Gasherbrum I Expedition 8,080 m

Trip highlights

• The eleventh-highest mountain on earth

  8,080 metres, the highest of the Gasherbrum group, and hidden from the Baltoro until the last hour of the walk in — which is exactly what Conway's survey named it for in 1892.

• The Japanese Couloir and the 1958 line

  Up through the South Gasherbrum icefall towards the Gasherbrum La, camps at roughly 5,900, 6,400 and 7,000 m, then the couloir onto the ground Schoening and Kauffman climbed on the first ascent at around 7,500 m.

• Ten days up the Baltoro to get there

  Jhola, Paiyu, Urdukas and Goro II to Concordia, under the Trango Towers, Muztagh Tower, Masherbrum and Gasherbrum IV, with K2 and Broad Peak at the junction. The finest approach march of any 8,000er anywhere.

• Thirty days on the mountain

  Rotations, recovery and the waiting. The Karakoram gives shorter and less reliable windows than the Nepal Himalaya, and a schedule with no slack in it is a schedule that goes home early.

• Everything to base camp, arranged by the licence holder

  Permit and royalty, park and waste fees, liaison officer, porters, a licensed guide, cargo handling in Skardu, and a serviced camp with cook, generator and satellite phone. We hold the licence rather than broker it.

• A climber's peak, not a queue

  Hidden Peak sees a fraction of the traffic its neighbour does. There is no conga line, no fixed rope laid by somebody else, and no crowd to follow. That is the appeal, and it is also the reason the team on the rope matters more here.

At a glance

• 48 days, Islamabad to IslamabadTen days in on the Baltoro, thirty on the mountain, and a week to get out and home.
• 8,080 m — Hidden PeakThe eleventh-highest mountain on earth, and the highest of the Gasherbrum group.
• The hard one of the two GasherbrumsSteeper, longer and more committing than G-II, with a fraction of the ascents. Not a first 8,000er.
• Small teams, self-led above base campFull logistics and a licensed guide to base camp. High-altitude support and oxygen quoted separately.
• Baltoro, Concordia and the Abruzzi GlacierJhola, Paiyu, Urdukas, Goro II and Concordia, then base camp at 5,100 m shared with G-II.
• Hotels either end, tents betweenIslamabad, Chilas and Skardu in hotels; dome tents on the trek and a serviced base camp.
• Mid-June to early AugustOne summer season. Cargo and permits are arranged months ahead, so book early.

Day by day

1. 1Day 1Arrival in Islamabad

   

   Your guide meets you at the airport and transfers you to the hotel at 540 metres. There is time for the capital if your flight lands early: the Faisal Mosque beneath the Margalla Hills, the terraces of Shakarparian, the Pakistan Monument and the Lok Virsa museum. In the evening we run the expedition briefing, go through insurance and documentation, and eat together.

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

   

   Six or seven hours and 239 kilometres north through the Kaghan Valley to Naran, then three or four more over the Babusar Pass at 4,173 metres and down 113 kilometres to Chilas at 1,265 metres. We stop at the top of the pass for as long as anyone wants. Driving rather than flying in is deliberate: this is a free 4,000 metres on day two, and your body will use it.

3. 3Day 3Chilas to Skardu along the Indus

   

   Eight or nine hours and 290 kilometres east with the Indus below and bare walls thousands of metres above it. We stop where the Karakoram, the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush meet within sight of each other — there is nowhere else on earth you can say that — and again for the view of Nanga Parbat, 8,126 metres, standing entirely clear of its neighbours. Skardu at 2,228 metres is the staging town for the whole range.

4. 4Day 4Jeep up the Braldu gorge to Jhola

   

   Eight or nine hours by jeep through the Shigar valley and into the Braldu, on a track that fords the river three times and spends the rest of the day cut into the side of the gorge. Askoli is the last village in the Karakoram and the place every Gasherbrum expedition weighs its loads: this is where the porter train forms up, where the cargo is divided into 25 kg loads, and where the liaison officer's paperwork is checked before anyone walks. Camp at Jhola, 3,100 metres, in twin-sharing dome tents on the sand above the river.

5. 5Day 5Jhola to Paiyu — the snout of the Baltoro

   

   Six or seven hours and 16.6 kilometres of undulating trail above the Braldu, hard in places and hot for most of it. The gorge finally opens onto the grey snout of the Baltoro glacier, and the skyline ahead becomes the one the range is famous for: Cathedral Peak, the Trango group and, if the air is clear for half an hour, the tip of K2. Paiyu at 3,450 metres is the last stand of trees before the ice. The porters bake two days of bread here for the glacier, and the smell of it is the thing everyone remembers about this camp.

