Beyond the adventure of hitchhiking the Karakoram highway and learning about the culture, the main purpose of my trip to northern Pakistan was to hike. And hike I did! I did 3 multi-day hikes, and several shorter ones - read on for more information about these. Overall, it is very easy to hike in Pakistan, as there are plenty of guides in each town. You can simply rock up and ask a local to help you find someone, and this guide will sort everything needed for the trip. You’ll be ready to set off the following morning. In terms of the prices, except to pay around £30 a day for everything (this includes kit hire, the guide, the porter, and all food on the trek). There are so many hikes available, you’ll be spoilt for choice. They all involve mountains, plenty of elevation, and usually meadows, glaciers and lakes. The food will mostly consist of vegetable curries and dahl with rice and/or roti (made fresh on the trail), ramen, and bread and biscuits. I would really recommend the region for hiking enthusiasts who fancy something a bit of the beaten track. I’d love to go back and do some longer ones, 1-2 weeks perhaps.
Chatorkand Lake Hike
My first proper hike of the trip. Hailey (a canadian girl staying at the same hostel), our guide (Amar) and I set off at 6am and Sana gave us a lift to the start of the trail. From there, as we would do all day, we followed a gushing river up the valley. First it was on a dirt track which zigzagged up steeply, becoming more rocky as it went, with donkeys and shepherds overtaking us with ease. We came across a small hut surrounded by apricot trees and took a short rest before continuing up the steeper section. At the top, it felt like we had moved fully into the valley, and the path levelled out a bit. We stopped for lunch on a flat section, where the river widened into several small streams and we could paddle and sit on a little island in the middle. A german couple from the hostel and their guide (Hakim) had caught up with us and we ate lunch together (ramen and bread). We continued walking up the valley and I ended up walking alone, behind the speedy german couple but ahead of Hailey and Amar. The path crossed a little meadow, filled with shepherds’ huts. I guessed that the men were all out with the animals as I could only see women and children outside. They ran over when they saw me and gestured for me to sit down with them, which I did. They were filled with laughter and joy as I shook every woman’s and child’s hand. They invited me into one of the huts for chai, and I agreed, ducking my head as I squeezed myself and my bag into the tiny doorway. There I sat on the lifted section of the room, perpendicular to the door and the fireplace, with the women and children lining the rest of the walls. I looked around at them all, all of their eyes on me. I counted 16 women of various ages from 15 to 60 and over 20 children, including one baby that can only have been a few weeks old. It was quite a surreal experience. After 10 minutes I realised there was a chance that Hailey and Amar would walk past without me realising, but as I popped outside to check I saw the two of them being directed into the hut. The ladies had told Amar that I was inside. Together we drank chai, with added salt rather than sugar (the mountain way) and had some biscuits. We were then served metal beakers filled with goat lassi, but not the indian kind. This one was putrid and sour and with large lumps. I tried to hide my distaste as I sipped it and noticed with horror that the cup still looked full. I managed a few more sips before sliding it over to Amar to finish. I gave some money to the women and then we set off until we reached the blue lake. The path snaked through a pine forest and the smell was amazing. We were adopted by a shepherd and his little family on their walk back home. One of the children was around 2 and would crawl up on her dad’s back to be carried, hanging from his neck like a baby monkey. We reached their home and waved goodbye and, to my horror, they ran out with cups of more lassi for us to drink. This one was slightly less putrid, maybe because it was a mix of goat and cow milk, but still wasn’t great. They left the bucket filled with it nearby so I sneakily poured most of mine back in. Shortly after, we reached the blue lake - an incredibly crystal clear lake, lined with pine trees