Gasherbrum I & II Double Header

At a glance

• 55 days, Islamabad to IslamabadTen days in on the Baltoro, thirty-seven at base camp for two peaks, and a week out.
• 8,035 m and 8,080 m from one campGasherbrum II first as acclimatisation, then Gasherbrum I — the hard one — on the same permit season.
• Two 8,000ers in one seasonG-II is moderate snow and ice; G-I steepens where it matters. Taking only the first is a sound outcome.
• 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 one base camp at 5,100 m serving both peaks.
• Hotels either end, tents betweenIslamabad, Chilas and Skardu in hotels; dome tents on the trek and a serviced base camp for five weeks.
• Mid-June to mid-AugustOne long summer season. Permits and cargo 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 the flight lands early — the Faisal Mosque beneath the Margalla Hills, the terraces of Shakarparian, the Pakistan Monument, and the bazaars of Rawalpindi next door. In the evening we run the briefing, check insurance and documentation, and go through the cargo: two permits and five weeks at base camp make for a long manifest.

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

   

   North through the Kaghan Valley by way of Naran and over the Babusar Pass at 4,173 metres, then down into the Indus gorge to Chilas at 1,265 metres. Nine or ten hours all told. We stop at the top of the pass for as long as anyone wants — driving rather than flying in is deliberate, and this is a free 4,000 metres on day two that your body will make use of a fortnight from now.

3. 3Day 3Chilas to Skardu along the Indus

   

   East along the river with bare walls 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 for the view of Nanga Parbat, 8,126 metres, standing clear of everything around it. Skardu at 2,228 metres is the staging town for the whole range, and the last place to buy anything you have forgotten.

4. 4Day 4Jeep up the Braldu to Jhola

   Through the Shigar Valley and into the Braldu gorge on a track cut into the wall above the river, fording the Braldu three times and passing a string of villages before Askoli, the last of them. Beyond it the road ends and the porter train forms up — for a double-header that train is a long one. Camp at Jhola, 3,100 metres, in twin-sharing dome tents.

5. 5Day 5Jhola to Paiyu

   

   Six or seven hours up the gorge, undulating and hard in places, with the side streams best crossed early before the day's meltwater arrives. Cathedral Peak and the Trango Towers come into view ahead and stay there, and the snout of the Baltoro appears. Paiyu at 3,450 metres is the last stand of trees before the ice; the porters bake bread here for the glacier days ahead.

6. 6Day 6Paiyu to Urdukas

   Seven or eight hours onto the Baltoro and into the endless rise and fall of glacial moraine — safe enough, and far more tiring than the distance suggests. Paiyu Peak at 6,610 metres and Uli Biaho at 6,417 stand over most of the day. Urdukas at 4,050 metres is a grassy shelf 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 sets up everything after it. 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 it is a day of drinking more than you think you need and looking at the Trango group. The porters cook their own food and the evening is a sociable one.

8. 8Day 8Urdukas to Goro II

   

   Five or six hours out along the medial moraine into the middle of the glacier, and the day the giants arrive. Masherbrum at 7,821 metres holds the southern skyline, Muztagh Tower at 7,284 appears 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, where the cold arrives the instant the sun leaves.

9. 9Day 9Goro II to Concordia

   

   Five or six hours 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 beside it, Gasherbrum IV closing the valley, Mitre Peak and Sia Kangri around the rim. Three hundred and sixty degrees of it. 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 — one camp, two mountains, and home for the next five weeks. The camp goes up in full today: sleeping tents, dining tent, toilet and shower tents, store, kitchen and generator. Spend the afternoon making your tent somewhere you can genuinely live, because you will be here a long time.

11. 11Days 11–47Thirty-seven days for two peaks

    

    The climbing period, and the reason this programme is fifty-five days rather than forty-eight.

    Gasherbrum II first. The route is worked in rotations — the line prepared and fixed camps established, loads carried, nights slept progressively higher — and then a summit push inside the first workable window. G-II is a long snow and ice climb on moderate angles, which is what makes it both the achievable 8,000er and the right acclimatisation for what follows.

    Then recovery. Days at base camp eating and sleeping, not training. This is the part teams cut short and the part that decides whether there is a second summit at all.

    Then Gasherbrum I. Hidden Peak from the same camp, on an already-acclimatised body — steeper where it matters, far less travelled, and a real step up from the peak you have just climbed. A second full cycle of rotations is rarely needed, which is exactly the advantage the double-header is built on.

    Weather governs all of it. The Karakoram is less settled than the Himalaya, and thirty-seven days is a season rather than a promise: many teams take G-II and stop, which is a good expedition. Base camp service runs throughout — cooked meals, hot water, the generator and the satellite phone.

12. 48Days 48–51Down 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. Easier on the lungs, much harder on the knees, and each day the air thickens until somewhere below Paiyu there is grass again — which after five weeks on ice is genuinely startling.

13. 52Day 52Jhola to Skardu by jeep

    

    Back down the Braldu gorge and through Shigar to Skardu at 2,228 metres. A hotel, a hot shower and a proper meal, all three of which land harder than you expect. Cargo left in the Skardu store is collected and sorted, and the official debriefing is arranged around it.

14. 53Day 53Fly 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. Entirely weather-dependent: if it is cancelled we drive instead, by way of Chilas, which is what tomorrow is held in reserve for.

15. 54Day 54Free day in Islamabad

    

    Held for the flight, and free if the flight went. Paperwork in the morning, and then the afternoon is yours — the Faisal Mosque, the Pakistan Monument, the lanes of Saidpur village, shopping for things to take home, and a long farewell dinner up at the Monal with the whole city laid out below.

16. 55Day 55Departure from Islamabad

    

    Breakfast and a transfer to the airport for your international flight. After two months a good many people want a few days somewhere green before they fly — Lahore is two hours south, and we are glad to arrange extra nights, a day room or an extension.

Good to know

Treat the second summit as a bonus rather than the plan. Two 8,000 metre peaks in one season is a lot to ask of a body that is already losing weight and sleeping badly at 5,100 metres, and the honest arithmetic is that most teams who book this come home with one. Gasherbrum II first is therefore not just the sensible order — it means that if the season closes early, you closed it with a summit.

Recovery between the two is the part people plan least and need most. Expect to spend days at base camp doing very little after G-II, and resist the urge to go straight back up because the weather looks good. Going into Hidden Peak tired is how the second half of this expedition goes wrong.

Hidden Peak is the harder mountain by a clear margin — steeper high on the route, much less travelled, and less forgiving of a slow party. If your experience makes G-II a stretch on its own, book G-II on its own; we run that as a 48-day expedition.

The price covers everything to base camp and nothing above it. For a double-header the level of high-altitude support you choose matters more than usual, because it has to hold up across two summit pushes rather than one. Settle it at the enquiry stage.

Five weeks at base camp is a long time in one place. Bring more to read, more to listen to and more spare batteries than you think you need, and expect the social life of the camp — shared with G-II teams coming and going — to be a real part of the experience.

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

Questions about this trip

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