Broad Peak Expedition 8,051 m

Dates & availability

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At a glance

• 48 days, Islamabad to IslamabadNine days in on the Baltoro, thirty-one on the mountain, and a week to get out and home.
• 8,051 m, base camp beside K2'sThe twelfth-highest mountain on earth, on the Godwin-Austen a short walk from the K2 camp.
• Long rather than steepModerate snow and ice — but a corniced summit ridge and a false summit that turns people round.
• Small teams, self-led above base campFull logistics and a licensed guide to base camp. High-altitude support and oxygen quoted separately.
• Baltoro Glacier and ConcordiaJhola, Paiyu, Urdukas, Goro II and Concordia, then base camp beyond it on the Godwin-Austen.
• Hotels either end, tents betweenIslamabad, Chilas and Skardu in hotels; dome tents on the trek and a serviced base camp.
• Mid-June to mid-AugustTwo summer departures, differing in how long the team has on the mountain.

Day by day

1. 1Day 1Arrival in Islamabad

   

   Your guide meets you at Islamabad International Airport and transfers you to the hotel at 540 metres. If the flight lands early there is time for the capital: the vast white Faisal Mosque beneath the Margalla Hills, the granite petals of the Pakistan Monument, and the Lok Virsa museum for the crafts of the northern valleys. In the evening we run the expedition briefing, check insurance and documentation, and eat together.

2. 2Day 2Islamabad to Chilas over the Babusar Pass

   

   North through the Kaghan Valley and over the Babusar Pass at 4,173 metres — six or seven hours to Naran, then three or four more down to Chilas at 1,265 metres. We stop at the top of the pass for as long as people want to stand about in the thin air, which is the point of driving rather than flying: this is the first honest altitude of the trip and it is free. Chilas itself is hot and functional, but the road to it is one of the great mountain drives.

3. 3Day 3Chilas to Skardu along the Indus

   

   Eight or nine hours and 290 kilometres east, the river below and bare rock thousands of metres above it on both sides. We stop where the Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush meet within sight of one another, and again at Thalichi for the view of Nanga Parbat — 8,126 metres, standing clear of everything around it. Beyond Jaglot the road turns into the Karakoram proper. Skardu at 2,228 metres is the staging town for every expedition in this range, and the last place to buy anything.

4. 4Day 4Jeep up the Braldu to Jhola

   Eight or nine hours by jeep through the Shigar Valley and into the Braldu gorge, on a track cut into the wall above the river and fording the Braldu three times. Past Askoli — the last village on this side of the range — the road ends and the porter train forms up. Camp at Jhola, 3,100 metres, in twin-sharing dome tents on a terrace above the water. This is the last night anywhere near a mobile signal.

5. 5Day 5Jhola to Paiyu

   

   Six or seven hours and 16.6 kilometres up the gorge — an undulating walk and a hard one in places, with the side streams best crossed early before the day's meltwater arrives. Cathedral Peak and the Trango Towers appear ahead and stay in view, and somewhere along the way you get your first sight of the Baltoro's snout. Paiyu at 3,450 metres is the last stand of trees before the ice, which makes it the most popular camp on the approach. The porters bake bread here for the days ahead.

6. 6Day 6Paiyu to Urdukas

   Seven or eight hours and 15.9 kilometres, and the day the ground changes for good. We climb onto the Baltoro and begin the relentless rise and fall of glacial moraine, which is safe enough but far more tiring than the distance suggests. Paiyu Peak at 6,610 metres, Uli Biaho at 6,417 and the Great Trango Tower at 6,286 stand over the trail for most of it. Urdukas at 4,050 metres is a grassy shelf about a hundred metres above the ice, and the last vegetation of the walk in.

7. 7Day 7Urdukas — acclimatisation day

   

   A rest day at 4,050 metres, and the one that decides how the rest of the approach goes. There is an optional walk up the slope behind camp for a few hundred metres of height, taken slowly and given back before evening; otherwise it is a day of sitting, drinking more than you think you need, and looking at the Trango Towers. The porters cook their own food and the evening is usually a sociable one. The temptation on a day like this is to feel strong and do more — the people who give in to it are the ones struggling at Concordia.

8. 8Day 8Urdukas to Goro II

   

   Five or six hours and 12.1 kilometres out into the middle of the glacier, following the medial moraine between the ice streams with seracs the size of buildings alongside the trail. This is the day the giants arrive: Masherbrum at 7,821 metres holds the southern skyline, Muztagh Tower at 7,284 comes into view ahead, and Gasherbrum IV at 7,925 begins to close the head of the valley. Camp at Goro II, 4,380 metres, on the ice — and the temperature falls the moment the sun leaves.