which were reflected perfectly in the water. We walked around the lake until we reached the far side and Amar said it was only one more hour of walking to reach the camp. I was a bit faster than Hailey so decided to walk on ahead to reach the camp. After 1.5 hours more of walking uphill and through woodlands and finally onto a meadow, I started to worry. I hadn’t seen the camp yet, had I missed it? Surely not, so I continued forwards but started to get a little anxious. I could see two children perched up high on the hill surrounding the meadow, and could here them shouting something. Was it encouragemnt to keep going, or warning me of something? In the next meadow I spotted a canvas tent up on a mound and made a beeline for this, surely it was the camp. As I reached it, my spirits dropped as it became apparent that this was a shepherd’s home and not the camp, but the shepherd pointed me forwards and as I followed his finger I spotted a figure stood on top of a hill in the distance. I recognised Hakim’s white cap and felt a wave of relief. I quickly made my way over to him and gasped as I saw the view, another glacier lake nestled right up against the back of the mountains. A cloudy turquoise colour, with the glacier visible on the left hand side. Beautiful. I set up Hailey and I’s tent and changed into my warm clothing, there was a wicked wind here. Hakim and the cook built a stone wall by the tent to block out the worst of it. I sat by the lake shore and took in my view. It had been a long day of walking, 11 hours, 18km and almost 2000m elevation. Hailey and Amar appeared a while later and we ate dinner with the german couple, a delicious meal of rice and dahl. However, as I started to eat I felt my stomach churn, likely from the lassi. Shortly after dinner I went to bed, but was up soon after as I rushed to exit the tent and find a bush. The lassi was not agreeing with me at all… Luckily I had a great view of the lake and the stars to keep me company, and was only up once more during the night. In the morning, I couldn’t not go for a swim. The water was icy cold but delicious and I swam behind a bush so I could do it in just my sports bra and pants (not usually socially acceptable here). We had a simple breakfast of roti with cream and jam before walking around the lake to a viewpoint at the far side, where we could see the glacier better and look back down the valley we’d walked up. With camp packed up, we began to walk back down to the first lake, enjoying the view down the valley. We had lunch here (ramen again) as we waited for Hailey and Hakim to catch up. They arrived 2 hours later - Hailey had hurt her knee and it seemed like she wouldn’t be able to walk back down! After a short discussion it was decided that she would ride the donkey that currently carried some of the kit. The guides redistributed the weight and got Hailey on the donkey, who looked slightly unimpressed (the donkey that is). We set off walking again, but as Hakim and I headed down the slope leading from the lake we heard a cry which sounded a lot like Hailey falling off a donkey. Hakim rushed back and when he reappeared, he confirmed that was exactly what had happened, but luckily a juniper bush had broken her fall! Hailey would slowly walk down the mountain, it was decided, with Amar whilst I went with Hakim and the german couple. And so for the rest of the way down I chatted to Hakim and he told me stories of the fairies in the mountains which he, and lots of other local people, fully believed in. He told me a story about a magic cow which lived in the lake we had camped by that his grandfather had seen. We also spoke about the Ismailis Muslims, which is the sect of Muslims that most people in the mountains belong to. We got back down just as the sunset and I immediately bought a cold sprite. A wonderful hike, although we were all slightly concerned about Hailey. Hakim assured us that she and Amar would spend a night in a shepherd’s hut and continue walking in the morning. So we ate dinner, showered and I slept excellently. In the morning, I was shocked to see Hailey’s shoes outside of her room, but overjoyed that she had made it back safely. She and Amar had walked in the dark down the mountain, with her headtorch, and made it back at around 1am. Crazy! We celebrated over breakfast. A great introduction to the mountains of Pakistan.
