Gulam Hassan
Sopore: few days back a team of Cliffhangers Asia led by Mohammad Arif Alas (Arif Mountaineer) along with Himayun Malik (an experienced mountaineer cum climber), Junaid Wani, Mehraj ud din Gami, Shabir Ahmed, Fayaz Ahmad, Zahid Wani and Nazir Raina. Himayun Malik an experienced Mountaineer from sopore, while narrating the story about the Expedition said, After the death of Adil Shah at Mount Kolahoi, across the state the people were in fear, and very reluctant to even think about trekking , climbing or even talking about the mountains and alpine regions of state. But we took initiative and decided to trek on the same route which Adil took in 2017 Summer. He said it was late September and noone is to be seen in the area except bears black and brown preparing for the winter hibernation as the entire area is known as kingdom of bears. (Bear valley). Trekking is this month of the year to the foothills of Mount Kholai is very difficult as the weather is very unpredictable and no external support is available after the last village of sarbal one gets cut off from the rest of the world as there is no permission to carry smart phones do to the security reasons. Sarbal is the last village of Kashmir valley on sonamarg side, he said they have explored the Durinaar Lake , which is at 4171m then Nilnag Lake at 4270 Kolahoi Pass , Mount Crystal Peak, Mount In nominate Mount Walehead and Thajwas Wildlife Sanctuary, after climbing the rock walls and traversing the Glaciers they finally reached the Barafsar lake at Altitude of 15100 ft. it was the feeling of lifetime mesmerising view of Mount Kolahoi next to it Mount Walehead and Crystal Peak soon after the Summit the weather turn and snow fall stated, that was the moment entire group decided to descend it was around 8:30 pm when the last man reached the base at 3300mtrs. he said that his next expedition with cliffhangersasia will be the summit the Mount Walehead. We have lot of potential for adventure tourism in Valley, we need to promote at a very high level, tourism department especially Mr. Mahmood Ahmad Shah Ex Director a tracker Himself has given a kick start from last few years, it is because of him we have been able to venture this far, in my town Sopore Damna Adventure has taking an initiative to promote adventure sports, but lot needs to be done to develop the infrastructure equipments especially rescue and communication. So that the foreign adventure lovers can come in numbers.
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