Discover Skardu

Skardu commands one of Earth’s most extraordinary geographical positions. At 2,500 meters elevation, where the Indus River—born in Tibet and destined for the Arabian Sea—meets the Shigar River flowing from K2’s glaciers, the valley opens into a 10 by 40-kilometer basin surrounded by peaks reaching 4,500 to 5,800 meters. Yet these are merely the foothills: within 25 kilometers of each other rise K2 at 8,611 meters, Broad Peak at 8,051 meters, and Gasherbrum I at 8,080 meters—four of the world’s fourteen 8,000-meter peaks clustered in what mountaineers call the Baltoro Muztagh.

The Baltoro Glacier extends 62 kilometers from these giants, making it the world’s fifth-longest outside polar regions. At its head lies Concordia, where the Baltoro meets the Godwin-Austen Glacier descending from K2’s south face. Photographer Galen Rowell named this amphitheater ‘the throne room of the mountain gods’—and standing here, surrounded by ten of the world’s thirty highest peaks within a 24-kilometer radius, the description feels inadequate. Nearly 70% of all trekking and mountaineering permits issued for Pakistan each year are for the Baltoro region, making this the country’s premier adventure destination.