Snow Lake & Hispar La

This trek crosses the Karakoram from the inside. It links Askole in the Braldu valley to Hispar in Nagar by going up the Biafo Glacier, across the Snow Lake basin, over the Hispar La at about 5,151 metres, and down the Hispar Glacier on the far side. Snow Lake, known locally as Lukpe Lawo, is a firn basin more than 16 kilometres wide at the head of the two glaciers, sitting around 4,700 metres. End to end it is roughly 120 kilometres of almost unbroken glacier, one of the longest contiguous ice systems outside the poles.

What sets it apart is the scale of the wilderness and the total commitment. There are no villages, lodges, teahouses or resupply between Askole and Hispar; everything is carried by porters and you are self-sufficient for the whole crossing. Baintha at about 4,041 metres on the Biafo is a rare patch of green and the standard acclimatisation stop. From the Hispar La the Karakoram opens up around you, with Kanjut Sar, Distaghil Sar and Kunyang Chhish on the skyline.

We will be blunt: this is the hardest trek we sell. It is non-technical in the sense that there are no climbing moves, but it is days of roped travel across crevassed glacier, navigation across the featureless white of Snow Lake where a whiteout leaves nothing to steer by, and a high pass with no easy way off the ice once you start. You need prior high-altitude trekking experience, comfort on crampons, and basic rope skills before you join. This is not a first big trek.

We run it fully supported with a licensed guide, a roped porter team that crosses these glaciers every season, all camping kit and every permit. The marketed length runs to 18 to 22 days because it folds in travel from Islamabad, acclimatisation and weather contingency, which on a route this committing is not padding but safety margin. The price is USD 3,800 per person.

From Skardu a jeep runs to Askole at about 3,015 metres, the last village. The walk goes up the Braldu to Namla at roughly 3,571 metres, then Mango near 3,715 metres, before stepping onto the Biafo Glacier and climbing it to Baintha at about 4,041 metres. We rest here to acclimatise; it is the last grass for a long time. Above Baintha the glacier leads through Karphogoro at around 4,298 metres to the Snow Lake basin at roughly 4,700 metres.

Snow Lake is the heart of the trek and the navigational crux. The basin is so wide and so uniform that in poor light there is no horizon and no landmark, which is why the weather window is narrow and a guide who knows the ground matters. From the Hispar La base camp near 4,585 metres, the crossing of the Hispar La at about 5,151 metres is the high point of the route.

The far side is a long descent of the Hispar Glacier through Kani Basa at roughly 4,468 metres, Jutmal near 4,168 metres and Bitanmal at about 3,765 metres, with river crossings as the ice gives way to moraine and then meadow. The trek ends at Hispar village at around 2,300 metres, where a jeep carries you out to Karimabad in Hunza.

Among the hardest non-technical treks in the Karakoram, and the most committing route on our list. The difficulty is not in climbing moves but in days of roped glacier travel, sustained altitude, full self-sufficiency and the simple fact that once you are on the ice there is no exit, no road and no village to bail to. Evacuation from the middle of Snow Lake is slow and hard.

The specific hazards are real. Crevasses mean the team travels roped, and you need to be comfortable in a harness moving on snow bridges. Whiteouts on Snow Lake stop navigation dead. Add the usual altitude risks of AMS, HAPE and HACE above 4,500 metres, and the river crossings on the Hispar descent. We require prior high-altitude experience and crampon and rope competence before we take a booking, and we mean it.

July and August, and effectively only then. The crossing needs the snow bridges over the crevasses to still be intact but the weather settled enough to risk Snow Lake and the Hispar La, and that combination only lines up in high summer. Earlier and the snowpack is deep and unstable; later and the bridges start collapsing and storms move in. It is one of the shortest reliable windows of any trek we run.

Because the window is so tight, we build in spare days and treat the forecast as advisory. Sitting out a storm at Baintha or below the pass is part of the trip, and forcing a crossing of Snow Lake in a whiteout is exactly the mistake this route punishes.

The classic route over the Hispar La, from Askole up the Biafo Glacier to Snow Lake and down the Hispar Glacier to Nagar, is listed by the Ministry of Tourism as an open-zone trek, so no trekking permit is needed for it. The Biafo lies inside Central Karakoram National Park, so the park's entry fee applies. Variants that leave Snow Lake over the Lukpe La to Shimshal or the Sim La to the Panmah Glacier are in the restricted zone and need a trekking permit. We arrange the park fee and any permits, and we build the porter team and the rope logistics that a glacier traverse needs rather than a standard trail crew.

Access is by air or road to Skardu and jeep to Askole, with the exit at Hispar leading out to Hunza, so this is a true traverse and not an out-and-back. There is no resupply for the whole crossing, which is why the marketed 18 to 22 days includes the contingency this route demands. If you want a serious objective that is shorter or less committing, our K2 Base Camp trek and the Rush Lake trek are described below.

Snow Lake, known locally as Lukpe Lawo, is a vast high-altitude glacial basin at the head of the Biafo Glacier in the Karakoram of Gilgit-Baltistan, and the Hispar La is the 5,151-metre pass that links it westward to the Hispar Glacier. Together they form the Biafo-Hispar traverse, which crosses from Askole in the Shigar valley, near the K2 trailhead, over the watershed and down to Hispar village in Nagar, upper Hunza. There are no villages, roads or shelter for the eight or more days between the two ends, so the whole crossing is self-contained: you walk in from one side of the Karakoram and come out the other, carrying everything with you.

Linked end to end at the Hispar La, the Biafo and Hispar glaciers form a roughly 100-kilometre river of ice, one of the longest continuous glacier systems outside the polar regions. At its heart, Snow Lake spreads out as a huge, almost level snow basin ringed by the spires of the Latok group and the Ogre (Baintha Brakk), a view so unusual that early explorers debated whether it was a true ice cap. Nearly all the crossing is spent on the glacier itself, roped up and travelling over snow that hides crevasses, which is why this is the hardest trek we run and strictly a July-to-August, fully-guided undertaking. The reward is a wilderness traverse that very few trekkers ever complete.

This is a route you do not attempt with a crew booked for the week. We are based in Gilgit-Baltistan and run Snow Lake with guides and porters who cross the Biafo and Hispar every season and know where the snow bridges hold. We rope and pace the team for crevassed travel, carry real weather and acclimatisation margin, and screen bookings for the high-altitude and rope experience the trek needs. All permits, the CKNP fee, the full glacier-trained support team and camping kit are included.