Masherbrum Expedition 7,821 m

Trip highlights

• K1 — the original Karakoram peak

  The first summit the Great Trigonometrical Survey numbered. K2 was the next one along the ridge.

• A summit almost nobody has stood on

  Very few ascents since 1960, on a mountain of nearly 7,900 metres two days' walk from a road.

• Two days from Hushe to base camp

  A short, green approach into one of the finest valleys in Baltistan — no week-long glacier march.

• Thirty-one days on the mountain

  Progressive camps, real rotations, and time genuinely held back for the weather to co-operate.

Dates & availability

Dates not working? Every trip here also runs as a private departure — tell us your window and we will build it around you.

At a glance

• 43 days, Islamabad to IslamabadTwo days in from Hushe, thirty-one on the mountain, and the rest getting there and home.
• 7,821 m by the southeast faceThe line of the 1960 first ascent — steep, sustained and exposed. The southwest face is a separate proposition.
• Among the hardest peaks we runVery few ascents, real objective danger, and no easy version of the route. Not a first 7,000 m peak.
• Experienced teams, self-led above base campLicensed guide, cook and full camp to base camp. High-altitude support and oxygen are quoted separately.
• Hushe and the Masherbrum GlacierKhaplu into the Hushe valley, then Brum Bramah at about 4,050 m and base camp on the glacier.
• Hotels either end, tents betweenIslamabad and Skardu in hotels; dome tents on the walk in, with dining, toilet and shower tents at base camp.
• Mid-June to early AugustTwo departures a summer, and the face needs a settled spell inside one of them.

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. In the evening we run the expedition briefing, check documentation and insurance, and go through the plan for the face and the medical arrangements in detail.

2. 2Day 2Islamabad to Skardu

   The morning flight to Skardu, Nanga Parbat off the wing and the Indus below — spectacular when it goes and cancelled often. The alternative is two days up the Karakoram Highway through Chilas, which is what the contingency day at the end of the itinerary is for. Night in Skardu at 2,500 metres.

3. 3Day 3Skardu — permits, loads and gear check

   A working day. The liaison officer joins the team, permit paperwork is completed, and expedition loads are weighed and split for the porters. Your guide goes through technical equipment properly today. This is the last day of reliable telephone signal, and the last chance to buy anything you have changed your mind about.

4. 4Day 4Skardu to Hushe

   Six hours east, following the Shyok through Khaplu and then south into the Hushe valley on a narrowing jeep road. Hushe at 3,050 metres is the last village, and Masherbrum stands at the head of the valley in plain view. Camp at the village; porters are engaged for the morning.

5. 5Day 5Hushe to Brum Bramah

   About four hours up the valley and onto the moraine of the Masherbrum glacier, to camp at Brum Bramah at around 4,050 metres. A steady day with a real height gain, and the face gets closer and considerably less abstract with every hour of it.

6. 6Day 6Brum Bramah to Base Camp

   Three to four hours up the glacier to base camp. The camp goes up properly today — sleeping tents, dining tent, kitchen, toilet and shower tents and the generator — and the afternoon is for sorting loads and settling in. This is home for the next month.

7. 7Days 7–37The climb — rotations, high camps and the summit window

   Thirty-one days on the mountain. The early ones are acclimatisation rather than climbing: height gained on the glacier and given back at night, the approach to the face worked out, and the first camp sited and stocked.

   After that the route is worked in rotations — loads carried, camps established progressively up the face, nights slept higher each time, and descents to base camp to recover in between. The southeast face is steep and sustained, with fixed rope needed on the harder sections, and it carries objective danger that has to be assessed daily rather than accepted once. Where the camps sit and how the line runs depends on conditions in your season, which is why this entry does not pretend to schedule it by the day.

   The rest of the time is spent waiting at base camp for a settled spell, and on this mountain the waiting is usually the majority of the trip. Masherbrum has seen very few ascents in sixty-five years and the reason is not that nobody has tried. Your guide makes the call on when the face is climbable and when it is not, and on this expedition that authority is absolute.

8. 38Day 38Base Camp to Brum Bramah

   Camp comes down, loads are made up and the porters arrive from Hushe. Down the glacier to Brum Bramah, and the first night in a month at an altitude where sleep comes without effort.

9. 39Day 39Brum Bramah to Hushe

   The last walking day, down the moraine and into the fields at Hushe. Settle up with the porters and spend the evening in the village — after a month on the Masherbrum glacier, tea in a courtyard under fruit trees is not a small thing.

10. 40Day 40Hushe to Skardu

    The jeep road back out through Khaplu to Skardu. Hotel, hot shower and a proper bed. The liaison officer files the expedition report and the permit paperwork is closed out.

11. 41Day 41Skardu to Islamabad

    The flight south, weather permitting; the drive through Chilas if not. Night in Islamabad.

12. 42Day 42Islamabad — contingency and a day in the capital

    Held deliberately empty, because a cancelled Skardu flight or an extra day given to the mountain comes out of this rather than out of your flight home. If it is free there are the Saidpur restaurants, the Margalla trails, or Rawalpindi's bazaars with a guide.

13. 43Day 43Departure

    Transfer to Islamabad International for your flight home.

Good to know

Read this section before you enquire about Masherbrum. It is the most serious mountain on this website that is not an 8,000 metre peak, and by ascent count it is more exclusive than most of the ones that are. The southeast face is steep, sustained and objectively dangerous; there is no easier variation to fall back on; and the summit success rate across all attempts since 1960 is very low. We are happy to run it for the right team and we will decline it for the wrong one.

What we look for is a team with 7,000 metre summits already behind them, real competence on steep snow, ice and mixed ground at altitude, fluency with fixed rope, and experience of making conservative decisions a long way from help. If Masherbrum is the biggest thing you have attempted, it is the wrong order — Spantik, then Rakaposhi, then this.

The price covers everything to base camp and nothing above it. High-altitude porters, fixed rope, high camps and oxygen are separate lines, and on this face a team should think carefully about how much support they actually want rather than treating it as an upsell. Evacuation is the other conversation to have early: helicopter rescue in Baltistan depends on weather, altitude and clearance, your insurance must cover it explicitly, and neither we nor anyone else can promise it will be available on the day.

One factual note, because operators disagree in print. The 1960 first ascent was made by the southeast face, and that is the line this expedition is built around. The southwest face is a separate and later objective on the same mountain and is sometimes listed as though the two were interchangeable. If you are comparing quotes, check which face is being sold. Base camp altitude is quoted anywhere between about 3,500 and 4,200 metres depending on the source and on exactly where a team camps; we will confirm this season's site when you enquire rather than repeat a figure.

The Skardu flight is the biggest logistical variable and is cancelled often; the alternative is two days on the Karakoram Highway each way, and the contingency day at the end of the itinerary exists for it.

Questions about this trip

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