Gasherbrum II Expedition 8,035 m

Dates & availability

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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.
• 8,035 m by the southwest ridgeThe normal route — long snow and ice on moderate angles, and the most achievable 8,000er in Pakistan.
• Serious altitude, moderate techniqueA sound first 8,000 m peak, but you should arrive with 6,000 or 7,000 m experience and be fluent on fixed rope.
• Small teams, self-led above base campFull logistics and a licensed guide to base camp. A personal Sherpa and oxygen are quoted separately.
• Baltoro Glacier and ConcordiaJhola, Paiyu, Urdukas, Goro II and Concordia, then base camp at 5,100 m under the Gasherbrums.
• Hotels either end, tents betweenIslamabad and Skardu in hotels; dome tents on the trek, with dining, shower and toilet tents at base camp.
• Mid-June to early AugustTwo summer departures a year. Winter attempts are possible by arrangement for experienced teams only.

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 your flight lands early there is time to see the capital properly: the vast white Faisal Mosque beneath the Margalla Hills, the granite petals of the Pakistan Monument, the terraces of Shakarparian, and the Lok Virsa museum for the crafts and music of the northern valleys. In the evening we run the expedition briefing, check documentation and insurance, and eat together.

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

   

   A long day and a deliberate one: nine to eleven hours north through the Kaghan Valley and over the Babusar Pass at 4,173 metres, which is the highest you will be for a week and a useful first taste of thin air. We stop at the top for as long as people want. The road drops into the Indus gorge on the far side and follows it to Chilas at 1,265 metres, which is hot, dusty and functional — nobody comes for Chilas, but the drive to it is one of the great mountain roads. We drive rather than fly on the way in because a flight would put you in Skardu tomorrow having gained nothing.

3. 3Day 3Chilas to Skardu along the Indus

   

   Seven hours or so east along the Indus, with the river below and bare rock walls thousands of metres above it on both sides. We stop at the Nanga Parbat viewpoint, where the 8,126-metre summit stands clear of everything around it — the western anchor of the Himalaya, and the mountain you have been driving around all morning. Beyond Jaglot the road enters the Karakoram proper. Skardu at 2,228 metres sits in a wide sandy bowl above the river and is the staging town for every expedition in this range.

4. 4Day 4Jeep up the Braldu to Jhola

   Jeeps take us through the Shigar Valley and then into the Braldu gorge on a track cut into the wall above the river, fording the Braldu three times on the way. It is rough, spectacular and slower than the map suggests. Past Askole — the last village on this side of the range — the road ends and the porter train forms up. We camp at Jhola, 3,100 metres, in twin-sharing dome tents on a terrace above the water, and this is the last night with a mobile signal anywhere near it.

5. 5Day 5Jhola to Paiyu

   

   Six to seven hours up the Braldu gorge to Paiyu at 3,450 metres. The walls close in, the side streams have to be crossed early before the day's meltwater arrives, and the first of the great rock spires appear ahead — Cathedral Peak and the Trango Towers come into view and stay in view. Paiyu is the last stand of trees before the glacier, which after four days of rock and dust makes it the most popular camp on the approach. The porters bake bread here for the days ahead.

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

   Seven to eight hours and the day the ground changes for good. We climb onto the snout of the Baltoro Glacier and start the relentless rise and fall of glacial moraine, which is safe enough but tiring in a way flat distance never conveys. Uli Biaho, 6,417 metres, and the Trango group stand over the trail for most of it. Urdukas at 4,050 metres is a grassy shelf about a hundred metres above the ice — the last vegetation of the approach, and worth the climb up to it.

7. 7Day 7Urdukas — acclimatisation day

   

   A rest day at 4,050 metres, and the one that decides how the rest of the walk-in 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, and otherwise a great deal of sitting and looking at the Trango Towers. Drink more than you think you need. The temptation on a day like this is to feel strong and do more, and the people who give in to it are usually the people struggling at Concordia.

8. 8Day 8Urdukas to Goro II

   

   Five to six hours out into the middle of the Baltoro, following the medial moraine between the ice streams with seracs the size of buildings alongside the trail. Masherbrum, 7,821 metres, holds the southern skyline all day, and Muztagh Tower, 7,284 metres, comes into view ahead. Camp at Goro II is at 4,380 metres on the glacier itself, and the temperature falls the moment the sun leaves the valley — this is the first genuinely cold night of the trip.