Rakaposhi Base Camp
After a day of rest, spent travelling across to the Hunza valley and up to Minapin, I enjoyed a whole mango for breakfast (the mangoes here were the best I have ever had) before setting off to reach Rakaposhi Base Camp. Rakaposhi is a mountain of 7788m and the 27th highest mountain on earth. The trail starts from the town of Minapin and zigzags up as a track on the base of the mountains. I had a very old shepherd and his cow for company, until his cow wandered off and he struggled to get it to come back. The track became a path and moved through pine forests, with views of snowy mountains in the background. At around lunchtime I reached the lower camp, a green field that jutted out from the hill and overlooked the valley. I had a ginger tea here (my stomach was quite unhappy) before continuing to the base camp. The final bit of the path went up steeply, across a hillside that was covered with little purple flowers, wild thyme and rocks. At the top, Rakaposhi’s peak was visible. It was a great sight. Once at the brow of the hill, I gasped as I saw the huge glacier which filled the valley beneath. This was my first proper look at a glacier and I couldn’t tear my eyes away. They poured over its surface, over the crevaces and pools of water and ridges. It was awesome. Eventually, I walked on, along a narrow path cut into the cliff face, until I reached the base camp. I had planned to stay here for the night, but after taking in the dingy field, crowded by the mountains, and the barbed wire seating area in the middle, I assumed to keep out the cows which roamed around, I started to reconsider. My decision was solidified after I met the men running the campsite, from who I got the weirdest and worst vibes from. So I drank a rose tea, and thought about whether the men might spike me, before exploring the area and walking right up to Rakaposhi. Here I saw one of the men strip into his underwear before diving into a puddle of water, and then summoning a horse to him only to throw his shoe at it. Like I said, weird vibes! I decided the lower campsite was much nicer, and so returned there. I spent the afternoon lying around in the sun, listening to podcasts and enjoying the view, nibbling on the dried apricots that the camp guy had brought over. I shared dinner with an odd Korean man who was on the hunt for a “good place” and thought he may have found it in a village in the valley, or at an empty spot on this hill (although there was a ghost there so maybe not, according to him). I also met some local guys and had a drink of the local alcohol with them, including Irfan (more on him in the hitchhiking post, and the Patundas meadow section below). I enjoyed the stars from my tent, and slept well. In the morning, I had a slow breakfast with the Korean man, who just ate roti for one hour without a break and drank salty water. When I returned to my tent, I smiled at the sight of the cows around it. This became a quiet scream when I saw that one of the cows was actually inside the tent! I’d left it open with some bananas inside, and this cow was obviously feeling rather brave. My scream startled the cow and it tried to go out the back of the tent, hitting the wall. I ran around to the back and hit the tent there, making it leave out of the door. I peered in to assess the damage, my stuff was mostly in tact, although my flowery handkerchief was missng, I assume eaten, and there was some mud tread into the mattress (hopefully only mud…). I packed up my bag and sheepishly told the camp guy what had happened. Luckily he wasn’t too mad, but that might have had something to do with the fact that he had a crush on me, as he had offered to give me a massage the night before (I graciously refused). I speedily descended the rest of the way into the town before collecting the rest of my stuff from the hostel and hitchhiking onwards.
Seeing the glacier was something I’ll never forget, and the views of the green hillside and huge snowy mountain might be one of my favourite hiking views yet.
Baskochi Meadows
Just a short half-day hike, but one worth mentioning as it felt like I unearthed a paradise on top of the mountain. I hitchhiked to the trail, which left from the Karakoram highway and ascended up the mountain very steeply. There were views of Attabad lake to motivate you, but it was a tough climb up the rocky, dusty mountain. Luckily it didn’t last too long, and in under two hours I emerged onto a plateau, vibrantly green and filled with apricot trees. There were signs of life, with one or two small huts and trays of apricots out in the sun to dry. As I wandered through the greenery I stopped to pick and eat some of the gorgeous apricots and was once again thankful I was in Pakistan for apricot season. They tasted nothing like the bland apricots we get in England, these were bursting with flavour as intense as their colour. I came across some girls picking the apricots further in, and chatted with them for a while. They came up to the meadow in the summer when school was finished to pick the apricots. Sometimes they’d spend a few days up there, sometimes they’d go home each evening, it depended on how much work they had to do in the meadow. They pointed me in the direction of a viewpoint, on top of a rock which stood tall to one side of the meadow. I climbed up and was rewarded with an excellent view of Attabad lake - bright blue sitting perfectly in the curves of the Karakoram valley, contrasting with the brown rock. It was a very recent addition to the valley, forming after a disastrous flood in 2010, and was now a leisure lake with little boats on it. I went back down the same way I’d came, and saw lots of lizards scuttling around.
