The Unexpected Adventures of Karomber Lake Trek

Posted on December 30, 2018

Karomber lake trek is one of the most diverse treks in northern areas of Pakistan and has many entry and exit points to the lake. It is also one of the most beautiful treks. Karomber lake lies on the boundary of Broghil valley in Chitral and Ishkoman valley in Gilgit Baltistan. The easy and shortest route to Karomber lake is from Chitral side (via Mastuj, Broghil valley).
In 2015 my yearly long trekking plan was to do Karomber lake trek. I had assembled a strong group of 16 members from different cities of Pakistan. All of us had done many treks together except 2 who were friends with one of the member with whom I had done K2-Gondogoro La trek in 2014.
The initial plan was to take the usual route that is to take the Islamabad to Chitral route via Lowari pass. We were supposed to start our trek on 3rd day of Eid-ul-Fitr. Unfortunately as the days of trek came close the monsoon season started picking up and then there were severe flooding in Chitral region which cut off the road communication at many locations between Lowari pass and Mastuj.
Couple of days, before the start of the trek, I decided to cancel our plan because it wasn’t feasible anymore but most of the members had taken leaves from offices so we had to do something at least. I gave few alternate options to the team members but most of them were determined to do the Karomber lake trek. We discussed the alternate routes of Karomber lake trek and decided to do it totally the opposite way of our original plan. The original plan was to explore Broghil valley up to Karomber lake and then exit via Darkot (aka Darkut) pass into Yasin valley. So now we had to start our trekking from Darkot village to cross Darkot pass into Broghil valley.