Thalle La Trek

Thalle La is a 4,572 metre pass linking the Thalle valley near Khaplu with the Shigar valley near Skardu, and it carries no glacier at all. That single fact is what sets it apart: it is one of very few unglaciated passes in Baltistan, which makes it the easiest high crossing in the region and the trek we most often recommend for a first time in the Karakoram.

The walking is three days, or four with a rest day at the pastures. You start from a jeep road at Thalle Broq, climb through farmed valley and open summer pasture, sleep a night at about 4,100 metres, and cross the pass to a view of Masherbrum (7,821 m) and the sharp cone of Mango Gusor (6,288 m) before dropping into Shigar.

There is no technical ground, no rope, no crampons in season and no trekking permit. What the trek does ask is a sensible acclimatisation plan, because you sleep high within two or three days of leaving sea level, and a tolerance for rough jeep roads at both ends.

We run Thalle La from Skardu with local Balti guides and a porter or pony team from the Thalle and Shigar villages, who have been using this crossing far longer than any of us. Read our full Thalle La trek guide for stage altitudes, season detail and costs.

The Thalle Lungma runs north-west off the Shyok river, 15 km west of Khaplu and about 85 km east of Skardu. Driving up the right bank of the Shyok you turn off at Doghoni, and a jeep road climbs roughly two hours to Thalle Broq at about 3,200 metres. This is where the walking starts.

Above Thalle Broq the valley is farmed and grazed most of the way. Olmo is the highest permanent summer settlement on this side, and beyond it the valley opens into pasture with stone shepherd huts and animals out on the grass. Higher up the valley forks: the north branch leads to the seldom-crossed Tusserpo La at 5,084 metres, the south branch to Thalle La.

From the high camp at about 4,100 metres it is a long walk up scree and grass to the pass at 4,572 metres, then a 900 metre descent to the meadows of Deserpa and down the Bauma Lungma to the Shigar roadhead. The crossing is walked in both directions, and we pick the direction on the day based on jeep positions and how the group is acclimatising.

Easy pass, awkward access. The walking itself is undemanding: no glacier, no exposure, no rope work, and days of five to seven hours at a steady pace with a porter or pony carrying the load. A fit fourteen-year-old manages it comfortably.

What makes it more than a stroll is everything around the walking. You sleep at about 4,100 metres two or three days after leaving sea level, the jeep roads at both ends are rough and worse after rain, the camps have no facilities at all, and weather at 4,500 metres in the Karakoram turns fast in any month. Take the acclimatisation seriously and it is well within reach for anyone with multi-day hill walking behind them.

Late June to mid September is the window. Before mid June there is still snow lying on the pass and the high camp, and the streams run high with melt. From late June into July the pass is clear, the pastures are at their greenest and the shepherds are in residence, which is the liveliest time to be in the valley.

September gives the clearest air and the sharpest views of Masherbrum, at the cost of cold nights that drop below freezing at the high camp. After late September the pastures empty and the first snow can close the pass without much warning.

Thalle La is in an open zone, so no trekking permit, no fee and no liaison officer. A Pakistan tourist visa is the whole of the paperwork. This surprises people because the far more famous Baltistan treks, the Baltoro and K2 base camp, sit in the restricted zone where a permit is required; several listings borrow that language for Thalle La by mistake.

Ghanche is a border district, so you will pass army check posts on the Khaplu road where passports and visas are written into a ledger. Carry photocopies and allow a few minutes each time. Access is by air or road to Skardu, then jeep to the Thalle valley roadhead, with the return jeep from Shigar. We plan a contingency day around the Skardu flight as a matter of course.

Thalle La sits at 4,572 metres, or exactly 15,000 feet, between the Thalle valley in Ghanche district and the Shigar valley to the west. Digital terrain models put the actual crossing point nearer 4,830 metres, so your watch may read higher at the top than the published figure; either way it is well below the 6,000 metre line where Pakistan's rules change. Between 1891 and 1947 the British used this pass as the preferred link between Skardu and Khaplu, because unlike the river route it offered grazing the whole way for pack animals.

The reason people come is the view from the top. Masherbrum, 7,821 metres, is the peak the Survey of India catalogued as K1 before anyone had noticed K2, and it fills the skyline across the valley. Beside it stands the sharp cone of Mango Gusor at 6,288 metres, with the ridgelines running back towards the Baltoro. On a clear September morning the view runs a very long way.

We are based in Gilgit-Baltistan and run Thalle La with Balti guides and a porter and pony team from the Thalle and Shigar villages, on a crossing local families have used for generations. We build the four-day version with a night at 4,100 metres as standard rather than rushing the pass in three, and we plan a contingency day around the Skardu flight, because that flight is the single thing most likely to move your dates.