Nanga Parbat Rupal Face 8,126 m

At a glance

• 40 days, Islamabad to IslamabadBase camp by day four, then thirty-two days under the wall.
• 8,126 m up the largest wall on earth4,600 vertical metres from Tarashing to the summit — no other face on any mountain matches it.
• Expedition-grade, for experienced teamsA handful of ascents in history. We provide the permit and the logistics; the line is yours.
• Self-sufficient teams onlyNo guided option above base camp. Come with your own plan, partners and 8,000 m record.
• Astore and the Rupal ValleyChilas, Astore, Tarashing and Rupal village to the Herrligkoffer base camp at around 3,550 m.
• Hotels either end, tents betweenIslamabad, Chilas and Astore in hotels; camping from Tarashing onward, with a serviced base camp.
• Summer seasonJune and July, arranged around the team rather than to a fixed departure date.

Day by day

1. 1Day 1Arrival in Islamabad

   

   Your guide meets you at Islamabad International Airport and transfers you to the hotel. The afternoon is free — the Faisal Mosque beneath the Margalla Hills, the Pakistan Monument and the Lok Virsa museum are all within an hour if you want them, and sleep is the more common choice. In the evening we run the briefing, complete the permit paperwork and go through the cargo manifest with you.

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

   

   North through the Kaghan Valley to Naran, 279 kilometres, then over the Babusar Pass at 4,173 metres and down 113 kilometres into the Indus gorge to Chilas. A long day in the vehicle and the only real altitude the approach offers, so we stop at the top of the pass rather than driving straight over. Hotel in Chilas.

3. 3Day 3Chilas to Astore and up to Tarashing

   East along the Indus and then south into the Astore valley, 112 kilometres of increasingly green country that looks nothing like the gorge behind it. From Astore a jeep takes us the last half hour up to Tarashing, the village at the mouth of the Rupal valley. The wall is visible from here and it does not read as a mountain at first — the eye keeps looking for a summit somewhere lower than where it actually is.

4. 4Day 4Tarashing to the Herrligkoffer Base Camp

   

   The walk in, and all of it in one day. The trail crosses the Tarashing and Rupal glaciers, passes through Rupal village and follows the meadows west under the face to the Herrligkoffer base camp at around 3,550 metres. Porters carry the loads. It is not a hard day, and the whole time the wall is directly to your right, gaining height faster than you are. Camp goes up properly this afternoon: sleeping tents, dining tent, toilet and shower tents, kitchen and generator.

5. 5Days 5–36Thirty-two days under the wall

   

   The climbing period, and what happens in it is the team's own business.

   What we can say about the ground: base camp sits at around 3,550 metres, and the summit is at 8,126. That is 4,600 vertical metres of face above the tents, the largest continuous mountain wall anywhere on earth, and it is why acclimatisation on this side is done on the mountain rather than on the approach. There is no fixed-rope highway, no established camp positions you can rely on finding, and no meaningful prospect of rescue high on the face.

   Base camp service runs for the full period: cooked meals, hot water, the generator, secure storage, and the satellite phone. Our crew keeps the camp running and the loads moving to its edge, and that is where our part stops.

   Weather here is the western Himalaya rather than the Karakoram — systems come off the Punjab plains and arrive with less warning than teams used to the Baltoro expect. Thirty-two days is a season, not a guarantee, and the great majority of attempts on this face have ended without a summit.

6. 37Day 37Base camp down to Tarashing

   

   Camp comes down and the porters carry it out. Back east along the meadows, through Rupal village and across the two glaciers to Tarashing — a straightforward day, and a strange one, with the wall shrinking behind you into something the eye can finally take in whole. Last night under canvas, or a room in the village if one is going.

7. 38Day 38Tarashing to Chilas, and on toward Naran

   

   Jeep down to Astore and then the 112 kilometres back to Chilas, rejoining the Karakoram Highway along the Indus. From there we begin the climb back toward the Babusar Pass, 113 kilometres, breaking the return journey rather than doing it in one sitting. Hotel, hot shower, and the first meal in five weeks that nobody had to carry the ingredients for.

8. 39Day 39Over the Babusar Pass to Islamabad

   

   The last of the mountains: up to 4,173 metres at the Babusar Pass for a final look north, then down 279 kilometres through Naran and the Kaghan Valley to Islamabad. Most of a day in the vehicle. Hotel, laundry, and a farewell dinner in the evening.

9. 40Day 40Departure from Islamabad

   

   Breakfast and a transfer to the airport for your international flight. Extra nights, a day room or an onward extension are easy to arrange if your schedule allows it.

Good to know

This is not a commercial 8,000 metre expedition and we will not sell it as one. The Rupal face has been climbed a handful of times in more than fifty years. There is no normal route, no fixed-rope infrastructure, no realistic rescue above the lower slopes and no guided option. We provide the permit, the approach, the porters and a serviced base camp; the wall is entirely the team's own problem. If you are looking for a supported ascent of Nanga Parbat, the Diamer face by the Kinshofer route is the expedition you want, and we run that too.

We will ask for the team's record before quoting — previous 8,000 metre ascents, big-wall and alpine-style experience at altitude, and who is climbing with whom. That is a condition of taking the booking rather than a formality.

The approach is unusually short and unusually low. Base camp sits at around 3,550 metres, which is a thousand metres below where a Baltoro expedition starts, so the mountain does all of the acclimatisation work. Plan your rotations on that basis; the walk in gives you almost nothing.

Dates are arranged around the team rather than published as fixed departures. Permits have a statutory lead time in Pakistan and porters and cargo are booked months ahead, so open the conversation early — a season's notice is not excessive for this one.

The Rupal Valley itself is worth knowing about. Tarashing and Rupal are working farming villages, the meadows below the face are grazed all summer, and the contrast between that and the wall above them is the thing every visitor remembers. Treat the villages as neighbours for the month; the same families have supported expeditions here since the 1960s.

Questions about this trip

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