Trango Tower Expedition 6,239 m

Trip highlights

• One of the great walls of the world

  A near-vertical kilometre of golden granite, and a summit that holds a handful of people at most.

• Eternal Flame and the classic lines

  First climbed in 1976; the tower's routes are among the most celebrated hard rock climbs anywhere.

• The Baltoro on the way in

  The Braldu gorge, Paiyu and the Cathedral spires — the finest glacier approach in the Karakoram.

• Porter logistics that actually work

  Haul bags, rack and wall kit carried in and out by the crews who supply K2 base camp every summer.

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

• 38 days, Islamabad to IslamabadThree days in on the Baltoro, twenty-six on the wall, and the rest getting there and home.
• 6,239 m of Karakoram graniteThe Nameless Tower — nearly a vertical kilometre of rock on the east face. Great Trango next door is 6,286 m.
• Big-wall climbing, not mountaineeringSteep granite in pitches, on gear, with hauling and wall camps. There is no walking finish.
• Self-sufficient teams onlyFull logistics and a licensed guide to base camp. The route itself is your team's, on your own rack.
• The Baltoro and the Trango groupJhola and Paiyu on the walk in, with the Cathedrals and Great Trango on either side of base camp.
• Hotels either end, tents betweenIslamabad and Skardu in hotels; dome tents on the Baltoro, with dining, toilet and shower tents at base camp.
• Mid-June to early AugustTwo departures a summer, when the rock is dry enough and the Braldu jeep road is open.

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 wall — including how much of the rack is coming in as porter loads and how it will be split.

2. 2Day 2Islamabad to Skardu

   The morning flight to Skardu, with Nanga Parbat off the wing — spectacular when it goes and cancelled often. If the weather closes it we drive up the Karakoram Highway instead, which takes two days, and that is what the contingency at the end of the itinerary is for. Night in Skardu at 2,500 metres.

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

   A working day. The liaison officer joins the team, the permit and park paperwork is completed, and every load is weighed and made up for the porters. Haul bags, ropes and rack are checked and repacked properly here rather than at Paiyu. There is time to walk up to Kharpocho Fort above the Indus, and this is the last day with reliable signal.

4. 4Day 4Skardu to Jhola

   Jeeps up the Braldu gorge past Askole, the last village on the Baltoro road, on a track cut into the side of the gorge that is one of the more memorable drives anywhere. The vehicles stop at Jhola at about 3,170 metres, where the walking starts. Camp on the flat by the river.

5. 5Day 5Jhola to Paiyu

   A long, hot, dusty day up the Braldu valley to Paiyu at about 3,380 metres, the last trees on the Baltoro and the camp where every expedition on this glacier stops. The Trango group and the Cathedral spires come into view during the afternoon and the scale takes a while to accept.

6. 6Day 6Paiyu to Trango Base Camp

   Onto the Baltoro proper — moraine, ice and meltwater channels — and up to base camp on the moraine below the towers. A big day with the loads going in behind you. Camp goes up properly today: sleeping tents, dining tent, kitchen, toilet and shower tents and the generator. The east face of the Nameless Tower is directly above, and it is the first honest look at what you have come for.

7. 7Days 7–32The wall — fixing, hauling and the climb

   Twenty-six days for the tower. The first of them go on acclimatisation and reconnaissance: walks up the glacier to gain height and sleep low, the approach to the foot of the wall worked out and cached, and the first pitches looked at properly.

   Then the route is fixed and hauled in the ordinary big-wall way, at a pace your team sets — lower pitches fixed and jugged, bags hauled, a wall camp established where the line allows one, and the upper pitches climbed in a push when the weather gives you a run of dry days. What that looks like in practice depends entirely on which line you are on and how your team likes to work, which is why this itinerary does not pretend to schedule it day by day.

   Weather is the governing factor and it is less predictable here than the granite deserves. Wet rock at 6,000 metres is unclimbable and cold; a settled spell can arrive at any point in the four weeks or barely at all. Base camp has a cook, a dining tent and a generator for charging, and the days spent waiting there in the company of other teams working the towers are, by common consent, one of the better parts of the trip.

8. 33Day 33Base Camp to Paiyu

   Camp comes down, the porters arrive, and the haul bags go back the way they came. Down the Baltoro to the trees at Paiyu, which after a month on moraine smell extraordinary.

9. 34Day 34Paiyu to Jhola

   Back down the Braldu valley to Jhola. Faster than the walk in and much warmer, with the river running high with afternoon meltwater.

10. 35Day 35Jhola to Skardu

    Jeeps down the gorge through Askole to Skardu. Hotel, hot shower and a proper bed. The liaison officer files the expedition report and the permit is closed out.

11. 36Day 36Skardu to Islamabad

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

12. 37Day 37Islamabad — contingency and a day in the capital

    Held deliberately empty. A closed Braldu road, a cancelled Skardu flight or an extra day on the wall all come out of this day 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. 38Day 38Departure

    Transfer to Islamabad International for your flight home.

Good to know

This is a rock climbing expedition and it is priced and organised as support rather than as guiding. We do not put a guide on the wall with you, we do not carry your rack up it, and we do not fix your pitches. What the price buys is the permit, the liaison officer, the licensed guide the permit requires, the whole logistical chain from Islamabad to a serviced base camp under the tower, and the porters who get a big-wall kit onto the Baltoro and back. Everything above base camp is your team's, including the load carrying to the foot of the wall unless you ask us to quote it.

So we are selective about who we take, and we would rather have the conversation early. Multi-day wall experience, aid climbing competence, hauling systems you have used before, and a partnership that has already dealt with bad weather high on a route are what matter here — far more than altitude experience, though a previous trip above 5,000 metres helps. Send us your climbing history and the line you are interested in when you enquire.

The two heights you will see quoted for this mountain are not the same mountain. The Nameless Tower, which is the objective on this page and what most people mean by Trango Tower, is about 6,239 metres. Great Trango, immediately beside it, is 6,286 metres and is a much bigger, looser, more serious undertaking. Several operators list one height against the other's name; if you are enquiring elsewhere too, it is worth checking which peak is actually being sold.

Base camp altitude on the Trango moraine is quoted differently by different operators, and rather than repeat a figure we cannot stand behind we would rather name the camps: Jhola and Paiyu on the way in, then base camp on the moraine below the east face, with an advanced camp at the foot of the wall placed by your team. Ask us for this season's figures when you enquire.

The Skardu flight is the biggest variable in the itinerary and it is cancelled often; the alternative is two days on the Karakoram Highway each way. The contingency day at the end exists for that. Do not book an international flight leaving the day after you are due back in Islamabad.

Questions about this trip

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