In the last week of the season the road over the Jalori is quiet. The tea shops at the top are counting down their stock, and the buses run nearly empty.

We walked up from Shoja on the old path, which cuts the bends of the road through oak and then fir, and reached the pass by noon.

From the top a level trail runs east through the forest to Serolsar, a small lake with a temple on its bank. In the morning there was ice at the edges.

The walk back down is easier in the afternoon light. By the time we reached Shoja the shopkeepers there were talking about where they would spend the winter.