Brett and Bernii

On Saturday 28th of June I flew from Bangkok to Islamabad in Pakistan to trek to K2 Base Camp and cross Gondogoro La with Epic Expeditions. This trek was going to be the most challenging trek that I have undertaken. Although the maximum altitude is lower than the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro (5650m vs 5895m), a large part of the trek is on the Baltoro Glacier and the Gondogoro La high mountain pass involves much more technical terrain. Also, because beer is difficult to obtain in Pakistan, the trek would be nothing like my previous trek in the Langtang Valley of Nepal (dubbed the Gorkha Trail).

The flight arrived around midnight and it was around 1:00AM when I arrived at the Grand Islamabad Hotel. I stayed at the hotel for the first three nights. During that time I visited the Faisal Mosque – a huge mosque and tourist attraction. There were many locals who wanted to get photographs and videos with me (this seems to be a common practice as other trekkers experienced the same thing). It seems I’m TikTok famous in Pakistan.

On Monday 30th of June, I met the group that we would be trekking with. There were 15 trekkers from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Spain. We also had two guides – Chris Lininger, the founder of Epic Expeditions as well as a local guide – and two additional guides who were guests of Chris.

After sitting through the briefing we did a gear check and then went out for our first group dinner. The following day we woke early to go to the airport for our flight to Skardu in the north east of the country.

After arriving, we took vans to our accommodation at Mountain Lodge Skardu. The rest of the afternoon we had free time before we shared an amazing dinner on the terrace overlooking the city.

The next morning we departed Skardu in 5 old Toyota Landcruisers for the drive to Askole (3040m). We were fortunate with the weather and road conditions – landslides can be common in that area which can lead to long delays. This was the first night that we slept in tents, which would be our homes for the next two weeks.

The following day we hiked from Askole to Jhula (3149m), a hot and dusty walk that took several hours and covered a distance of roughly 20km. My tent was located beside where two goats were tied up. They kept me up through the night but little did they know that I would have my revenge on them before the trek was over.

The hike from Jhula to Paiju (3400m) took several hours to cover about 22km. Again, it was hot and dusty and involved a lot of up and down sections. We stayed at Paiju for two nights as we had a rest day following the two long and hot days. It was a good opportunity to sit around in the shade and get to know each other.

From Paiju we hiked to Khoburtse (3833m) over a distance of about 14km. This was the first time we walked on the Baltoro Glacier and the walk took about 6 hours.

The next day from Khoburtse to Urdukas (4053m) was a short day, covering 6.5km over about 3 hours. Each day saw the temperature drop as we climbed in altitude. By this point we were mostly walking on rock and ice.

From Urdukas to Goro 2 (4250m) was about 12km and took about 5 hours.

Then from Goro 2 to Concordia (4600m) was about 14km over 7 hours. This gave us our first views of K2. The mountain was often covered by clouds but we still sat looking at it for hours. That evening we enjoyed a delicious goat curry with our dinner. It tasted of sweet, sweet revenge.

The next day was a rest day at Concordia. In the morning we undertook some skills training where we donned our harness, slings, carabiners, and crampons and learnt to ascend and descend on steep icy terrain using a fixed line. This was to prepare us for the Gondogoro La pass.

We left Concordia and hiked to Broad Peak Base Camp (4813m) where we stopped for a quick tea, before continuing on to K2 Base Camp. We were able to relax in a mess tent at K2 Base Camp before taking some photos as the weather turned and it started to snow heavily. We then returned to Broad Peak Base Camp for the night. It was over 20km for the day which took about 10 hours. Reaching K2 Base Camp was one of the goals of my trip and was great knowing that I had achieved that goal.

Overnight at Broad Peak Base Camp we got a fair bit of snow which made the return to Concordia a bit slower than it otherwise would have been, taking about 6 hours to cover 8km.

On returning to Concordia, we had the most unobstructed view of K2 of the trek.

We had a good weather window the following night for Gondogoro La, so after one more night at Concordia we departed for Ali Camp (4950m), a 12km walk that took us about 6 hours.

At Ali Camp we rested and attempted to sleep, rising at 10:00PM to prepare for an 11:00PM departure. The first few hours was spent walking on the rocky moraine before we crossed the ice glacier to commence the climb of the pass. We had to cross the glacier in a single line as there was a risk of falling into a crevasse. We then started the slow ascent before stopping to put on our crampons. A little further we attached to the fixed lines and began the steeper ascent to Gondogoro La (5650m). It was very slow going as the pace was dictated by the people in front of you, and I was at the back of the line. Finally at about 5:00AM we all reached the top of the pass.

We then made our way to the start of the roped descent section. What was normally covered in snow was now just a rocky terrain. The crampons were sliding on the rocks, making it fairly difficult to descend without falling over. Fortunately I had some help from one of our amazing porters during the second half of the 2.5 hour descent. When I reached the bottom of the valley I waited for others to finish their descent before commencing the walk to Kuisbang (4700m).

All up it took us 12 hours to cover just 10km – an incredibly tough experience but one that I would not trade for anything.

Kuisbang was a nice campsite, fringed by alpine meadows and native flowers, however the walk from Kuisbang to Saicho (3430m) was truly spectacular. It covered 19km which took about 7 hours and gave us the opportunity to walk on an ice glacier, over rocky moraine, along dirt trails, sandy riverbeds and through pine forest groves. We also crossed a river using the remnants of a bridge that was dragged into place and supported by the guides and porters. At Saicho camp we had an amazing BBQ dinner.

The final day of trekking was from Saicho to Hushe, only 11km which took us 2.5 hours. We then jumped into Toyota Prados for the 5 hour drive back to Skardu. As we drove through the villages the children would run out to wave to us foreigners in the vehicles.

We had a rest day in Skardu which allowed us to explore the town, go out to lunch and have a combined group dinner with the next team of trekkers who were departing for Askole the following morning.

The next day we flew back to Islamabad. A lot of our group of trekkers had booked into the Serena hotel – a huge 5 star hotel in Islamabad that allowed guests to purchase alcohol and have it delivered to their rooms. I visited the group that afternoon and after acquiring some beers, I poured them into a Nalgene bottle and we spent the afternoon at the pool before going to dinner in one of the restaurants. I then returned to the Grand Islamabad Hotel.

The following day was a contingency day which allowed me to clean my gear and repack my bags before those of us left at the Grand Islamabad Hotel again headed to the Serena Hotel for a final group dinner at the buffet restaurant.

The next day I relocated from the Grand Islamabad Hotel to the Serena Hotel where I took advantage of the room service and the pool. It was my last night in Islamabad and I spent the following day at the hotel before heading to the airport to catch my late night flight to Bangkok. Two days later I flew to London to reunite with Bernii.

The group of people on the trek, as well as all of the support staff (guides, porters, kitchen staff and everyone else involved) really made this trek an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. Thank you to Epic Expeditions for making this possible.

The founder of Epic Expeditions, Chris Lininger has also written a blog post covering the trek which includes some very nice photographs (much better than mine). Check it out at: https://epicexpeditions.co/blog/k2-bc-2025-field-notes-and-photos/.