THE ROOF OF THE WORLD IS IN PAKISTAN
Focus= The Roof of the World
A dispatch from the Bureau of Hidden Places
There is a place where three of the greatest mountain ranges on Earth meet. Where the Himalaya, the Karakoram and the Hindu Kush touch near a single river junction. It is not in a fantasy novel. It is in Gilgit-Baltistan, beside the Karakoram Highway, and most of the world has never been told (KKH overview).
Giants in the north
Only fourteen mountains on Earth rise above 8,000 metres. Five of them are in Pakistan: K2 (8,611 m), the second highest mountain in the world; Nanga Parbat (8,126 m); Gasherbrum I; Broad Peak; and Gasherbrum II. Four of them stand around Concordia, where the Baltoro and Godwin-Austen glaciers meet. The country also counts 108 peaks above 7,000 metres (Pakistan Tourism).
A road carved through the impossible
The Karakoram Highway runs about 1,300 km from Hasan Abdal in Punjab to the Khunjerab Pass on the Chinese border, reaching roughly 4,714 metres near the top. It is one of the highest paved roads in the world, and from it you can see Nanga Parbat and Rakaposhi without leaving your seat (Wikipedia). Hunza, Nagar, Passu and its cathedral-like spires sit along the way.
Not only mountains
Go south and the country changes its costume. Lakes of turquoise in the valleys, the cold desert of Skardu, the dunes of Thar, the forts of Cholistan, and the long Makran coast meeting the Arabian Sea. One passport stamp, a dozen climates.
The potential nobody has priced in
Imagine Switzerland’s scenery with Pakistani hospitality and Pakistani prices. That is the pitch, and it writes itself. What the north needs is not more beauty. It needs better roads in the season of landslides, cleaner campsites, trained local guides, and visitors who leave nothing behind but footprints.
How to go, and go well
- Travel between late spring and early autumn for most northern routes; check road conditions before you leave.
- Hire local guides and stay in locally owned guesthouses, so the money stays in the valleys.
- Carry your trash back down. The glaciers are not a bin.
- Respect local customs and ask before photographing people.
- Climbing major peaks requires government permits and a licensed liaison officer.
The world goes looking for the edge of the map. Some of us were born on it.
— Illuminati Pakistan
The Eye is Watching