Tourism in Northern Pakistan's Karakoram & Hindukush Mountains

The Karakoram and Hindukush, at the western end of the great mountain chain of South Asia and Central Asia, contain the greatest concentration of high peaks and the greatest expanse of glaciers of any mountain range outside the subpolar zones of our planet. These mountains are also home to a kaleidoscope of people, whose diversity and uniqueness offer a personal counterpoint to the immensity of the physical terrain and climate extremes.

Over the past 25 years we have crossed more than 40 passes, traversed or crossed more than 50 glaciers, and visited more valleys throughout the Karakoram and Hindukush than we've counted. Our reward has been the most spectacular mountain scenery in the world and the gracious warmth and hospitality of the people we have met.

Walking in its rhythm and naturalness is the closest to all the acts we choose to the acts we don't: to breathing and the beating of our hearts, the other rhythms that direct the rhythm of the walking. Of all the things we learn, it is the most natural, like birds learning to fly, and of all of them the act that becomes the most unconscious. Walking is the only way to measure the rhythm of the body against the rhythm of the land. Rebecca Solnit, Savage Dreams