossing a bridge over the Indus river and heading 40Km south – east up the Astor Valley skirting NANGA Parbat’s north east flank. Gilgit ~ Astor jeeps (Rs 100, three to four hours) go all day from Gilgit’s Jaglot bus stand on Domyal Link Road. Gilgit ~ Ator special hires cost Rs 1200 ~ 1500 one way. Astor ~ TARASHING Jeeps cost Rs. 50 (two hours) and special hires cost Rs 1000.

THE TREK:

Day 1: TARASHING to HERRLIGKOFFER Base Camp
5 Hours, 10 Km, 639m Ascent

From TARASHING (2911m) climbs the TARASHING Glacier’s lateral moraine, near the village’s north edge, and crosses the glacier on a trail, continues up to the gentle valley through RUPAL village.

Rising gradually through RUPAL’s lush fields, the trail follows the valley’s north side up a narrow green valley, through groves of willow, poplar and juniper then you pass a small lake and round a corner of the BAZHIN camp, a flat, green meadows between the lateral moraine of the BAZHIN Glacier and the mountain. Ahead towers the solid ice wall of the east face of NANGA PARBAT. This is a perfect campsite with clear spring water, a wood full of birds this spot is called HERRLIGKOFFER Base Camp (3550m), a beautiful, although much used meadows along the BAZHIN Glacier’s east margin. The camp site is named after Dr. Karl M HERRLIGKOFFER the leader of eight German expeditions to NANGA PARBAT, including the first successful expedition in 1953.

A side trip of several hours up this ablation valley leads to a point on the moraine directly above the BAZHIN Glacier and across from icefall coming from the summit.

Day 2: HERRLIGKOFFER Base Camp to LATBOH
4 Hours, 3 Km, 20m descent

Crosses the BAZHIN Glacier over a trail in 1½ hours along a donkey path, the local shepherds come and go frequently, so you can follow their path or them but be careful there will be a lot of hidden crevasses and you can listen to the voice of flowing of under ground water so you must walk slowly and don’t stop at the BAZHIN Glacier. From the top of the lateral moraine on the western side you look down on a huge grassy field known as LATBOH (3530m), the broad level meadows frequently by RUPAL herders. LATBOH is also known as TUPP Meadows because it’s like a TUPP which must once have been the bed of a lake. Herds of horses, sheep and goats graze in the centre. The summer villagers churn butter in goatskins and spin sheep wool while they sit and chat, offering bread and buttermilk (LASSI) to visitors.

Day 3: LATBOH to SHAIGIRI
4 Hours, 5.5Km, 125m ascent

A further two hour takes you around the end of a second moraine, with a lake on the top (Basically this Lake is less frequently visited & has no name and it exists at the foot of NANGA PARBAT so that is why I gave it a name “NANGA PARBAT Lake”) to another broad field, LATBOI (meaning stony place) also called second Base Camp, with a summer settlement on one side, from here the path climbs gently over some moraine then follows the north bank of the river through the woods to SHAIGIRI (meaning “white stone” in Shina) 30 minutes away. This is a good campsite at about 3660 meters, with fresh water, firewood and superb views of the south face of NANGA PARBAT.

Day 4 ~ 5: SHAIGIRI to TARASHING
2 days, 18.5Km, 744m descent
Retrace steps to TARASHING, Camping at base camp on day 4.