Passu

The Passu Cones—known locally as Tupopdan, meaning ‘sun-gulping mountains’—are among the most photographed peaks in Pakistan and one of the defining images of the entire Karakoram Range. Rising to 6,106 meters in a series of impossibly sharp points, they resemble Gothic cathedral spires more than natural geological formations. The peaks catch the last rays of sunset long after the valley below has fallen into shadow, their knife-edge ridges turning gold and rose while the glaciers beneath them glow blue-white. From the Karakoram Highway, the Cones frame the Hussaini Suspension Bridge in what has become one of Pakistan’s most iconic and widely shared photographic compositions.

The Cones belong to the Batura Muztagh, a sub-range of the Karakoram that includes some of the region’s most dramatic and technically challenging summits. Nearby Passu Sar reaches 7,478 meters and was first climbed in 1994 by a German expedition that approached via the Shimshal Valley. The Cathedral Peaks themselves remain unclimbed above their lower shoulders due to the extreme steepness and instability of the rock. But it is the visual impact that draws photographers and trekkers from around the world—their distinctive serrated silhouette visible from dozens of kilometers along the highway. The Wakhi name Tupopdan captures their character perfectly: mountains that swallow the sun whole each evening.

Passu sits between two of Asia’s greatest glaciers in one of the most concentrated glacial landscapes accessible by road anywhere on Earth. To the south, the 20-kilometer Passu Glacier gleams white—unusual in the Karakoram, where most glaciers are covered in dark debris from rockfall and moraine. Scientists attribute Passu Glacier’s distinctive pale appearance to its steep gradient and rapid flow, which prevents debris accumulation on the surface. To the north stretches the 57-kilometer Batura Glacier, the seventh-longest glacier outside polar regions, extending close enough to the Karakoram Highway that its terminal moraine is visible from the road. Together they feed the Hunza River that carves the valley below.

The glaciers make Passu a trekking paradise with routes ranging from half-day walks to week-long expeditions through some of the Karakoram’s most dramatic terrain. The Passu Glacier can be reached on a half-day hike from the village through apricot orchards and boulder fields, while the Batura Valley offers multi-day expeditions through summer pastures to high meadows beneath 7,000-meter peaks including Distaghil Sar at 7,885 meters. The Patundas trek crosses the Passu Glacier itself—roped for safety over crevasse fields—to reach meadows at 4,170 meters where five glacier systems converge in a panorama found nowhere else on Earth. These rivers of ice sustain the apricot orchards and wheat fields of the valley, and have shaped Wakhi culture and agriculture for centuries.

The Hussaini Suspension Bridge has been called the world’s most dangerous bridge—though locals cross it daily with loads of firewood and livestock without a second thought. Built by villagers in 1968 to connect the settlements of Hussaini and Zarabad across the Hunza River gorge, the bridge spans approximately 750 meters on six steel cables, its wooden planks deliberately spaced apart to prevent wind damage during the fierce winter storms that funnel through the valley. The original structure was damaged after the January 2010 Attabad landslide that blocked the Hunza River and created the 21-kilometer lake upstream. Restored and reinforced, it now draws thrill-seekers from around the world, though it remains a practical daily crossing for the Wakhi families on either side.

This is Silk Road country where ancient trading routes have connected South and Central Asia for millennia. The Karakoram Highway follows these paths, and the Wakhi people of Passu maintain cultural connections with communities in Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and China’s Xinjiang province—speaking a language from the Eastern Iranian family that links them to populations scattered across the Pamir Mountains. Their hospitality reflects centuries of welcoming travelers along these routes: fresh yogurt and buttermilk offered at shepherd huts, tales shared over chai in communal baipash houses, the warmth that defines Pakistan’s northern mountain communities. The bridge is just the most visible symbol of connections that span borders, languages, and centuries.