Gilgit-Baltistan · 3,900 – 4,300 m
Four thousand metres up, and completely flat.
The place
Deosai is a plateau the size of a small country sitting at around 4,000 metres between Skardu and Astore. Nothing grows above knee height. For nine months of the year it is under snow and nobody is there at all.
In July and August the whole thing turns green and then flowers — a shallow, endless meadow with streams running across it and no trees anywhere. Himalayan brown bears live here, perhaps seventy of them, and are occasionally seen at distance in the early morning.
Sheosar Lake sits at the western end at 4,142 metres with Nanga Parbat visible behind it on a clear day. The crossing takes most of a day by jeep, and there is nothing between the two ends of it — no fuel, no signal, no shelter.
What people do here
01
4,142 m, deep blue, with Nanga Parbat behind it if the cloud lifts. Most people camp here rather than push on.
02
The main river crossing and the usual camp. Cold enough in August to need a proper bag.
03
Early morning, from a distance, with binoculars. Guides know which drainages they have been using this season.
Journeys
Editor’s pick
Deosai · Gilgit-Baltistan
Three days crossing the second-highest plateau on earth — Skardu to Sheosar, camping at Bara Pani, and out to Astore.
$340 per person
Next 24 Aug · 3 places left
Editor’s pick
Skardu · Gilgit-Baltistan
Seven days in Baltistan — Kachura, the cold desert, Shigar, and the full Deosai crossing with two nights on the plateau.
$940 per person
Next 22 Aug · 4 places left
Before you go
