Gilgit-Baltistan · 2,500 – 4,693 m
Glaciers on both sides of the road, and the Chinese border at the top.
The place
Gojal — Upper Hunza — begins where the Attabad tunnels end. Wakhi-speaking, higher, drier and emptier than the valley below it, running up to Khunjerab Pass at 4,693 metres.
Gulmit and Passu are the two places most people stay. Passu is a village of maybe forty households sitting between the Batura and Passu glaciers, directly beneath the rock spires everyone photographs and nobody climbs.
The Hussaini suspension bridge is here, and so is the walk to Borith Lake, and the glacier viewpoint above Passu. Beyond Sost the valley opens out into Khunjerab National Park, where the wildlife is Marco Polo sheep, ibex and, very occasionally, a snow leopard nobody sees.
What people do here
01
Ninety minutes up from the village to look straight down the ice. The path is loose in places and there is no shade.
02
Slats missing, wire handrails, a long drop to the river. It is a working bridge, not an attraction — villagers cross it daily.
03
4,693 metres, the highest paved border crossing in the world. Three hours from Passu, and cold at any time of year.
Journeys
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
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
