August 2018
Askoli-Concordia-Gondogoro La-Hushe
Many years ago when I was on the Makalu trek I had met a guy who had called K2 base camp the most beautiful place he had ever been to. Visiting Pakistan felt like a faraway dream back then, maybe even impossible. I however never forget what he had said and was excited now I could finally put his claim to the test.
Having done this trek I see where the stories come from. The perpendicular mountains rising up from the massive Baltoro glacier are unbelievable. The roughness and steepness of the terrain is without compare. These must be worlds toughest mountains to climb, all ruled by the lone K2 peak towering over the glaciers near Concordia.
The trek is a bit touristy (for Pakistani standards), but since it is all camping based and since it is over 60 kilometers from the nearest village the Baltoro has kept its sense of remoteness.
The first stage of the trek follows an easy trail over the valley floor all the way up he Baltoro glacier to the viewpoint Concordia. From this point you find yourself between four of world’s 8000 meter peaks with K2 in the main role. The second stage crosses the steep Gondogoro la. A rather adventurous pass with fixed rope on both sides.
Season
Trekking to Concordia can probably be done year round. In order to cross Gondogoro la under reasonable circumstances one should however make the attempt between June and the end of September.
Packing list
Since Gondogoro la is nowadays equiped with fixed ropes you will not be needing any technical equipment whatsoever. Thanks to the ropes you can simply climb over the pass using nothing but your hiking boots. Since a well trodden track should be in place roping up is also not really needed on this trek. Leave your technical gear at home I would say.
On the way there are quite some opportunities to buy food at the camping places. No official shops, but if your group is small the camping management can always share and sell you some stufff. Only at Gore2 and Concordia nothing seems to be available. You will need to bring some food yourself, but what I’m saying is that you can count on supplementing it with what you find on the way. I would say bring about half of the food you think you will need.
Camping gear is absolutely required.
Getting there
The trek begins from Askoli. It is actually quite hell to get there from Islamabad by road. First you will need to engage on a shaky 18 hour bus drive from Islamabad to Gilgit. After this comes a 7 hour drive to Skardu after which you will need to get a private vehicle to finish the drive to Askoli in another 6 hours. No matter how you play it, this is going to take you 3 days.
You can save some and injury time by flying to Skardu.
Alternatives
Due to the steepness of the terrain there are fewer passes around than you might expect. The only pass I know of aside from The Gondogoro la is the Masherbrum pass. This pass forms an alternative for the Gondogoro la, also taking you to the Hushe valley. This pass is seldom crossed and for people who want to experience what Gondogoro la would have felt like before it got overrun by tourists.
Day 1
Two days before my sister Roos, my guide Wahid and I had arrived in Askoli after a tough two weeks trek across Lupke la. Yesterday we had washed, resupplied, rested and explored the village, but today it was time to set out again.
We started the day with low expectations. We knew it was a long way to reach the Baltoro glacier and before that time we did not expect much from the scenery. This assumption was correct. Today we just followed the Baltoro river upstream through a deep valley.
It was hot beyond imagining on the valley floor. To make matters worse there was, aside of course from the muddy roaring waters of the river next to us, not much clean water available. I was glad when we arrived at our campsite. Though it had been a very short day the heat had really wore me out. The rest of the day we relaxed in the shadows of the trees and enjoyed the presence of fresh water.
In the evening we could join the porters of a British man for dinner. We had the feeling that this might be going to occur a lot, so we dumped some of our own food.
Day 2
Today was much like the last. We followed the river upstream and sweat our asses off. The scenery was not to write home about just arid slopes rising up from the river. Only at the campsite when the start of the Baltoro glacier became visible things started to get more interesting. The valley broadened up a little and the sharp peaks rising up from the glacier were downright spectacular.
At the camping place Paiju an entire village worth of tents was erected that night. There were only three groups there, but as everyone seemed to hire around 20 porters it was quite a crowd. Of course we were invited for dinner and did not have to cook ourselves that night.
Day 3
It was hot as usual. We made it up to the moraine filled Baltoro and made over the glacier. Unlike the glaciers we had traversed around Lupke la the going was easy here. There was a good trail and the moraines did not lay as loose as we were used to.
Our camping spot Urdokas was a beautiful spot next to the glacier. It had a stream, some bushes and an amazing view south over the relentless peaks. K2 and the other 8000 meter peaks were however still nowhere to be seen. My mother sent my messages that the weather would deteriorate soon so we might not be able to see it at all.
Day 4
The weather started out with high clouds. Clouds that were quickly comming down. The hiking was straightforward, we just needed to keep following over the faint trail. Clouds rolled in from down the valley and rain started to fall. We reached Gore2 at around noon. Most people stay overnight here, but as worse weather might be on it’s way I decided to push through all the way to Concordia today. My sister was not too happy with this. She had been feeling sick, but thought could take another few hours of hiking.
