Ten years in the Alps, and a country nobody talks about

I moved to Germany in 2016 and have lived in Bavaria since. I learned to hike here. Not the walking itself, I knew that, but everything around it: reading waymarked routes, booking huts, taking the forecast seriously, setting a turnaround time and actually keeping to it.

Over ten years that added up to a good part of the Eastern Alps. And at some point I started listening in the huts in the evening, when other people talked about their trips. Nepal came up constantly. Ladakh, Patagonia, Kyrgyzstan. Pakistan essentially never.

The gap

That stayed with me, because it is hard to justify on the facts. Pakistan holds the second-highest mountain on earth. It has five eight-thousanders, the longest glaciers outside the polar regions, and in the Rupal face the highest mountain wall in the world.

When I asked, the answer was almost always the same: it had not occurred to them. Not fear, not rejection. It was simply never a topic. And a gap that consists only of missing information is one you can close.

What I do here, and what I don't

This is an information site. I sell nothing, I broker no tours, I take no bookings. I have no registered business, and while that remains true, this stays as it is. If it changes, it will say so clearly here.

What I do instead: I write down the details I would want myself before travelling anywhere. How high, how long, how hard, in which month, what it realistically costs, and what is uncomfortable or risky about it.

How honest this is

I have tried to leave out nothing I would want to know. The Karakoram Highway can be blocked for days. Flights to Skardu are regularly cancelled. Rescue is far away, and the infrastructure you take for granted in the Alps does not exist there in that form.

If you would rather not deal with that, the Alps are the better choice, and that is an entirely legitimate decision. I still go there myself.

Where to start

If you have never been to Pakistan and want to know whether it is for you, read Why Pakistan. If you want a route straight away: Rakaposhi Base Camp is the best introduction I know: five days, no glacier crossing, and a seven-thousander directly in front of you.