6. 6Day 6Paiyu to Urdukas — onto the glacier

   

   Seven or eight hours and 15.9 kilometres, and the day the walking changes character entirely. You step onto the Baltoro and the trail stops being a trail: it becomes the endless rise and fall of moraine, boulders balanced on ice, and a line that is different from one season to the next because the glacier moves. Paiyu Peak at 6,610 metres, Uli Biaho at 6,417 and Trango Tower at 6,286 stand over the whole day. Urdukas at 4,050 metres is a grassy shelf a hundred metres above the ice — the last vegetation of the walk in, and worth every step of the climb up to it.

7. 7Day 7Urdukas — acclimatisation day at 4,050 m

   

   A rest day, and the most valuable one on the walk in. There is a short climb up the slope behind camp for a few hundred metres of height, taken slowly and given back before evening; otherwise this is a day for drinking more than you want to and watching the light move across the Trango group all afternoon. The porters cook their own food and the evening is a sociable one. Compressing this day to save a night is the most common mistake made on the Baltoro, and expeditions pay for it above Goro rather than here.

8. 8Day 8Urdukas to Goro II — camping on the ice

   

   Five or six hours and 12.1 kilometres out along the medial moraine into the middle of the glacier, and the day the giants arrive in full. 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 — the peak that dominates every photograph of Concordia and is not even the highest of its own group. Camp at Goro II, 4,380 metres, pitched on the ice itself. The cold arrives the moment the sun leaves the valley, which on the Baltoro is early.

9. 9Day 9Goro II to Concordia

   

   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 at 8,051 beside it, Gasherbrum IV closing the valley, Mitre Peak and Sia Kangri around the rim. Three hundred and sixty degrees of it, and no photograph has ever done it justice. Almost everyone stays out in the cold longer than is sensible and nobody has ever regretted it. Hidden Peak, note, is still not visible from here.

10. 10Day 10Concordia to Gasherbrum Base Camp, 5,100 m

    

    Five or six hours south-east up the Abruzzi glacier under the Gasherbrum wall to base camp at 5,100 metres, the shared ground for the Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II teams. Hidden Peak, which has stayed out of sight behind the ridges for the entire walk in, finally shows itself in the last hour — and the surveyors' name for it makes complete sense the moment it does. The camp goes up properly today: sleeping tents, dining tent, toilet and shower tents, store, kitchen and generator. This is home for the next month.

11. 11Days 11–40Thirty days on Hidden Peak — rotations, the Gasherbrum La and the summit window

    

    The climbing period, worked in rotations rather than one push. The line is prepared and the camps stocked, loads are carried, and you sleep progressively higher and drop back to base camp to recover between cycles — a pattern most teams repeat two or three times before anyone thinks about the top.

    The ground itself: out of base camp and into the South Gasherbrum icefall, which is the objective hazard of this mountain and which you will cross more times than you would like. Camp 1 at around 5,900 metres, then the climb towards the Gasherbrum La for Camp 2 near 6,400, on a col that funnels every weather system that comes through. Camp 3 at roughly 7,000 metres. From there the Japanese Couloir leads onto the upper mountain and joins the line the 1958 American party climbed at about 7,500 metres, and the summit day from Camp 3 is long, steep near the top, and thoroughly unforgiving of a party that is moving slowly.

    This is where Hidden Peak separates from its neighbour. Gasherbrum II is a long climb at moderate angles that rewards patience; Gasherbrum I steepens exactly where fatigue and altitude are already doing their work. Acclimatisation earned properly in the first fortnight is the currency you spend up there, and there is no way to borrow it later.

    Then the wait, which is most of what expedition climbing in the Karakoram actually is. The range is less settled than the Nepal Himalaya, a workable window may be short, may come late, or may never arrive. Thirty days covers the rotations, the recovery and the sitting, and teams do go home without a summit. Base camp service runs throughout — cooked meals, hot water, the generator, the satellite phone — and everything above base camp is the team's own unless high-altitude support or oxygen was arranged before you left Islamabad.

12. 41Days 41–44Down the Baltoro to Jhola

    

    Four days retracing the approach at about 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 is a condition of the park permit and is checked. Going down is easy on the lungs and brutal on the knees. Each day the air thickens and the temperature climbs, and somewhere below Paiyu there is grass again and the smell of vegetation after five weeks of rock and ice is genuinely startling.

13. 45Day 45Jhola to Skardu by jeep

    

    Eight or nine hours back down the Braldu gorge and out through Shigar to Skardu at 2,228 metres. A hotel, a hot shower and a proper meal at the end of it, all three of which take on a significance that is difficult to explain to anyone who has not just come off a glacier. Cargo left in the Skardu store is collected and sorted this evening, and the official debriefing with the Ministry is arranged around it.

