Karakoram
Gondogoro La
Up the Baltoro, over a glaciated 5,585-metre pass and down into the Hushe valley. No walking back the way you came, but you will need crampons and fixed ropes.
Author: Muhammadbinmasood, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Duration
- 18 days
- Difficulty
- Expedition
- Highest point
- 5,585 m
- Distance
- 130 km
- Best season
- Jul – Sep
- Budget on the ground
- 100–170 € per day
- Group size
- 4–8
Overview
Who this is for
The Gondogoro La is the harder sibling of the K2 Base Camp trek. As far as Concordia it is the same route. The difference arrives on day twelve: a glaciated pass at 5,585 metres, taken at night, with crampons, a rope and fixed lines on the final steep section.
This is not technical mountaineering, but it is no longer walking either. If you have done roped glacier tours in the Alps you know what is coming. If you have not, walk the K2 trek first and decide afterwards.
Why it is worth the extra
Because you do not walk back the way you came. Up the Baltoro and down into Hushe makes a real traverse: two weeks of ice, moraine and altitude, and then you descend into an inhabited green valley full of apricot trees. That contrast is the actual reason to choose this route.
Honest about the risk
Local teams re-rig the pass with fixed ropes every season, and conditions vary. In bad weather or bad snow, it does not get crossed. A good operator will call it off and walk back down the Baltoro. That is the right call, even when it feels wrong at the time.
Day by day
1–4
Islamabad, Skardu, Askole
As on the K2 trek: arrival, formalities, jeep to the last village.
5–10
Up the Baltoro to Concordia
Paiju, Urdukas, Goro. The same glacier, the same disbelief.
11
Ali Camp
A short day to the high camp below the pass. Sleep early, the night will be very short.
12
Gondogoro La, 5,585 m
Leave around one in the morning, because the glacier has to be frozen. Crampons, rope, fixed lines on the steep section. At the top, as the sun arrives, four eight-thousanders stand behind you. The descent south is long and steep.
13–15
Hushe valley
Down through Khuispang and Saicho to Hushe. After two weeks on ice and moraine the first grass looks almost aggressively green.
16–18
Skardu and home
Jeep to Skardu, then back to Islamabad.
Practical details
- Permits
- Central Karakoram National Park registration plus a separate permit for the pass crossing. Arranged by the local operator.
- Visa
- E-visa with a booking confirmation from a local operator.
- Acclimatisation
- Eleven days to reach Ali Camp is good preparation for 5,585 m. The pass is still taken in one long push.
- Getting there
- Via Islamabad and Skardu as for the K2 trek; the return begins at Hushe rather than Askole.
Photos
