Highway to Heaven - Karakoram

It was the winter of 2016 and I along with a group of 4 friends planned a trip to Gilgit-Baltistan in Pakistan, where the new Karakoram Highway is being built. It’s most famous for its connecting China and Pakistan for trade. Karakoram Highway is one of the highest paved roads internationally. It is also famous for being the world’s most difficult alpine climbs. While driving on Karakoram, we have to watch out for the hairpin curves and some very dangerous drop-offs. It is at an elevation of 4,693m above sea level. During the construction of this road, 810 Pakistanis 82 Chinese constructors lost their lives due to falls and landslides. Some patches of Silk Road can also be seen on the mountain ranges. The road is 1300Km long, passing through Pak-China border – Khunjerab Pass.

Picture Credits: Pamir Times

The roads of this highway are one of the best in Pakistan and its bikers abode, every other day we get to know that a group of bikers which includes men and women from Pakistan, who go riding their bikes on this highway.
We booked a trip with the most famous Paramount Adventures in Pakistan who take tourists on trips to the Northern areas of Pakistan. We started our journey from Islamabad on a big coaster, with more tourists on board besides a group of us 5. It took us about 21 hours, without any stops in between to reach Gilgit-Baltistan and then the Karakoram highway started. It was a smooth ride, on one side of the road there were mountains and on the other side there was River Indus flowing with high mountain ranges.

Picture Credits: Dawn

Picture Credits: Travel Destinations

We reached our resting spot in Hunza after a long 6 hour drive on the Karakoram Highway. Hunza was a princely state touching the borders of Uyghurstan also called Xinjiang. On the way to Hunza, we saw the Cone mountain range as well in the small city of Passu – it was such a serene, unusual view of mountains, nothing like I have ever seen before. The cones were covered halfway through with clouds, and there was thunder happening on that side of the mountains, the lightening could be clearly seen.

Picture Credits: Paki Holic