Unimog (DeeMog and BeeMog) at highest altitude!!

[DeeDee]

hi everyone. please share your experience or knowledge on what is the highest point where Unimog has gone.... specially 421....

i have been through in northern Pakistan last week on my 421.129 and my friends 421.128 and we crossed 13000f above passes 4 times and highest of them all was Butogah top 14200f....


Travel log:

Team UNIMOG Punga in North 2010 – DeeMog & BeeMog via Babusar Pass-Sheosar Lake Deosai – Burzil Pass – Minimerg – Butogah Pass

July 15th – July 21st 2010
2 Unimogs carrying 12 Jays in 7 days had most thrilling and adventurous drive of the lifetime by passing through the 4 highest motorable passes of Pakistan (4000 Meters +) which are definitely falls in the Top 15 Motorable passes of the world, Top 3 are probably in Tibet & Ladakh. Another unique achievement of the Team Unimog was that DeeMog & BeeMog were the first mogs which have visited Shoesar lake Deosai (13600 feet), the 1st mog through Burzil pass (13500 feet), Butogah Pass (14200 feet) and I am not sure about Babusar Pass (13700 feet)

Each day we had 15Hrs of drive covering 1700KM in 7 days and quarter of that mileage was off-road in low revs pulling jays on the high altitude to breath light air J & descending on the sharp curves. We descended approximately 6000 feet from Burzil Pass to Minimerg in less than 10KMs, it was the trust on mog’s pulling power which kept us moving. From Minimerg onwards DeeMog only knew the way forward and there was no turning back till Islamabad J thanks to excellent turning circle of Unimog which proved enough on the sharpest of curves.

Track to Butogah was most adventurous, the valley above chilas with old gigantic maple trees on the road side was a pleasure to watch and the cold water was too good for refreshing up the jays. We started that day very late at 11:30am, SK & Asad Marwat from IJC gave us the directions, we reached Naran in the midnight and jays skipped 2 meals. Apart from thrill of off-road, while on our way up-hill to Butogah the trek was blocked by a enormous tree having atleast 2 times weight of our unimogs, which was toed and pulled by Unimog to clear the road for us & local Tractor walas carrying baraf from Butoagh to Chilass. Mog pulled that tree with an ease by displaying immense pulling power it is known for. Rainfall started when we reached Butogah summit and it continued on our drive till Naran, rain made the descend slippery and more technical and we were literally crawling on the descend and Jays were quietly enjoying the extremely cold rainy winds and on water cross (12:15am), after a 15min trek search by DeeDee, Fateh & Kashif, it went well for BeeMog but DeeMog was 200 yards back and it got deviated from the track, thanks to high air intake and it swim smoothly and followed BeeMog lights in the straight line J.

Team Unimog

1. Adeel Khalid aka DeeDee urf Tour Operator
2. Basharat Ullah Khan aka Basheera Side Slope
3. Kashif Qayyum Khan aka Fihsak
4. Fatah Ullah Khan aka Ustaad DIY
5. Nabeel Ahmed Zafar aka Sharmindaey Tabeer
6. Malik Muhammad Umer from Media Manager
7. Shehzada Umer Naseer aka Aa ub loat chalain
8. Atta Ur Rehman aka Freeman
9. Zarar bin Zubair Mian aka Time Keeper
10. Nasir Ahmed Khan aka Acha Larka
11. Mian Zia Ul Haq aka Sakoon.com
12. Farooq Malik aka Sleeping Beauty

Preparation:-
The chain email for K in North planning started much before the trip to decide when to go and where to go, how many KM would we be covering and what would be Unimog drive time for the same, we missed Guru Gee in the trip who was part of the planning team. Outcome of that email was a long list to prepare our mogs for North, few international forums helped us on the most critical things to do and rest was the local experience from mogging in ravi & trip to Neelam via Nurinar back in 2008. We distributed the tasks e.g. I built a Unimog toolkit which had everything we needed & DeeDee prepared a box of spare parts and each one of them was used, also a medical kit. Nabeel was taking care of food & grocery items, Janj assisted us in the tin packing of boneless chicken and aloo keema, Fatah assisted us in completing the pending jobs on Bee & Dee Mogs, hunting dala frame in the last week for DeeMog & Ustaad Pima did the magic by stitching the parachute for both the rides and we were ready to assemble on July 15th @ 0005hrs J

[SuperCal]

Cool stuff... That last pic with the lake in it looks amazing ...

