MasroorTrekker
Age: 56 
4407 days old here
Total Posts: 147
Location:
Karachi, Pakistan
Status : Offline |
Subject : Gondogorola Pass from Hushe Side
This is my 1st Topic on Pak Travelism. I am going to share some detail of my recent hiking trip in Northern Area which involved Gondogoro La Pass, vigine glacier, Concordia & baltoro glacier and many other beautiful places which were explored by me & my fellow companions.
Here is a brief writeup of expedition.
After exploring the heart of Karakoram Range; trekking along highest peaks of the world; crossing the highest mountain pass and walking through on the longest glacial maze outside polar world, we are back to civilization. This nerve cracking expedition was started from Skardu on 25th of August 2012 and ended on 6th of September at skardu. The group comprised of 5 people, Asad, Atif, Bilal, Adnan and I. The planning of this trek was done in dozen of meetings at Dhaba hotel at Karachi. Our plan was to cross world’s highest mountain pass “Gondogorola Pass” in a unique style; that is to say climbing it from the side which is used for descent. To our knowledge, no Pakistani group had ever crossed this pass before from this side. Trekkers usually start their journey from Askole and reach Ali camp in 7 to 8 days. From there, they cross Gondogoro La Pass and descend to the other side which leads them to Hushe village that comes after another 3 days trekking. We planed to start our journey from Hushe village and ended it up at Askole village. I don’t know whose idea it was, but it turned out to be very challenging and equally rewarding experience that filled us with sense of accomplishment at end of the day. From Hushe village, it took us 12 days to reach Askole and each day has a story of its own. Overall it was 16 days trip from Karachi to Karachi.
We acquired services of our tested company i.e. Karakoram Adventure Holidays. Ali Raza and Anees who owns this trekking company, organized the trek very professionally and economically. It was our second experience with them and they won our confidence again. The cookery and kitchen matters were headed by one Ghulam Nabi alias Mamoo, another nice person who also had accompanied us in one of earlier trek and whose company was enjoyed by every member of the group. Raza, our guide hired 10 porters, one high porter, one cook (Mamoo). Thus the total headcount of expedition team was 18 including 5 of us.
The climax of this expedition was crossing Gondogoro La pass. It is over 19,000 feet high and climbing it requires higher fitness as well as commitment level. Climbing it from Hushe side is more difficult as it is steeper and rocks are covered with very slippery ice which makes it difficult to walk on. Secondly, climbing gets more challenging from Hushe side due to rapid increase in altitude. We started climbing in the night at about 10:00 p.m. The reason for choosing night time is that freezing temperature at night keeps the rocks fastened in ice; thus reducing risk of rocks fall. This makes it easy to hold rocks for support or put your feet on them. Locals have fixed ropes on both side of pass which becomes very useful especially when crossing slippery-ice patches that we came across during our ascent.
We reached on the top when first ray of sun light was yet to appear. From the top, world most beautiful mountain scenery was in front of us. Five of world highest peaks were standing in the middle of countless spears army of mountains. We stayed at LA top for around one hour and then start our descent toward Ali Camp.
Trip pictures are attached.
Descending from Gondogorola Pass Top
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