I travelled to Northern Pakistan naively thinking that only the people would defined the place. Yes, the people of this area, in the main, are friendly, approachable, generous and industrious but the mountains around which they live are…well, almost indescribable.
I spent three weeks going in between, around, over, through and beside the spectacular Karakorum, Himalaya and Hindu Kush mountain ranges.
One traveller I met told me she thought after a while the mountains looked the same. This could not be further from reality. Yes, there are similarities but you don’t need to look too closely to see differences.
From the craggy peaks, long steep sided slopes and valleys raging with glacial melt-waters of the Karakorum’s to the soaring heights of the Himalayas with deeply cut valleys that give way to alpine meadows and glaciers. And finally the Hindu Kush where loose rocks litter the high passes between a mixture of ragged peaks and rounded domes.