9. 9Day 9Goro II to Concordia and on to Broad Peak Base Camp

   

   Five or six hours and 9.2 kilometres to Concordia at 4,650 metres, where the Baltoro, Godwin-Austen and Abruzzi glaciers meet and the whole amphitheatre opens at once — K2 at 8,611 metres straight up the northern branch, Broad Peak beside it, Gasherbrum IV closing the valley, Mitre Peak and Sia Kangri around the rim. There is no view like it anywhere. We continue up the Godwin-Austen to Broad Peak base camp and put the camp up properly: sleeping tents, dining tent, toilet and shower tents, kitchen and generator. Home for the next month, and worth an afternoon spent making your tent somewhere you can actually rest.

10. 10Days 10–40Thirty-one days on the mountain

    

    The climbing period. The west face and ridge are worked in rotations rather than in one push: the route is prepared and fixed camps established, loads are carried, and you sleep progressively higher and drop back to base camp to recover between cycles.

    The ground itself is moderate — long snow and ice slopes rather than technical climbing — and that is exactly why the mountain is misjudged. What decides attempts here is the length of summit day, the wind on the upper mountain, and the discipline to turn round on the summit ridge when the clock says so rather than when the top says so.

    Then the wait. Karakoram weather is less settled than the Himalaya, and a workable window may be short, may come late, or may not come at all. Thirty-one days is enough to make a real attempt with something in reserve, which is what it is for.

    Base camp service runs throughout: cooked meals, hot water, the generator and the satellite phone for emergencies. Everything above base camp is the team's own, unless high-altitude support or oxygen has been booked before you leave Islamabad.

11. 41Days 41–44Down the Baltoro to Jhola

    

    Four days retracing the approach at roughly twice the pace: base camp to Concordia, then Goro II, Urdukas or Paiyu, and Jhola. Camp comes down behind us and the porters carry everything out, waste included, which the national park rules require and which we would do regardless. Going down is easier on the lungs and considerably harder on the knees, and each day the air thickens and the temperature climbs until, somewhere below Paiyu, there is grass again.

12. 45Day 45Jhola to Skardu by jeep

    

    Eight or nine hours back down the Braldu gorge and through the Shigar Valley to Skardu at 2,228 metres — the same three river crossings and the same exposed track, in a very different mood. A hotel, a hot shower and a proper meal at the end of it, all three of which land harder than you expect after six weeks. Cargo left in the Skardu store is collected and sorted this evening.

13. 46Day 46Fly to Islamabad

    

    The morning flight from Skardu back over the mountains, forty minutes with Nanga Parbat off the wing, down to 540 metres and a hotel with a laundry service. The flight is entirely weather-dependent: if it is cancelled we drive instead, nine hours or so by way of Chilas, which is what the spare day at the end of the programme is for.

14. 47Day 47Free day in Islamabad

    

    Held in reserve for the flight, and free if the flight went. The debrief and paperwork are wrapped up in the morning. Beyond that it is yours — the Faisal Mosque, the Pakistan Monument, the lanes of Saidpur village, or an air-conditioned afternoon and a long farewell dinner up at the Monal with the city laid out below.

15. 48Day 48Departure from Islamabad

    

    Breakfast and a transfer to the airport in good time for your international flight. Extra nights, a day room or an onward extension are easy to arrange — Lahore is a two-hour drive south and worth a couple of days, and a fair number of people come off the Baltoro deciding they are not quite ready to go home.

Good to know

Understand the summit ridge before you book. Broad Peak's reputation as an accessible 8,000er is earned on the lower two-thirds of the route and lost on the last few hundred metres. The rocky false summit is reached first and is not the top; the true summit lies along a corniced ridge that takes another hour or two each way, in the afternoon, at 8,000 metres, after an already enormous day. Plan your turnaround time at base camp, in daylight, and hold to it.

This price covers everything to base camp and nothing above it, which is the standard way this peak is sold. High camps, fixed rope above base camp, high-altitude porters and supplementary oxygen are separate lines on the quote. Tell us at the enquiry stage what level of support you want so the whole thing is priced once, properly.

We look for previous time at 6,000 or 7,000 metres, fluency on crampons and fixed rope, and some honest self-knowledge about how you behave above 7,000. Broad Peak is a fair mountain and not a forgiving one.

The two summer departures differ in how long the team has on the mountain, and the longer one costs a little more. The day-by-day below is the forty-eight-day shape; confirm which departure you are on before booking flights, because the climbing block is the part that moves.

We drive in over the Babusar Pass and fly out of Skardu. The drive is long but not weather-dependent and it starts your acclimatisation; the flight is entirely weather-dependent, so leave slack in your onward booking. The fallback is a nine-hour drive and a lost day.

Base camp is shared ground. Concordia and the Godwin-Austen in July hold K2, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum teams at once, and the community that forms there — the weather forecasts traded, the help given when something goes wrong — is part of what makes this side of the Baltoro what it is.

Questions about this trip

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