Kalash festivals — Chilam Joshi
Overview
A nine-day journey to the Kalash valleys for Chilam Joshi, the Kalasha spring festival held in May. Road-based and easy in effort, and the most sensitive trip we run.
What Chilam Joshi is
The spring festival, marking the arrival of summer pasture and the start of the year’s cycle. Dancing, milk offerings, new clothes, and the valleys of Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir at their busiest. It is a religious observance for a community of a few thousand people, not a performance.
How we visit
With Kalasha guides, paid directly. The community fee is in your price. We ask before photographing anybody, we do not take groups into the Jestakhan or into funeral observances, and we expect you to listen to the guide when they say no. If that sounds restrictive, it is, and we would rather lose the booking than be the operator that makes the valleys worse.
Festival weeks bring more visitors than the valleys comfortably hold. Uchal in August is the quieter festival. We keep groups small and we go early and quietly.
Dates
Set annually and they move. We do not publish a date on this page, and we will tell you the current one once it is announced rather than guessing. Accommodation around the festival goes early, so this is a trip that wants a long lead time.
When it runs
May, for the festival. The valleys are reachable most of the year through the Lowari tunnel.
What is inside the price
All permits, the Kalash community fee and Kalasha guides paid directly, our own 4x4s and drivers, hotels and guesthouses, all meals, and a guide on our payroll. Medical kit, satellite comms and a published evacuation procedure. See the rest of Chitral and the Kalash valleys and our other cultural journeys.
- Duration
- 7 – 9 days
- Trek days
- 0
- Maximum altitude
- 2,000 m [confirm]
- Grade
- Easy
- Group size
- Max 8
- Guides
- 2 certified, 1 WFR
- Season
- May
- Starts / ends
- Islamabad / Islamabad
- Accommodation
- Hotels in Chitral, guesthouses in the valleys
- Chilam Joshi, the Kalasha spring festival, in the valleys rather than at a distance
- Kalasha guides paid directly, and the community fee inside your price
- A written code for photography and for which spaces groups do not enter
- Groups capped at eight, because festival weeks bring more visitors than the valleys hold
- All three valleys — Bumburet, Rumbur and Birir
Private departures and group pricing
Your party, your dates. The per-person figure falls as the party grows, because the guides, the vehicles and the camp cost the same split more ways. Everything in the inclusions list applies, and the safety standard is the one published above.
| Party size | Price per person | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | USD 3,150 | A full crew for two people |
| 3 – 4 | USD 2,650 | |
| 5 – 8 | USD 2,200 | Second guide joins at six |
Deposit is 25% of the trip price. The payment schedule and the cancellation terms are published and sent with every quote, before you pay anything.
Day by day
Buffer days are built in, not padding. If the weather takes them, nothing downstream collapses and you are not charged twice.
01 Arrive Islamabad Hotel · 540 m
Met inside the terminal. Briefing, SIM and cash.
02 Islamabad to Chitral Hotel
By air when the weather allows, or by road over the Lowari tunnel.
03 Chitral — town, fort and briefing Hotel
The fort and the bazaar, and the briefing on how we visit the valleys before we go into them.
04 Chitral to Bumburet Guesthouse
Into the valleys. Narrow roads and a different world at the end of them.
05 Chilam Joshi — Bumburet Guesthouse
The festival, with Kalasha guides. At their pace, on their terms.
06 Chilam Joshi — Rumbur Guesthouse
The second valley, quieter than Bumburet, and often the better day.
07 Birir, and out to Chitral Hotel
The third and smallest valley, then back out to the town.
08 Chitral — buffer day Hotel
Held against the flight and the Lowari road. Yours if it is not needed.
09 Chitral to Islamabad —
Air or road, and the airport.
What is included
- Visa sponsor letter
- All permits, park fees and NOCs
- Met inside the terminal, all transfers
- Our own 4x4s and drivers
- Certified guides and insured crew
- All meals and accommodation throughout
- Medical kit, oxygen where the route calls for it
- Satellite comms and a daily message home
- International flights
- Visa fee itself
- Travel insurance covering evacuation and repatriation
- Personal equipment
- Tips
If our price is wrong for you we will move you to a lower tier or remove a named inclusion. We do not discount a published price, and we do not cut the crew.
Fitness and difficulty — read this honestly
No fitness requirement and no trekking. The effort is hours in a vehicle on narrow, rough mountain roads, and standing about at the festival.
Declare back trouble — the Kalash valley roads find it. The more important preparation is not physical. You are a guest at a religious observance held by a community of a few thousand people under real pressure, and the single most useful thing you can bring is a willingness to be told no by your guide and not argue.
Kit list
The full list with quantities is sent with your quote. Rental is available in Skardu for most of it, priced separately. Your kit is checked item by item in Islamabad, not the night before the trek.
Group — we provide
- All vehicles, drivers and fuel
- Group first aid
- Satellite phone where there is no mobile signal
Personal — yours
- Layers for a wide temperature range; valley heat and pass cold on the same day
- Comfortable walking shoes for short walks off the road
- Sun hat, sunglasses and sunscreen
- Power bank; mains power is intermittent outside the towns
- Personal medication and a declared medical history
Safety, evacuation and insurance
Helicopter rescue in the Karakoram is not guaranteed. Weather, altitude, daylight and clearance all decide whether a helicopter flies, so every stage carries a named drive-out or walk-out plan. Your insurance must cover helicopter evacuation and repatriation to the maximum altitude on your itinerary, and we verify the certificate before the trip starts.
A graded medical kit sized to the trip, oxygen, a portable altitude chamber, a satellite phone and a messenger, and a wilderness first responder in the crew.
The lead guide’s decision to turn back is final. Not a guest, not an agent, not this office — whatever has been paid.
Getting there
Islamabad
Met inside the terminal. Briefing the same evening, SIM and cash sorted.
Islamabad to Chitral
By air when the weather allows, or by road over the Lowari tunnel. We build a buffer day either way.
On the ground
Our own 4x4s. The Kalash valley roads are rough and narrow and we do not subcontract them.
Questions people actually ask
When exactly is Chilam Joshi?
In May, and the dates are set annually and move. We do not publish a date here and we will tell you the current one once it is announced rather than guessing. Accommodation goes early, so book with a long lead time.
How should we behave?
As guests at a religious observance, because that is what it is. Ask before photographing anybody. We do not take groups into the Jestakhan or into funeral observances, and we expect you to listen when the guide says no.
How many days do I need?
Nine, including a buffer day against the Lowari road and the Chitral flight. Less than that and you spend more time reaching the valleys than being in them.
How fit do I need to be?
Not at all. There is no trekking. The demand is hours in a vehicle on rough roads, so declare back trouble at enquiry.
Is the community fee really in the price?
Yes, and so are the Kalasha guides, paid directly. Neither is an optional extra and neither is something we take a margin on.
Do I need a permit?
There is a community fee for the valleys and foreign visitors are registered at checkposts on the way in. We handle both. Your Pakistan visa is the paperwork that matters.
How high are the valleys?
Low by the standards of everything else we run — well under 2,500 m. Altitude is not a consideration on this trip.
What does it cost and what moves the price?
Party size, which we cap at eight for this trip rather than our usual ten, and whether you travel in or out by air. Festival-week accommodation costs more than the rest of the year. Deposit is 25 per cent.
If this one is not quite right
You have already chosen the region, which is the harder decision. These run from the same roadhead.
- Chitral & Kalash · Jeep safari Chitral and the Kalash valleys