9. 9Day 9Goro II to Concordia

   

   Five to six hours of moraine to the junction of the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers at 4,650 metres, and the finest campsite in the Karakoram. K2 stands at the head of the northern branch, 8,611 metres of it, and Broad Peak fills the other side; Gasherbrum IV closes the head of the valley, with Mitre Peak and Sia Kangri around the rim. Almost everyone stays out too long in the cold on this evening and nobody regrets it.

10. 10Day 10Concordia to Gasherbrum Base Camp

    

    Five to six hours southeast up the Abruzzi Glacier under the Gasherbrum wall to base camp at 5,100 metres, shared ground for Gasherbrum I and Gasherbrum II expeditions. The camp goes up properly today: sleeping tents, the dining tent, toilet and shower tents, the kitchen, and the generator. This is home for the next month, and it is worth spending the afternoon making your tent a place you can actually rest in.

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

    

    The climbing period. The southwest ridge is worked in rotations rather than in a single push: the route is prepared and fixed camps established up the ridge, loads are carried, and you sleep progressively higher and come back down to base camp to recover between each cycle.

    The route itself is a long snow and ice climb on moderate angles — that is what makes Gasherbrum II the most achievable of Pakistan's 8,000 metre peaks — but the crevassed glacier below the ridge, the wind on the upper slopes and the sheer length of the summit day are what actually decide attempts. Acclimatisation earned properly in the first fortnight is what you spend on summit day.

    Then the wait. Weather in the Karakoram is less settled than in the Himalaya and a workable window may be a few days long, may come late, or may not come at all. Thirty days is enough to make a real attempt with something in reserve, which is exactly 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 a personal Sherpa, high-altitude porters or oxygen have been booked, in which case they are arranged before you leave Islamabad rather than negotiated here.

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

    

    Four days retracing the approach, in reverse and 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, including all the waste, which the Central Karakoram National Park rules require and which we would do anyway. Going down the Baltoro 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.

13. 45Day 45Jhola to Skardu by jeep

    

    The jeeps meet us at Jhola and carry us back down the Braldu gorge and through the Shigar Valley to Skardu, 2,228 metres — the same three river crossings, the same exposed track, and a very different mood on it. A hotel, a hot shower and a proper meal at the end, all three of which land harder than you expect after six weeks. Loads left in the store are collected and sorted this evening.

14. 46Day 46Fly to Islamabad

    

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

15. 47Day 47Free day in Islamabad

    

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

16. 48Day 48Departure from Islamabad

    

    Breakfast and a transfer to the airport in good time for your international flight. If your schedule allows it we are glad to arrange a day room, extra nights or an extension — 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 leave the country yet.

Good to know

This price covers everything to base camp and nothing above it. That is the standard way Gasherbrum II is sold and it suits self-sufficient teams, but be clear about what it means: high camps, fixed rope above base camp, a personal high-altitude Sherpa and supplementary oxygen are separate lines on the quote. Tell us at the enquiry stage what you want and we will price the whole thing properly rather than leave you to discover the gaps in Skardu.

Ask yourself honestly about experience. Gasherbrum II is the gentlest 8,000 metre route in Pakistan and it is still 8,035 metres in the Karakoram. We look for previous time at 6,000 or 7,000 metres, competence on crampons and fixed rope, and a realistic sense of how you personally behave above 7,000. The mountain is a fair one; it is not a forgiving one.

There are two departures each summer, and the listing quotes both a shorter and a longer version of the same route — the difference is days 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 you book flights, because the climbing period is the part that moves. Thirty days on the mountain sounds generous and is not: it covers rotations, recovery and the wait, and teams do go home without a summit.

We drive in and fly out, which is deliberate. The road from Islamabad to Chilas over the Babusar Pass at 4,173 metres is nine to eleven hours and a genuinely useful start to acclimatisation, and it is not weather-dependent the way the Skardu flight is. The return flight from Skardu is, so leave slack in your onward booking — the fallback is a nine-hour drive and a lost day.

Altitude is gained steadily on the walk in, 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. Almost every problem we see on the Baltoro comes from someone arriving fit, feeling strong on day three, and paying for it at Concordia.

The Central Karakoram National Park rules on waste are enforced and we follow them: everything that goes up to base camp comes back down again, including what nobody wants to carry.

Questions about this trip

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