[DeeDee]

thx SuperCal..... one of the highest lake on earth is 13589feet above sea level, situated in Deosai National Park, Pakistan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheosar_Lake

[Corey]

Beautiful scenery and Mogs.

[Lyrch75]

Beautiful scenery and Mogs.

No doubt, the lake is amzing

[dusseldorp]

Congratulations, good to know that the older Unimogs with only 60 HP are capable to cross :smiley_drive:such highnesses without any problems. Hre is Gaggenau, we do have a lot of the 52 HP U421 versions, but they were mainly used for taking wood out of the forest. All the best to you all!


hi everyone. please share your experience or knowledge on what is the highest point where Unimog has gone.... specially 421....

i have been through in northern Pakistan last week on my 421.129 and my friends 421.128 and we crossed 13000f above passes 4 times and highest of them all was Butogah top 14100f....

[rhodos]

Hi DeeDee,

our highest was 4200m (around 14000ft) with our 417 Camper (OM352 normal aspirated, no turbo) - was during our 9 month trip in Mexico.

bye, Werner

[DeeDee]

on our way to Botugah pass.....

[DeeDee]

thx Corey and yes Lyrch75 the first view of lake was heart stopping..... really awesome place and enjoyed the mogging as well :)


No doubt, the lake is amzing

[DeeDee]

the HP was indeed a question mark before leaving for such heights but believe me we had no problem or chocking in conquering these heights.... :victory:

we have some DIYs that i will share soon....


Congratulations, good to know that the older Unimogs with only 60 HP are capable to cross :smiley_drive:such highnesses without any problems. Hre is Gaggenau, we do have a lot of the 52 HP U421 versions, but they were mainly used for taking wood out of the forest. All the best to you all!

[DeeDee]

Hi rhodos,

thanks for sharing and OM352 non turbo is my love..... dont know if i could get em installed in my 421.129 or not.... i think not :(

guys please share the highest altitude Unimog been through.... or any word from history will also work...




Hi DeeDee,

our highest was 4200m (around 14000ft) with our 417 Camper (OM352 normal aspirated, no turbo) - was during our 9 month trip in Mexico.

bye, Werner

[DeeDee]

It took us to wait for whole night to get water flow at a passable level.....

[DeeDee]

Last one and a half mile before Butogah was very very narrow and thrilling :smiley_drive:

[haven]

Welcome to ExPo, DeeDee! Thanks for sharing this amazing adventure.

I found a recent thread on the PakWheels forum that talks about the
region of Pakistan that you visited. The link to the discussion is
http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/road-trips-vacations/142073-babusar-chillas-road-trek-help-needed

The discussion includes two maps, which I copied below to help ExPo
members get an idea where this expedition took place. The first is a
Google Earth photo overlaid with the route to the passes added. In this
photo, north is to the left.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z241/expeditioncampers/KaghanValleytoChillas.jpg

(On the map, KKH refers to the Karakoram Highway, the highest paved road that crosses
an international frontier. At least it used to. A massive landslide earlier this year blocked
the road at Karimabad in the Hunza Valley. The Boston.com web site has a good set
of photos of the disaster and its aftermath.
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/06/landslide_lake_in_pakistan.html
DeeDee, can you tell us more about the plans to open KKH to vehicles again?)

The second is a map from Khyber.org. In this map, north is at the top. Batugah on the
map above is referred to as Botuka in the map below.

