Gilgit-Baltistan · 2,438 m at Karimabad
Where apricot orchards meet the Karakoram.
The place
A single valley, forty kilometres long, with 7,000-metre mountains standing at either end of it. People have farmed the terraces here for a very long time, and the irrigation channels that make it possible are cut into cliffs above the Hunza River.
Karimabad sits on the north side of the valley, stacked up a slope beneath Ultar Sar, with Baltit Fort at the top of it and Altit Fort a few kilometres below. Across the river, Rakaposhi fills the sky — 7,788 metres, and close enough that from Minapin you look almost straight up at the ice.
The valley is unusually literate, unusually old, and unusually easy to travel in. Most people speak Burushaski, a language related to nothing else on earth. Guesthouses are family-run, the road is paved, and the walking starts within ten minutes of anywhere you might stay.
Spring brings apricot and cherry blossom through late March and April. Autumn turns the poplars and the terraces gold from the last week of September. Both are short. Both are the reason people come back.
What people do here
01
Two restored forts, 700 and 1,100 years old. The Altit restoration by the Aga Khan Trust is the better piece of work; go early, before the tour groups.
02
A twenty-minute drive above Duikar for the view down the valley. Rakaposhi, Diran, Golden Peak and Ultar all catch the sun within about eight minutes of each other.
03
A steep four-hour walk from Karimabad to a shepherds' summer settlement below the Ultar glacier. No technical ground, a lot of ascent.
04
Formed by a landslide in 2010 that dammed the Hunza River and drowned four villages. Now improbably turquoise, with boats running from Shishkat.
Journeys
Editor’s pick
Nagar Valley · Gilgit-Baltistan
Four days beneath Rakaposhi, walking through walnut orchards, alpine pastures and villages that sit directly beneath the Karakoram.
$420 per person
Next 5 Sep · 8 places left
Editor’s pick
Upper Hunza · Gilgit-Baltistan
Five days in Gojal — Passu, Borith, Sost and the pass at 4,693 metres, taken slowly enough that the altitude doesn't ruin it.
$610 per person
Next 7 Sep · 7 places left
Editor’s pick
Hunza · Gilgit-Baltistan
Seven days in the valley during the two weeks the apricot trees are in flower — Karimabad, Nagar, Gulmit and the terraces above them.
$890 per person
Next 28 Mar · 6 places left
Nagar Valley · Gilgit-Baltistan
The same shelf at 3,300 metres, run lean: bigger group, shared tents, and everything you don't strictly need left behind.
$390 per person
Next 8 Sep · 9 places left
Reduced
Nagar Valley · Gilgit-Baltistan
Five days instead of four, four people instead of twelve, and a night either side in Karimabad. The same mountain, taken properly.
$575
$640
per person
Next 12 Sep · 2 places left
Upper Hunza · Gilgit-Baltistan
Seven days built around light rather than distance — pre-dawn starts, long stops, and nothing scheduled between eleven and four.
$1,180 per person
Next 28 Sep · 2 places left
Before you go
Within Hunza
