K2 and Concordia

Concordia is the junction where the Godwin-Austen glacier meets the Baltoro, and it is the reason the trek exists: standing on the ice at around 4,600 metres, you are surrounded by K2 at 8,611 metres, Broad Peak, and both Gasherbrum I and II, with Mitre Peak and the Trango Towers behind. No comparable concentration of high mountains is accessible on foot anywhere else. The approach runs from the roadhead at Askole for roughly a week, following the Braldu river and then the Baltoro glacier itself, a moving surface of rubble, ice towers and meltwater channels that has to be crossed and recrossed. Camps are at Jhula, Paiju, Urdukas and Goro before Concordia; the Trango Towers, among the greatest granite walls on earth, rise directly above the route. Porters carry the loads and the expedition is entirely self-supported, with no lodges, shops or rescue beyond what the group organises itself.

The landscape

• K2 - the second-highest mountain on earth, seen from its glacier apron.
• The Baltoro glacier - a river of ice walked for days on end.
• Trango Towers - vertical granite walls above the approach route.
• Broad Peak and the Gasherbrums - three more eight-thousanders around the amphitheatre.

When to go

Late June to early September, the only window when the glacier route is passable and the weather has any stability. Even then, storms close the upper glacier for days at a time and river crossings on the approach depend on melt volumes.

Things to know

This is a serious high-altitude expedition, not a hike: two to three weeks, altitude sickness risk, no evacuation without helicopter arrangements, and total dependence on a licensed operator and porter team. Permits are required and independent trekking is not permitted on this route. Costs run high once porters, permits and food are counted. Weather can end the attempt without warning.

Nearby

Skardu is the staging town; Hushe and the Masherbrum valleys lie south.