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z241/expeditioncampers/Mapkaghanvalley.jpg

[DeeDee]

and thanks for your interest in northern Pakistan..... here is another link laying out the track of Butogah.... Butogah is going parallel to Babusar and both end in Chillas.... actually on our way up to Deosai we took Babusar Pass relatively easier track than Butogah and on our way back we took Butogah (the pure off road track, mostly rocky and narrow) and the view from top is unexplainable rather pictures may not tell the true beauty....

http://wikimapia.org/#lat=35.1689672&lon=73.9787579&z=14&l=44&m=b

haven.... KKH is meant to be open and just cant remain close, too many lives have been sacrifice to make this route.... its been planed to either make an alternate route to bypass the Attabad lake or comparative study on opening up the face of lake is also underway....

haven.... you having interest in crossing the silk route (KKH).... let me know will keep you posted...

....... haven can you guide me where am wrong on posting pictures..... why is only link to pictures is showing and not the picture in this thread.....

[Iain_U1250]

HI Deemog - welcome to Expo - I would love to travel around your area - looks like a nice adventure.

Great build thread on Pakwheels as well.

[DeeDee]

@Iain_U1250
thanks dude and will definitely hear your plan on visit to Pakistan Northern area... Welcome :)

[DeeDee]

http://www.youtube.com/user/aimernad#p/a/u/1/0SFGQrvzz9U

also watch and comment on full show at following thread....
http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/4x4-clubs-off-roaders-suv/143564-team-unimog-punga-2010-elevation-14200ft-via-babusar-sheosar-burzil-minimerg-butogah

[Tennmogger]

You asked about highest points driven in a UNIMOG. 14,500 feet ASL plus in Colorado has been routine. See trip reports here:

http://www.rockymountainmoggers.com/19991031.html
http://www.rockymountainmoggers.com/2003011718.html

and many others.

We've had many 404's, 406's, 416's, and larger 1250's, 1300's etc, up there. No problems with the mogs, just with deep snow and a long way to fall if a mistake is made!

Bob

[Hilmar]

My highest points driven in an UNIMOG.
Paso Agua Negra (4721 m = 15489 ft) Argentina/Chile


Hilmar

[DeeDee]

@Tennmogger
thanks for sharing and i just watched your thread and noticed a mettled road to the top....:smiley_drive:

to the lighter side we just did it on basic model of 421 and we did a river crossing while going down from Butogah top (mid night).... we had no other choice but to do the Mog rafting in the river because the bridge was smashed..... again by Gods blessing Mogs did the job quite impressively....

will upload more pictures soon.... sorry for not active on this thread because we are currently involved in relief activities in flood effected area..... Indus River smashed all bridges and it is the event of biggest disaster in our country....
rgds
Adeel


You asked about highest points driven in a UNIMOG. 14,500 feet ASL plus in Colorado has been routine. See trip reports here:

http://www.rockymountainmoggers.com/19991031.html
http://www.rockymountainmoggers.com/2003011718.html

and many others.

We've had many 404's, 406's, 416's, and larger 1250's, 1300's etc, up there. No problems with the mogs, just with deep snow and a long way to fall if a mistake is made!

Bob

[DeeDee]

@Hilmar
lovely pictures sir and you know what i would be thinking reaching the highest point "lets check if i can still smoke at this altitude" :)


My highest points driven in an UNIMOG.
Paso Agua Negra (4721 m = 15489 ft) Argentina/Chile


Hilmar

[DeeDee]

YouTube- Double Unimog Punga.avi

[DeeDee]

YouTube- Double Unimog Punga.avi

[DeeDee]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfCucWZvSaA&feature=player_embedded

[DeeDee]

Butogah Top 14200ft.... Mogs sounds perfect :victory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRfzhmQKJTo

[DeeDee]

more pics for tour de Naran

[DeeDee]

some more pictures.... Guess the Brad Pitt :)

[DeeDee]

watch more....

[DeeDee]

Nanga Parbat "the killer mountain" and Sheosar lake Deosai

[DeeDee]

Burzil Pass...

[DeeDee]

:victory:

[DeeDee]

Enroute Butogah pass 14200ft

[DeeDee]

log blocking Mogsters way.... we were happy when we reached the blocked track and it took us 15minutes to clear the track for us as well as for local villagers....

