The Karakoram Range: K2, the Great Glaciers and How to See Them
The Karakoram is a mountain range about 500 km long where Pakistan, China and India meet, most of it in Pakistan's Gilgit-Baltistan. It holds K2 (8,611 m), the world's second-highest mountain, and three more 8,000-metre peaks, Gasherbrum I, Broad Peak and Gasherbrum II, all within about 17 km of Concordia on the Baltoro Glacier. It is one of the most heavily glaciated places outside the polar regions. You can see it from the Karakoram Highway, from the flight into Skardu, from the valleys of Hunza and Baltistan, or on foot on the trek to K2.
Where the Karakoram is
The range runs about 500 km from north-west to south-east. On its southern side the Gilgit, Indus and Shyok rivers separate it from the Himalaya; to the north lie the valleys of the Yarkand and Karakash rivers and the Kunlun beyond; the Pamir sits at its north-west corner and the Hindu Kush to the west. Most of the range is in Gilgit-Baltistan, and it reaches east into Ladakh and north into Xinjiang. The name is Turkic for "black gravel": it first belonged to the Karakoram Pass on the old caravan route, and was later given to the whole range.
Nanga Parbat (8,126 m), which you see from the Karakoram Highway and the Skardu flight, is not part of it: it is the western end of the Himalaya, across the Indus.
The peaks
Published heights differ by a few metres between surveys; these are the standard figures.
- K2, 8,611 m: the second-highest mountain on earth, first surveyed in 1856, on the border with China.
- Gasherbrum I (Hidden Peak), 8,080 m, and Gasherbrum II, about 8,035 m: the twin 8,000ers at the head of the Baltoro.
- Broad Peak, 8,051 m: K2's neighbour across the Godwin-Austen Glacier.
- Gasherbrum IV, 7,925 m: not an 8,000er, but its west face, the Shining Wall, dominates the upper Baltoro.
- Distaghil Sar, 7,885 m, and Batura Sar, 7,795 m: the giants of the Hispar and Batura ranges above Hunza.
- Masherbrum (K1), 7,821 m: the first peak the surveyors numbered, above the Hushe valley.
- Rakaposhi, 7,788 m: the great wall above the Karakoram Highway at Hunza and Nagar.
- Chogolisa, 7,665 m, and Baltoro Kangri, the Golden Throne, 7,312 m: the snow peaks south of Concordia.
- The Trango Towers (Great Trango, 6,286 m) and Laila Peak in Hushe (6,096 m): the granite spires and the perfect spear that photographers come for.
The glaciers
Few places outside the polar regions hold as much ice. The Siachen (about 70–76 km), Biafo (about 63–68 km), Baltoro (about 62 km), Batura (about 57 km) and Hispar (about 49 km) are among the longest glaciers outside the poles; their lengths depend on where you measure from. The Biafo and Hispar meet at the Hispar La, making a continuous ice route of more than 100 km that trekkers cross on the Snow Lake trek. The lower Baltoro, like many Karakoram glaciers, is buried under rock: more than a third of its surface is debris-covered.
The Karakoram anomaly
From the 1990s into the 2010s, many glaciers in the central and western Karakoram held steady or even gained a little mass, while glaciers across most of High Mountain Asia shrank. Scientists call this the Karakoram anomaly. Surging glaciers are common here too: in upper Hunza, the surging Shisper Glacier dammed a stream and has caused repeated outburst floods at Hassanabad since 2019. The causes of the anomaly aren't fully understood, and recent studies suggest it is weakening and unlikely to last as the climate warms.
Passes and the Karakoram Highway
The Karakoram Highway crosses the range to China at the Khunjerab Pass (4,693 m), with Pakistani customs at Sost. Completed in 1978–79 and opened to travellers in 1986, the highway runs about 1,200–1,300 km from near Islamabad to Kashgar, through the Indus gorges, Gilgit and Hunza; since December 2024 the border has officially been open all year. The Karakoram Pass itself, about 5,540 m on the old Leh–Yarkand caravan route at the range's eastern edge, carries no road today.
How to see the Karakoram
By road, drive the Karakoram Highway through Hunza, under Rakaposhi, Ultar and the Passu Cones, to the Khunjerab Pass. By air, the one-hour flight from Islamabad to Skardu passes Nanga Parbat, and our helicopter safari flies over the Baltoro to K2 and Concordia. From the valleys, Hunza looks up at Rakaposhi and Ultar, and Khaplu and Hushe at Masherbrum.
On foot is the best way of all. The K2 Base Camp trek walks up the Baltoro to Concordia in about seven days from Askole. Shorter treks reach Rakaposhi Base Camp in three days, and the Snow Lake traverse crosses the range's great ice sheet in two weeks.
The world's second-highest peak: where it stands and how to see it.
Open →Seven days up the Baltoro to Concordia, then on to the foot of K2.
Open →Fly over the Baltoro to K2 and Concordia in 75 minutes.
Open →The 62 km river of ice that leads to K2.
Open →Questions, answered
Where is the Karakoram Range?
Where Pakistan, China and India meet. Most of the range is in Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan; it extends into Ladakh and Xinjiang. It runs about 500 km, bounded by the Indus and Shyok rivers to the south.
What is the highest peak in the Karakoram?
K2, at 8,611 m the second-highest mountain on earth. The range has three more 8,000-metre peaks: Gasherbrum I (8,080 m), Broad Peak (8,051 m) and Gasherbrum II (about 8,035 m).
Is K2 in the Himalayas?
No. K2 is in the Karakoram, a separate range north of the Himalaya across the Indus and Shyok rivers. Nanga Parbat, also in Gilgit-Baltistan, is the western end of the Himalaya.
What does Karakoram mean?
It's Turkic for "black gravel". The name first belonged to the Karakoram Pass on the old caravan route between Ladakh and Yarkand and was later applied to the whole range.