Skardu Baltoro Glacier and Concordia Trek
Trek the Baltoro Glacier to Concordia — the 16-day round trip through the Karakoram wilderness considered one of the world's great trekking experiences, passing the granite towers of Trango and Cathedral, camping on the glacier ice, and reaching the Concordia amphitheater where K2, Broad Peak, and four Gasherbrum peaks rise above the greatest concentration of high mountains on earth.
- 1
Askole Last Village
Askole at the end of the jeep track — the last permanent settlement before the glacier wilderness, the village where trekking parties hire their porters and load the camping equipment onto backs and heads, the community of Baltistani men whose skills and knowledge make the Baltoro trek possible for international visitors.
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Jhola First Glacier Camp
The first glacier camp at Jhola — where the trail leaves the moraine and the scale of the Baltoro becomes apparent, the glacier stretching ahead for 60 kilometers between mountain walls that include some of the highest peaks on earth, the camp on the ablation valley beside the moving ice.
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Trango Towers View
The view of the Trango Towers from the glacier — the greatest concentration of sheer rock faces in the world rising above the glacier, the Nameless Tower's 1,000-meter vertical rock face and the Cathedral peaks creating a skyline that has drawn the world's finest rock climbers to these remote Karakoram walls.
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Goro II Glacier Camp
Camp at Goro II on the glacier surface — tents pitched on the rocky moraine covering the ice, the glacier creaking and groaning through the night, the temperature dropping to -10°C even in summer, the porters cooking chapati on kerosene stoves, the camp a working community supporting the most demanding trail in Pakistan.
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Concordia Amphitheater
Concordia — the 'throne room of the mountain gods', the junction of four glaciers where K2 (8,611m) dominates the northern view, Broad Peak fills the east, and the four Gasherbrum peaks close the southern horizon, the greatest concentration of 8,000-meter peaks visible from any single point on earth.
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K2 Base Camp View
The approach toward K2 Base Camp from Concordia — the final approach to the base of the world's second highest and most dangerous mountain, the route across the upper Baltoro glacier toward the Godwin-Austen Glacier below the south face of K2, the mountain growing larger with every step.