[NorCalLC]

Beautiful area, those are some great photos and Mogs. Looks like a great trip

[DeeDee]

Beautiful area, those are some great photos and Mogs. Looks like a great trip

yes sir indeed a FULL package:smiley_drive:.... check out the travel log on page#1

more pictures to come....

cheers
Adeel

[basharatu]

BeeMog reporting :wings: pictures!


more pics for tour de Naran

[basharatu]

Notice the Orange Bedford in the background!


:victory:

[DeeDee]

Notice the Orange Bedford in the background!

Basharatu welcome to EP...

O yes boy Bedford is a classic truck after first generation of trucks and still carries lots of load on Karakaram Highway (silk route) :smiley_drive:.... we cant see them die in coming 2 decades at least :)

[DeeDee]

heading up to Butogah 14200ft.... raw/narrow track.... side slopes were scary....
3 days before the moon soon hits the north Pakistan and flood displaced more than 10million.... all i can say that we were lucky enough to make it home....

[DeeDee]

a mile to Butoga ..... the toughest track we have gone through....

[DeeDee]

getting narrower ....

[DeeDee]

reaching one of the highest pass in Pakistan....
celebrating.... Jayhooooo.....

[DeeDee]

random pictures....

[DeeDee]

.

[Alkazar]

WOW! Thanks for sharing. looks like an awesome adventure. :smiley_drive:

[DeeDee]

WOW! Thanks for sharing. looks like an awesome adventure. :smiley_drive:

thanks Alkazar for nice words... there are more adventurous route still to follow.... Inshallah summer of 2011.... will keep you guys posted....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgYZQuU3vaM&feature=player_embedded#!

[Riptide]

Argh... ..that's it. I have to get me a Mog someday. Most incredible vehicles, ever.

[taco2go]

Just catching up on this thread today. Thanks for sharing your adventures Adeel, quite the elevation. :Wow1: I'll be across the border in Kashmir this March, but nothing as high as those passes. Those pictures around Nanga Parbat are spectacular:

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm264/joashr/Miscellaneous/295.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm264/joashr/Miscellaneous/357.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm264/joashr/Miscellaneous/367.jpg

[Iain_U1250]

Great photos and awesome adventure - I wish we were able to drive through Pakistan on our round the world trip - hopefully things will settle down by the time we start in a few years time.

[basharatu]

Bedford is favorite ride of truckers in Pakistan, they are everywhere and each bit is manufactured locally. Intrestingly the Bedfords running in himalayas, Kashmir and Silkroute are using MB's gearbox mated on Bedford's engine and they are simply unstopable with this upgrade!


Basharatu welcome to EP...

O yes boy Bedford is a classic truck after first generation of trucks and still carries lots of load on Karakaram Highway (silk route) :smiley_drive:.... we cant see them die in coming 2 decades at least :)

[basharatu]

These were the images showing the weather system which developed into the floods :(


heading up to Butogah 14200ft.... raw/narrow track.... side slopes were scary....
3 days before the moon soon hits the north Pakistan and flood displaced more than 10million.... all i can say that we were lucky enough to make it home....

[basharatu]

@NorCalLC, Thank You Bro!


Beautiful area, those are some great photos and Mogs. Looks like a great trip

[basharatu]

Yes Butogah was indeed the toughest track with no support or vehicles other than DeeBeemogs. it was windy -ve & rain started to came down, making the track slippery & our Tyres (LASA) were not soft enough to give enough traction and stock brakes of 421 sucks!

Thanks to crawl control which saved us there :)


a mile to Butoga ..... the toughest track we have gone through....

[basharatu]

I dont know about rest of the world, but if you are in Pakistan then that someday is not faraway, its Military Auction time, the perfect time to buy mogs!


Argh... ..that's it. I have to get me a Mog someday. Most incredible vehicles, ever.

[basharatu]

Yes Hopefully things will settle down. 13 of the Top 20 peaks of the world are in Pakistan & you can see at-least 7 of them by just parking your mog aside, what else one would dream of? I literally feel lucky to be born here & then luckiest to have a UNIMOG here ;).

