Field notes.

Reporting from the valleys — the people who live there, what the seasons actually do, and the practicalities nobody puts in a brochure.

The Passu Cones and village lit by evening light beneath a clouded sky

Reported · Gojal · 7 min read

Beyond the Cones: Life in Upper Hunza

Passu has forty households, two glaciers and a mountain on every postcard of Pakistan. What it does not have is a straightforward relationship with any of it.

By Sana Rehman, Contributing editor

02 The Shepherds of the High Pastures Every June, families from Nagar move their animals to 3,000 metres and stay until September. The stone huts trekkers walk past… Reported · Nagar · 5 min read
03 Why Deosai Feels Like Another Planet A plateau at 4,000 metres with no trees, no buildings and no horizon you can identify. The disorientation is geological, and it… Essay · Deosai · 6 min read
04 The Road to Khunjerab The Karakoram Highway took twenty years to build and killed roughly one worker per two kilometres. Most people drive its final… History · Khunjerab · 5 min read
05 Autumn in the Karakoram Three weeks in October when the poplars turn, the crowds have gone and the light comes in at an angle that makes the whole… Seasons · Hunza · 4 min read
06 What a Porter Carries Twenty-five kilos, a fixed daily rate, and a union that took thirty years to establish. The economics of the Baltoro, explained. Reported · Baltistan · 6 min read