Now the newly reopened Neelum Valley road is precarious gravel. Rocks loosened by the quake can rain down at any time on its brisk traffic of buses painted in psychedelic colors, shepherds and villagers carrying provisions on their heads.

After Pakistani debris-clearing crews opened the road for traffic this week, two small buses plummeted from the trail, killing 14 people.

Still, villagers isolated for nearly six weeks after the quake - each with a tale of tragic loss - say the road is a lifeline to needed supplies. It’s the last major artery to reopen into the regional hub of Muzaffarabad. Aid agencies say it’s still too dangerous to use.

“When they say it’s open, yes, the majority of the landslides have been cleared, but it’s quite risky,” World Food Program logistics officer Anthony Freeman said Wednesday.

“Flying over it, it still looks pretty scary. I certainly don’t want to put a truck on there and lose the truck,” he said.

At a bend outside Muzaffarabad, villagers sit beside tents, blankets and sacks of food donated by aid agencies, waiting for a ride from privately operated jeeps and pickups converted into buses. They’re typically jammed with people standing inside, clinging outside and even sitting on top.

Or they go on foot with supplies on their head, like 50-year-old Mohammed Nazir, making his way to his village of Arkutli where he lost his grandson and niece to the quake, which killed an estimated 87,000 people overall. He said he worried constantly about the earth shaking loose again along the way, but needed to haul batteries, fruit and rice.

“There’s no peace. My heart beats harder,” he said. “I still have nightmares about the earthquake.”

The road cuts through terrain just outside Muzaffarabad that seems extraterrestrial.

The quake sheared off soil and trees, leaving bare cliffs that shed silt, accumulating in fan shapes like a vertical Sahara above the Neelum River.

At active slides, bits of gravel come ticking down, or a whole section of silt shifts with a sizzle, or a broader slide descends with a whoosh, raining rocks and raising a mass of dust that hangs over the river like a cloud.

The road heads north out of Muzaffarabad before bending west toward the disputed frontier with India, where cross-border fire raged before the two sides agreed to a cease-fire two years ago. It then heads northwest. In all, a 100-kilometer (65-mile) stretch, to the town of Dewarian, opened this week.

The two accidents prompted authorities to impose new limits on passengers and bar private vehicles after dark.

Sometimes swarms of livestock halt the traffic, though sheepherder Habibullah said he travels by night to avoid vehicles. He was at a small wooded area with his flock and sons, heading to Muzaffarabad. The quake killed 15 relatives in his village of Talgran.

“I lost 60 sheep in the earthquake,” said Habibullah, who goes by one name. “The trail is difficult, but thank God I have not yet lost any to the slides.”