Plan you trip, BeeMog & DeeMog will escort you through Pakistan, choose your route, if you want to start from south and end up on the silk route and to Chinese border leading to Desert Gobi in Mangolia ;) then there would be interesting lake crossing on the way, Hunza/Gojal lake formed last year due to massive landslide which streches up to 17KM and its freezing cold up there, having Avg depth of 350 feets. Then we will end up on the mighty Khujrab pass, which is up there on the highest mogable passes of the world. :coffeedrink:


Great photos and awesome adventure - I wish we were able to drive through Pakistan on our round the world trip - hopefully things will settle down by the time we start in a few years time.

[basharatu]

@taco2go, Thank you bro. What's your plan for Kashmir? Why not see some areas on there other side as well?

The killer machine with the killer Mountain (Nanga Parbat) is truly a dream shot, credit goes to Adeel for capturing that, perfect!


Just catching up on this thread today. Thanks for sharing your adventures Adeel, quite the elevation. :Wow1: I'll be across the border in Kashmir this March, but nothing as high as those passes. Those pictures around Nanga Parbat are spectacular:

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm264/joashr/Miscellaneous/295.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm264/joashr/Miscellaneous/357.jpg

http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm264/joashr/Miscellaneous/367.jpg

[DeeDee]

o yes we Dee & Bee will escort you to China border for sure.... we will let you know as soon as the route which is blocked due to attabad Lake is open or if there is any diversion to it.... we are also planning a trip to khanjrab pass in summer 2011...


Yes Hopefully things will settle down. 13 of the Top 20 peaks of the world are in Pakistan & you can see at-least 7 of them by just parking your mog aside, what else one would dream of? I literally feel lucky to be born here & then luckiest to have a UNIMOG here ;).

Plan you trip, BeeMog & DeeMog will escort you through Pakistan, choose your route, if you want to start from south and end up on the silk route and to Chinese border leading to Desert Gobi in Mangolia ;) then there would be interesting lake crossing on the way, Hunza/Gojal lake formed last year due to massive landslide which streches up to 17KM and its freezing cold up there, having Avg depth of 350 feets. Then we will end up on the mighty Khujrab pass, which is up there on the highest mogable passes of the world. :coffeedrink:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Iain_U1250
Great photos and awesome adventure - I wish we were able to drive through Pakistan on our round the world trip - hopefully things will settle down by the time we start in a few years time.
__________________

[Iain_U1250]

Thanks guys - we would love to take you up on the offer in a few years. It would be a great experience. We are still building our truck, and will need a year or so of testing around Australia before we head off to Asia.

[DeeDee]

Thanks guys - we would love to take you up on the offer in a few years. It would be a great experience. We are still building our truck, and will need a year or so of testing around Australia before we head off to Asia.

no worries Iain "Mogs are made to last forever" :).... ofcourse will share our experience... and best of luck on your project....

Iain can you share tentative rout plan of your world tour... i know its premature to discuss but curious to know the entry to and exit from Pakistan....

[Iain_U1250]

We are not sure of the route, but a quick look at Google earth - most likely we will enter via China / Xinjiang Province, and probably return to China and head up to Mongolia. I am not sure if this is possible, but who know what things will be like in a few years.

[DeeDee]

We are not sure of the route, but a quick look at Google earth - most likely we will enter via China / Xinjiang Province, and probably return to China and head up to Mongolia. I am not sure if this is possible, but who know what things will be like in a few years.


shall look forward to it :) with my team

[aamir567]

@ DEE DEE

Excellent pictures of Unimogs
Thanx for sharing ur experience

[DeeDee]

http://www.pakwheels.com/forums/4x4-clubs-off-roaders-suv/171898-team-unimog-punga-2011-solitude-altitude

[Fjamming]

Amazing photos! Thanks for sharing those. I love mogs, but have so much to learn yet. Best of luck to you and please keep posting pictures.

[DeeDee]

thanks Fjamming... we will be sharing pictures and VDOs of our 2011 tour de north... soon!

[Iain_U1250]

You guys have been holding out on us - found this on Youtube.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bt_l5aLyzI&feature=player_embedded#!

[DeeDee]

yes Iain we had some thrilling Expeditions in northern Pakistan.... waiting for your world tour to join us for some fun...

i will try to share pictures soon

thanks for digging out :)