Patundas Meadows
After some back-and-forth, I decided that my final three day trek would be to Patundas Meadows. The kid aka Irfan (who I had met at the campsite on the Rakaposhi hike and had been hanging around with in Passu) would be tagging along and his uncle would be our guide. Initially, we had organised a different guide but this man was now stuck on the other side of a destroyed road, desperately trying to save his cafe from the flood water! I’m happy to say that his cafe was not damaged, but another cafe was completely washed away. Another reminder of the damage that the increasing floods bring. After some last minute scrambling we managed to convince Irfan’s uncle (who is a guide) to come with us. He said he would have to get the supplies first thing in the morning, and he wasn’t sure if he had a tent for me to use. Irfan’s other uncle (seriously, everyone in the valley seemed to be some relation to Irfan) had a tent, so we stopped by his hotel to pick it up. The following morning, after a good rest, we set off to the start of the hike, which was at the far end of Borith lake. The drive up the steep, zigzagging track on the back of Irfan’s motorbike was an experience with us both carrying huge backpacks. My core was burning by the end, with the effort of not bouncing off the back of the bike with every bump. Irfan’s uncle arrived shortly after and we set off on the hike. I was glad to have Irfan with me, I really had grown quite fond of the kid.
The initial section of the hike was steep and along an exposed ledge which jutted out from the cliff, with the valley floor below. Best to keep one hand on the wall and stay as close as possible to it, I decided, focusing on my feet and avoiding the drop. After a couple of hours we reached a shepherd’s hut and stopped here for a small lunch of ramen and bread. We met a woman and her guide coming back down. She told me she was staying in Aliabad and I realised that she wouldn’t have heard about the road being destroyed yet. I broke the news and showed her some photos as her guide told her not to worry and that they would find somewhere else to stay this side of the flood. I was reminded again of the impact that these floods were having. We continued on our way for another hour before reaching the point that we would cross the glacier. It had appeared slowly into our view, filling the valley in between our side of the mountain and the opposite side. It looked angry and treacherous and I was starting to feel a bit nervous. As we left the safety of hard rock and moved onto the ice, the nerves intensified and I looked across the huge glacier with a sinking feeling in my stomach. It was so big, and god was it slippy. Then it got worse, as we left the edge and the glacier truly began, its huge crevasses and cliffs became apparent. Now if we slipped, it wouldn’t just be a sore bum but a long fall into nothingness. It crossed my mind that maybe I didn’t want to do this, knowing I’d only have to cross back over the glacier in two days’ time. But I decided that I was safe with the guide, that I could do hard things, and that all I had to do was put one foot in front of the other and go where I was told and eventually I’d be across. Two hours later, that was true. Safely back on rock I was incredibly relieved. But it was a truly cool experience. Being physically on the glacier, seeing up close the rivers that carve their way through the ice, surrounded by pillars rising up and crevasses sinking down. The sun was hot and it made the glacier twinkle, as if it was sweating. Of course it was in fact melting, at an alarming rate, and causing disasters lower down as it did. There was also the sound - cracking and crunching all around us as the glacier heaved under the sun. It was beautiful. But I decided it would be my last glacier hike, as I was truly terrified the entire time. Once back on rock, it was only a short hike up the valley side to where we’d set up camp. A lovely flat area nestled into the mountain, with a view of the glacier one way, and a view down into the valley the other. And we weren’t alone there, there was another foreign couple and their two guides. I flopped under a tree and enjoyed the smell of wild thyme as I ate a cucumber and read my book. After a few hours, the couple emerged from the shade of a shepherd’s hut to say hello. They were Peggy, German, and Cameron, Australian, living in Berlin and in their fourties. Cameron had been travelling around Pakistan for the previous month and Peggy had come to join him for 2 weeks in the north. An interesting but lovely couple, and we joined forces to eat together and hike together from that point onwards. I wandered down this side of the valley to take in the dusk light before dinner, and enjoyed a vegetable curry with rice as the sun set. After waiting long enough to see the incredible stars, we headed to bed and I wrapped up warm for a cool night in my little tent.
