“Hasimar“… TIK asked why is it called Hasimar and i had to shrug my shoulders.. Now that i am back from there, i still don’t know why is it called so :) .. More surprisingly, local people we met living in villages nearby were unaware of it too.. All they know is that he is their “peer” that should to be visited and paid homage to in case of any need.
The track starts from Pir-Chinasi which is at a height of 2800m from sea level. A metalled road from Muzaffarabad takes around 1.5 hrs to reach Pir-chinasi which is called so because of shrine of Pir Shah Bukhari there. While the crow flight distance from chanasi to hassimar is not more than 7km, the track becomes around 16km as it goes towards east first along the ridge and then turns right towards the peak. It took us around 6 hrs from there to reach the top of Pir Hassimar(3200m) from where one can have an awesome panoramic view of the whole area and surroundings. Towards South east is the Line of Control not further than 15-20 km. Qazi-Nag and other peaks owned by India in the occupied kashmir are visible in that direction. Towards west river Jehlum flows and one can trek down towards Garhi Dopatta in that direction. Alternatively towards North east, flows the Neelum river and one can trek down to Noseri or Daewlian the path we opted. The track towards Daewlian passes through some lush green meadows and dense pine forest. It took us a total of 11hrs to reach down to main Neelum road with 2hrs walk on the first day and 9hrs on the second.
On the whole, it is an extremely beautiful and comparitively “un-explored” area and i recommend doing it as it can easily be managed in limited number of days. If one has got more time, dropping down to Leepa via Hariala is another option that could add a couple of more days to the program. In this case a local guide is a must to remain away from the Indian soldiers :-)
The actual name of the peak is “Seemaar” but due to a sufi saint going there for his prayers, was known as peer hassimar from seemar.
We recently returned from a trip to the same area. We met a person at the shrine on top of Pir-Chinasi who claimed to be a descendant of Pir Sahib. According to him, names of the peak arise from the following words.
Chan Aasi :
These words are familiar to us all. Chan means friend and aasi means “will come”. Pir sahib died there waiting for a friend who had gone ahead further into the mountains.
Aasi Mar :
Aasi is from the Urdu word “aasa” or the walking stick. According the person there was no spring on the mountain top before pir sahib’s era. It started flowing when pir sahib struck his stick on ground on the request of the locals, who needed water for their cattle.