Pakistan - second attempt

An update to this trip can be found here.

Back in January I had my trip to Pakistan this year cancelled due to the Foreign Ministry dragging their feet with regards to the travel recommendations and updating them to reflect the current situations in the area where we were going. Understandable, but annoying.

In March, two months later, they got their act together and updated the information to a more favourable level. This meant that in April I received a new mail from the travel company informing me of a new departure next year around the same time if I was still interested in that destination?

If I’m interested? Let me thinYES PLEASE!

And a few days ago I received the final itinerary with flights and departure dates. Of course, everything can change and things might get cancelled again (let’s be frank, this isn’t just a simple trip to Europe) but I’m crossing my fingers that it will work out this time. We’ll see!

The itinerary is the same – even the dates are the same – as last time, but just to recap:

10th - 11th of July

Flying out of Copenhagen and going to Islamabad, having some time to see the city after arrival.

12th of July

Plane to Skardu at 2500m, where we will be staying at a simple hotel. If the weather is bad the trip is done by bus. Afternoon is spent on sightseeing.

13th - 17th of July

The start of the trek will be relatively gentle, while the distances are 12-20km per day the ups and downs during the days are not that bad, usually less than 500m either way. Nights will be spent at Korofon (3075m), Jhola (3150m) and Paiju (3420m) where we will have an acclimatization day.

18th - 22nd of July

We'll start off heading towards Horbose (3795m) followed by Urdukas (3900m) which will be reached after a relatively short day. Then we're heading to Goro (4295m) and Concordia (4500m) which will be the furthest camp. Here we'll have an extra day where there are several paths we can take, among others a trek to K2 base camp, but also reaching Broad Peak base camp or walk towards Gasherbrum I ("Hidden Peak") so you get to see that, too.

23rd - 28th of July

From Concordia we will be making our way back down towards Skardu passing by Shachspong (4100m) before reaching known places Horbose (3795m), Paiju (3420m), Jhola (3150m), Askole (3000m) and in the end Skardu where we will have the first night since being here last time in a hotel.

29th - 31st of July

Again; depending on weather we will either fly back to Islamabad or take a jeep via Chilas. Having returned to Islamabad we will take a flight home on the last day.