At around 4,173 metres, Babusar is one of the great high crossings of the Pakistani north, and the satisfaction of reaching it is slightly out of proportion to the hardware you find at the top: a gate, a few tea stalls, some prayer flags and rocks, and a wind that could take your hat to the next valley. The pass links the Kaghan Valley with the Indus gorge at Chilas, on the Karakoram Highway, and it has served as a shortcut between the two for centuries. Traders, herders and later military patrols all used the crossing, and its name is tied to that older traffic.
The road up from the Kaghan side comes through the bleak, open uplands past Lulusar Lake, a gradual climb with the occasional steep section, and you feel the air thin as you go. The other side is the dramatic one. The descent toward Chilas drops in a long series of hairpins down a bare, brown mountainside, with huge views over the valley and, when the haze permits, Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, standing far off to the north. The surface is paved but battered by snow and rockfall, so keep your speed down, stay wide of the drops, and expect to meet buses, jeeps and trucks coming around the bends.
The pass is a summer road, usually open from about June to October, and it can close suddenly after snow. Always check locally before committing to it, since conditions vary from season to season and from one week to the next. Late summer mornings tend to be clearest. Weather at 4,000 metres is not forgiving: a sunny start can end in cold rain, and headaches and breathlessness are real, so take your time and spend a few minutes at the top acclimatising before pushing on.
Fill at Naran before you climb, or at Chilas if you are coming from the other side, and carry a spare can because the distance between pumps is long on rough roads. Tea, noodles and biscuits can be had from stalls at the summit when the season is on. It is a basic stop, but the combination of altitude and open mountains makes it a place riders remember long after the details of the road have faded.