Gilgit to Fairy Meadows and Nanga Parbat Base
Trek to Fairy Meadows — the alpine meadow at 3,300 meters with the most dramatic view of Nanga Parbat (8,125m), the world's ninth highest mountain and the westernmost of the 8,000-meter peaks, its Rupal face rising 4,600 meters in a single wall — the greatest mountain face on earth — visible from the flower-covered meadow below.
- 1
Raikot Bridge Jeep Track Start
Begin at Raikot Bridge where the jeep track to Fairy Meadows departs from the Karakoram Highway — the notoriously terrifying unmade road climbing 1,500 meters up the mountain flank, the vehicles crawling along a shelf cut into the cliff with drops of hundreds of meters and no barriers.
- 2
Tattu Village Forest
The forest village of Tattu where the jeep track ends and the walking trail to Fairy Meadows begins — the village at the treeline where birch and pine forest begins, the trail climbing through dappled forest with the first views of Nanga Parbat's glaciers appearing through gaps in the trees.
- 3
Fairy Meadows Arrival
Emerge into Fairy Meadows — the alpine meadow that appears to have been placed here specifically to frame the view of Nanga Parbat, the Rakhiot face of the mountain filling the northern horizon, the glaciers cascading from the summit ridge visible in extraordinary detail from this elevated meadow.
- 4
Nanga Parbat Sunrise View
The dawn view from Fairy Meadows when the rising sun strikes the summit of Nanga Parbat first — the peak turning pink and gold while the meadow is still in shadow, the color change moving down the mountain as the sun rises, the Killer Mountain earning a more benign name in the beauty of the alpenglow.
- 5
Nanga Parbat Base Camp Trail
The trail beyond Fairy Meadows toward the Nanga Parbat base camp — the more serious trekking route through the glacial moraine and over the Rakhiot Glacier snout toward the base of the world's most dangerous high mountain, attempted by experienced trekkers with local guide.
- 6
Meadow Wildflowers and Camping
Camp in the meadow among the wildflowers of the Gilgit-Baltistan summer — the alpine flowers that bloom briefly in the short mountain summer, the camping in the meadow with the mountain as backdrop, and the clear mountain nights when the stars above Nanga Parbat are among the most brilliant visible from any inhabited place.