In the morning I unzipped the tent to grey skies and the glacier peaking out from behind the ridge. We had a breakfast of roti with jam and chai before setting off up the mountain to reach the plateau on top - Patundas meadow. The original plan had been to camp up on the meadow that night, but the poor weather (it had rained in the morning and looked like it might again in the afternoon) meant we decided to return to the lower camp instead. This at least meant we could leave our stuff down at the camp and hike up with a much lighter load. The path was, of course, steep, and being over 3000m I could feel the altitude. Taking it steady, Irfan and I made it to the top in around 2 hours, pretty quick despite Irfan’s complaints that I walked like an old woman. Once at the top, we reached a shepherd’s hut and our guide appeared from inside with a baby sheep in his arms. Grinning, he handed the lamb to me with a “for you!”. It felt like a prize for reaching the top and I enjoyed showing the little lamb, who was only a few days old and very happy to be in my arms, the views of the glacier on the opposite side of the mountain, as well as the peaks of Shisper and the Passu cones. I handed the lamb over to Irfan eventually, so I could further explore the meadow. It wasn’t lucious and green, but had short, dull coloured grass. It was huge, with rolling hills. There were glaciers in the valleys either side, and snow capped peaks behind us. The sun was very strong and so after we, with Peggy and Cameroon joining, walked to the otherside of the meadow and back, we sat in the shade of a shelter Irfan made with a tarpauline. We ate a delicious buttery, garlicy pasta for lunch, then relaxed with the view. I even dozed off for a bit. After a few hours, and as the clouds began to gather, we set off back down to camp. As I spotted the camp I had a slight panic, as my tent had seemingly disappeared! Quite sure I was looking at the spot where I’d left it, I tried to think about what could’ve happened. Once I got down, Irfan informed me that they had moved it into one of the shepherd’s huts, to keep it out of the rain as it likely wasn’t waterproof. Except they had chosen not a hut, but an animal enclosure with a corregated iron roof. The smell of goat shit was overwhelming so after assessing the sky and deciding that it was probably fine, I dragged the tent back out and returned it to the original spot. Sadly, the shit smell seemed to follow. Another lovely meal and numerous stars, and a few shooting stars, followed before an early night. It was notably colder this time, and I struggled to sleep even with all my layers on. Perhaps it was also the thought of having to cross the glacier which kept me awake…
After breakfast we, as a group, made our way to the glacier. Irfan was walking too close behind me on the dusty slope down to the glacier, so when he slipped slightly he fell into me, upsetting my balance so I then fell off the path and slid down the slope. I managed to stop myself relatively quickly, but not before scratching up my leg. I wasn’t initially annoyed with Irfan, but this changed once he said that he was only walking that close to me so that he could catch me because he could see I didn’t have my balance. As if he didn’t slide into me! We made up eventually, but only once off the glacier. We were crossing earlier than the other day, so the top layer of ice hadn’t melted as much, meaning it was even more slippy than previously. Peggy and Cameroon had crampons and I looked on enviously as they were able to grip into the ice whilst I slid down like a sad penguin. Eventually, the guides gave me some “Pakistani crampons”, aka socks worn over your shoes. I understand in theory why that would help, but in practice I think it did very little a part from making my whole shoe and foot soaking wet and cold. It took us a gruelling 3 hours to cross, and I genuinely hated every minute. I kept sliding and it was proving difficult to find a safe path through the crevasses so it felt like we were going back on ourselves all the time. I was SO glad to be back on solid rock, and wasn’t even mad when I slid on a boulder and got my leg momentarily trapped. At least it wasn’t ice! We stormed through the final sections of the hike back to the motorbike, and after a brief argument with the man collecting fees for the park, caused by him overcharging me because his village has a dispute with Irfan’s village, we were done. And luckily Irfan’s uncle agreed to take me and the bags down to the main road in his car. I don’t think my nerves could’ve taken the motorbike ride down after the glacier!
We all went to the oldest cafe in the area to eat the infamous apricot cake (which was truly magnificent) and wash it down with a cold drink (less magnificent as we were told the only drink available was chai, no cold drinks). A very relaxed hike with plenty of downtime to chill in the mountains. The glacier crossings were absolutely not relaxed and I can safely say that I didn’t enjoy them and will not be doing anymore glacier trekking (except, maybe, with crampons, but even then I will take some convincing). It was great to meet Peggy and Cameron and I ended up bumping into them (and Irfan and the other guides, all by chance) for dinner that evening at Yak Grill for yak burgers. The whole gang of us also had dinner together the following day at Irfan’s home. So a great hike with great company!