The devastating floods were yet to hit Pakistan, but the lingering effects of the spring heatwaves and the monsoon made for an interesting journey to Hunza.

Fog in the mountains hampered our attempt to fly to Gilgit so, with no flights for the rest of the week, we opted for the long and exciting journey by road. The bus along the Karakoram Highway would prove fruitless too. After travelling all night we were evicted at a security checkpoint deep in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The road ahead was lost to a landslide and the police were unwilling to let two foreign tourists continue. Their ultimatum: either the bus would have to turn around, or we had to leave. The bus driver was incredibly helpful and organised for a local to take us back to Islamabad. While waiting, we sheltered from the torrential rain along with our bags under the dripping tarp of a sandbag weapon emplacement, sat next to a large machine gun. Surreal. We finally arrived in the Hunza district’s capital Karimabad on our third attempt, after a 14hr drive through the stunning Kaghan valley, this time in a private car. We had only a day in Karimabad to pick up the last of our supplies, including dried apricots and nuts, something Hunza is famous for, with every rooftop littered with trays of drying fruits. Wahab, an experienced Shimshali mountain guide and our fixer, met us early the following morning with his friend Rehmat, a driver well-seasoned to ferrying tourists to the Shimshal valley.

The onward journey to Shimshal was an incredible, if somewhat hair-raising, 4x4 trip through a deep canyon, eventually emerging into the broad Shimshal valley. Here we met the rest of our team - three porters and two donkeys - and spent the rest of the day enjoying the vast mountain views, the friendly hospitality of our hosts, and delicious meals cooked from produce grown in the valley. We reached our basecamp in the main Gunj-e Dur valley (c 4400m) three days later, after a simply amazing trek, a committing and exposed traverse along the steep canyon walls high above the Pamir-e Tang river. The long days were interspersed with frequent tea breaks at any one of the numerous stone shepherds’ huts. The dried scrub that littered the canyon made ideal material for a fire. This was the highlight of the trip; the full trek to the Shimshal Pass was well worth experiencing in itself.

We established our basecamp next to an old shepherd’s hut, this one making use of an enormous boulder as a roof. We bid farewell to Wahab and the porters after tea and lunch together, then spent the rest of day performing the chores necessary on any expedition if living in close proximity – washing, first the laundry, then ourselves. This trip will especially be remembered for the large bath-like pools found on the small streams leading into the huge sediment-laden torrent below. Absolutely freezing if you’re wondering! Then back to camp for our first night alone and to prepare ourselves for the challenge ahead. After a further two days acclimatising and moving kit higher up, we established an advanced base camp at 4800m, on an area of flat ground below the terminal moraine of the Second East Gunj-e Dur glacier. We could have been on another planet, already far above any vegetation. Two days of reconnoitring the largely unexplored glacier followed, trying our best to scout out potential routes in the poor visibility. The effect of the spring heatwaves was clear, with many previously snowy slopes reduced to bare ice or incredibly loose rock.

Conditions were not looking hopeful, but on the second day we spied two promising-looking peaks, with routes that shared the same glacial approach. To help with acclimatisation, and to make for an easier summit attempt, we dropped kit at the base of the routes below the terminus of the side glacier and returned the next day to establish a bivvy. At long last summit day arrived. We woke early and set off up the steep moraine in darkness. As dawn approached, we climbed above the cloud to magnificent views across the Gunj-e Dur valley and the mountains beyond. The climb continued up the glacier; we were aiming for the saddle point between the two peaks. By the time we reached the col at 5600m, Rob was suffering with Acute Mountain Sickness, thwarting an attempt to climb the rocky, pinnacled ridge of the higher peak, our main objective. With no easy descent, being stuck high on a rocky pinnacle with worsening altitude sickness was just too risky to contemplate. We decided to try the lower, snowy peak, as we could quickly and easily descend the glacier if needed. But after a short distance, the snow conditions worsened and we soon found ourselves on windslab, with alarmingly large cracks radiating across the snow with each footstep. It was clear that it would be unsafe to continue, with us almost certainly triggering an avalanche. We had to make the difficult decision to retreat to the col, and with options for the day eliminated we descended to the bivvy. On the descent we saw the debris of two recent avalanches on the summit slopes.

Later that day we made the extremely difficult decision to call an early end to the expedition when we received worrying updates over the satellite phone of the devastating and widespread flooding across Pakistan. With our difficulties of travelling to Hunza in the forefront of our minds, we decided to use our remaining days to ensure we could make our return flights home. We reluctantly called Wahab and began the laborious process of moving kit back down to basecamp in time to meet the porters. The decision to head back early was a difficult one and played heavily on our minds, although we believe we made correct call with the information we had at the time. The silver lining was spending a few days exploring the Hunza valley with its fascinating history and beautiful scenery of towering 7000m+ mountains.

A massive thank you to the Mount Everest Foundation and the British Mountaineering Council for their financial support, without which this expedition wouldn’t have been possible.

Tarimabad with Baltit Fort and Ultar Star above

End of the road; loading donkeys

Final camp above Shimshal village

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