The way to Concordia was easy, but the rain grew worse and worse. At some point we took shelter in a kitchen tent of another group for a while to wait the worst bits out. The mountains around us were completely hulled in the clouds and I strated to doubt whether I would even catch a glimpse of the famed K2.
My fears of missing out on the mountains in Concordia turned out to be unjustified. In the evening the clouds suddenly started to break. First we could only see small parts of K2 but gradually over the next hour the mountain showed itself in full glory. The view over the many isolated 8000 and 7000 meter peaks was glorious. This is indeed one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Day 5
The evening before the inevitable happened, my sister fell ill. Our tent was under the vomit and it rained cats and dogs. The only positive thing was that my sister felt better than the evening before. If the rains would finally ease we could get on our way to Ali camp at the base of Gondogoro la. I was in a hurry as, according to the forecast, tomorrow morning would see the only good weather that could be expected in a long long time.
It kept on drizzling and we did not leave till 11am. Till that time we camped in kitchen tents and tried to wash whatever could be washed as well as we could in the freezing water. Goes without saying that this morning was one of the most miserable in my life.
The way to Ali camp was short and easy, but Roos health condition made it hard enough. First we needed to climb over some steeper moraine filled glacial wrinkles. Unfortunately now without a trail. After we met the side valley leading up to Ali camp the glacier turned white and it was just a matter of following the amost flat glacier up to Ali camp.
Ali camp itself is a rocky place next to the glacier offering room for a couple of tents. There are some locals there who assist people crossing the pass. We hang out, ate and sang with them for the rest of the day.
In the evening we ate with a small Pakistani group that we had met in the morning. We decided to cross the pass together and leave tomorrow at 1am. We needed to cross the pass early in the day as the south side of the Gondogoro has a reputation of falling rocks especially when the ice starts to melt.
Day 6
We rose at 12:30 and were on our way at 1:30. The weather was, for the first time in the last two days somewhat reasonable. Our local guide was apparently in a hurry, before we knew it we had already lost sight of him. Het stopped two times to wait for the rest. Once we made it to the base of the pass itself we had to start our steep climb via fixed rope. From here our local guide spurted in one go all the way to the top, only my sister and Wahid were able to catch up. The Pakistani and me followed long after.
It was an impressive climb up through steep snow and crevices. Unfortunately it clouded up and we had to walk completely in the dark. Right before I made it to the pass the sun rose and the view showed. It was very cloudy, but K2, the Gasherbrums and Broadpeak were visible in the distance north. Towards the south the mountains even lay free of any clouds. I praised myself lucky with the view I had, this could have been much worse.
We were all glad that we could say goodbye to our local guide who had annoyed the shit out of everyone and started our descent. I knew the descent had the reputation of being steep with many loose rocks. This reputation was well earned. On the ascend the fixed rope had been somewhat superfluous, but is was really wanted for on this side. Slowly we descended the by times 50 to 60 percent rock slopes, often hanging on the ropes with our backs down. The descent seemed endless I could not wait for the last fixed rope.
Once we finally made it down to a normal trail I was pretty exhausted, thirsty and tired from the early rising. The weather was clearing up and before we knew it we were starting to doze off in the sun. We knew the next campsite was less then half an hour away, but yet we could not help but doze of next to the trail. We found ourselves in a classic alpine valley, meadows, a glacier and sharp peaks. It was simply too idyllic not to relax. When the cook of the Pakistani group came to encourage us to go to the campsite and tempted us with the wonderful shop that would be down there we packed our stuff and finished today’s hike.
Day 7
We could easily make it to Hushe today, but as we had yet quite some time left and since the Hushe valley was such a nice place to be I did not really feel like pressing on. Rather I would like to stay in Shaisho at the foot of the glacier.
It was a beautiful short day over and then next to the glacier. The massive icewalls south kept catching my imagination. Later on the flowers kicked in. I enjoyed the fact that I had traveresed the full central Karakoram last month and the rain that started the kick in at around 10am could not ruin my mood.
By the time we reached Saisho it had started to truly poor and we were happy to be able to sit under a pent waiting for ar french fries. For real french fries!
Day 8
Te weather remained poor. A good thing we were leaving the mountains. In about 2-3 hours we completed our trek over an easy and flat trail to Hushe.
Hushe was a small rather dirty village with a school but not much else, not even mobile reach or Internet. Birth control not seemed to be a thing round here, the population under 10 seemed to outnumber the rest of the populous 4 to 1.
Last frontiers on foot 