14. 46Day 46Fly Skardu to Islamabad

    

    The morning flight back over the mountains — forty minutes, Nanga Parbat off the wing, and the whole approach you just walked laid out below in about ninety seconds. Down to 540 metres and a hotel with a laundry service. Entirely weather-dependent: if the flight is cancelled we drive, nine hours or so by way of Chilas, which is exactly what tomorrow is held in reserve for.

15. 47Day 47Free day in Islamabad, or the drive if the flight did not go

    

    Free if yesterday's flight operated, and the fallback if it did not — in which case it is eleven or twelve hours on the road over the Babusar Pass instead, and you will be glad the day was held. Otherwise: paperwork and the debriefing in the morning, then the Faisal Mosque, the Pakistan Monument, the lanes of Saidpur, shopping for anyone who has promised gifts, or a long farewell dinner up at the Monal with the city spread out below.

16. 48Day 48Departure from Islamabad

    

    Breakfast and a transfer to the airport for your international flight. A day room, extra nights or an onward extension are easy to arrange if your schedule allows — Lahore is two hours south and worth a couple of days on its own, and anyone who has just spent a month at 5,100 metres tends to find the Punjab in August a shock worth experiencing.

Good to know

Gasherbrum I is not the approachable Gasherbrum

Do not book this peak because you have read that the Gasherbrums are the friendly 8,000ers. That is true of G-II and it is not true of Hidden Peak. This one is steeper, longer and considerably more committing, it sees a fraction of the traffic, and the ground high on the mountain rewards technical competence rather than patience alone. We will ask about your climbing history and we would rather have that conversation before a deposit than at Concordia.

What we need to know about your climbing

Previous experience at 8,000 metres is strongly recommended and most teams on this mountain have it. Failing that, we want to see at least one high 7,000er, solid technical competence on steep snow and ice, experience of moving roped on glaciers and in an icefall, and the self-sufficiency to make your own decisions in bad weather at altitude. Send us a climbing CV rather than a summary. It is not a formality and it is not a sales filter — on a peak with this little traffic, the composition of the rope is the safety system.

Everything to base camp, and nothing above it

The price covers the permit and royalty, park and waste fees, the liaison officer, hotels, the full walk in and out, porters, and a serviced base camp with dining, shower and toilet tents, a cook, a generator and a satellite phone. It does not cover high camps, fixed rope above base camp, high-altitude porters or supplementary oxygen. Those are separate lines on the quotation, and on this route the level of support you choose affects the outcome more than it does on G-II. Decide it deliberately and tell us at the enquiry stage rather than in June.

The permit has a statutory lead time

Pakistan requires the climbing permit application at least 55 days before arrival, with passport copies and photographs, and a licensed operator has to apply on your behalf — an individual cannot. The royalty is set by the government per team and is a significant part of any quotation; we pass it through at cost and show it as its own line. Cargo, porters and food are arranged months ahead. A team assembled in a hurry is a worse team, and it is also a team that may simply not get a permit in time.

Insurance that actually covers this

Not included, and required. It must cover the maximum altitude on your itinerary — 8,080 metres, not 6,000 — and include helicopter evacuation and repatriation. We may ask to see the policy before departure. A helicopter off the Baltoro is arranged through the military, needs a guarantee of payment before it lifts, and costs what it costs; a policy with an altitude exclusion buried in it is worth nothing on the day it is needed.

How the acclimatisation is built

The height is gained steadily: 540 metres in Islamabad, over the Babusar Pass at 4,173 on day two, 1,265 at Chilas, 2,228 at Skardu, then seven days on foot to 5,100 with a rest day at Urdukas. That profile is the reason we drive in rather than fly — the pass is free altitude on day two — and the reason the walk in is not compressed. Nearly every problem we see on the Baltoro starts with someone arriving fit, feeling strong on day three, and paying for it above Goro.

Weather, windows and going home empty-handed

The Karakoram is less settled than the Nepal Himalaya and its summit windows are shorter — a matter of days, sometimes hours. Thirty days on the mountain is what makes an attempt realistic rather than decorative, and it is still not a guarantee. Teams go home without a summit, on this peak more often than on most. If a high success rate is what you are buying, buy a different mountain, and be suspicious of anyone who quotes you one for Hidden Peak.

Getting out, and leaving slack in your flights

We drive in over Babusar and fly out of Skardu. The drive is long and not weather-dependent; the flight is entirely weather-dependent, which is why a spare day sits at the end of the programme. Leave slack in your onward international booking — the fallback is a nine-hour drive, and after a month at altitude nobody wants to do it against a clock.

If you want both Gasherbrums

There is a 55-day double-header that puts G-II and G-I in one season from the same base camp. Climbing the easier peak first is the sensible order, it is how most successful pairs are done, and the acclimatisation from the first attempt is what makes the second realistic. Ask for that itinerary rather than trying to bolt a second peak onto this one late.

Questions about this trip

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