Gasherbrum I Expedition 8,080 m

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 far fewer 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 to Jhola

   Eight or nine hours by jeep through the Shigar Valley and into the Braldu gorge, past a string of villages and through Askoli, the last of them, with the road fording the Braldu three times on the way. Beyond Askoli the track ends and the porter train forms up. Camp at Jhola, 3,100 metres, in twin-sharing dome tents above the river.

5. 5Day 5Jhola to Paiyu

   

   Six or seven hours and 16.6 kilometres, an undulating walk and a hard one in places. The gorge opens onto the snout of the Baltoro, and Cathedral Peak, the Trango Towers and — briefly, if the air is clear — K2 appear ahead. Paiyu at 3,450 metres is the last stand of trees before the ice, and the porters bake bread here for the glacier days to come.

6. 6Day 6Paiyu to Urdukas

   Seven or eight hours and 15.9 kilometres onto the glacier proper, where the trail becomes the endless rise and fall of moraine. Paiyu Peak at 6,610 metres, Uli Biaho at 6,417 and Trango Tower at 6,286 stand over most of the 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 the climb up to it.

7. 7Day 7Urdukas — acclimatisation day

   

   A rest day at 4,050 metres. There is a short walk 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 think you need and looking at the Trango group. The porters prepare their own food and the evening is a sociable one. Compressing this day is the most common mistake on the Baltoro.

8. 8Day 8Urdukas to Goro II

   

   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. Camp at Goro II, 4,380 metres, on the ice — and the cold arrives the moment the sun leaves.

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 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 too long in the cold and nobody regrets it.

10. 10Day 10Concordia to Gasherbrum Base Camp

    

    Five or six hours southeast up the Abruzzi Glacier under the Gasherbrum wall to base camp at 5,100 metres, 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. The camp goes up properly today — sleeping tents, dining tent, toilet and shower tents, store, kitchen and generator.

11. 11Days 11–40Thirty days on the mountain

    

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

    Hidden Peak is the technical member of the group. Where Gasherbrum II is a long climb on moderate angles, this one steepens where it matters, high on the mountain and late in the day, and the margin for a slow party is correspondingly thinner. Acclimatisation earned properly in the first fortnight is what you spend up there.

    Then the wait. The Karakoram is less settled than the Himalaya and a workable window may be short, may come late, or may not arrive at all. Thirty days covers rotations, recovery and the waiting, and teams do go home without a summit.

    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 arranged before you leave 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. Going down is easier on the lungs and much harder on the knees, and each day the air thickens and the temperature climbs until, somewhere below Paiyu, there is grass again and the smell of vegetation is genuinely startling.

13. 45Day 45Jhola to Skardu by jeep

    

    Eight or nine hours back down the Braldu gorge and through Shigar to Skardu at 2,228 metres. A hotel, a hot shower and a proper meal at the end of it. Cargo left in the Skardu store is collected and sorted this evening, and the official debriefing is arranged around it.

14. 46Day 46Fly to Islamabad

    

    The morning flight from Skardu back over the mountains — forty minutes, Nanga Parbat off the wing — 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 what tomorrow is held in reserve for.

15. 47Day 47Free day in Islamabad

    

    Free if yesterday's flight went, and the fallback if it did not — in which case it is an eleven or twelve hour drive over the Babusar Pass instead. Otherwise: paperwork in the morning, then the Faisal Mosque, the Pakistan Monument, the lanes of Saidpur, shopping, or a long farewell dinner up at the Monal with the city 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.

Good to know

Do not book Gasherbrum I because you have read that the Gasherbrums are the approachable 8,000ers. That is true of G-II and it is not true of this one. Hidden Peak 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 now than at Concordia.

If you want both, there is a double-header that puts G-II and G-I in one 55-day season from the same base camp — climbing the easier peak first is the sensible order and the way most successful pairs are done.

The price covers everything to base camp and nothing above it. High camps, fixed rope above base camp, high-altitude porters and supplementary oxygen are separate lines on the quote, and on this route the level of support you choose matters more than it does on G-II. Tell us at the enquiry stage.

We drive in over the Babusar Pass and fly out of Skardu. The drive is long, not weather-dependent, and it starts your acclimatisation properly; the return flight is entirely weather-dependent, which is why a spare day sits at the end of the programme. Leave slack in your onward booking — the fallback is a nine-hour drive.

Altitude is gained steadily from 2,228 metres at Skardu to 5,100 at base camp over seven days, with a rest day at Urdukas. Do not try to compress it. Nearly every problem we see on the Baltoro starts with someone arriving fit, feeling strong on day three, and paying for it above Goro.

Permits, cargo, porters and food are all arranged months in advance and Pakistani climbing permits have a statutory lead time. A team assembled in a hurry is a worse team, and on a peak with this little traffic the composition of the rope matters more than usual.

Questions about this trip

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