“The world’s greatest museum of shape and form” is how Italian mountaineer/author Fosco Maraini described Concordia in his book, Karakoram. In Concordia, six peaks over 7,925 meters rise to touch the heavens, including K2 (8,611 m) the 2nd highest mountain on earth. After visiting Islamabad, we fly to Skardu and then drive to the trail head and meet our colorful expedition porters, sturdy mountain men. As we trek up to this other-worldly place we enter a remarkable wilderness of ice, rock and sky. By the time we reach Paiju Camp at the foot of the Baltoro Glacier, we begin to feel the pulse of creation: the ice melts the rocks roll , and the glacier creaks and groans, rearranging its icy rivers. When we reach Concordia we are rewarded with the most incredible mountain views in the world, virtually surrounded by

K2 , Broad Peak (8,051 m), Gasherbrum IV (7,925 m), and razor- edged Mitre Peak. Our return trek is by way of the Gondogoro La (5,600 m) , a challenging hike skirting the Gondogoro Glacier, and down to the green irrigated fields

of the Hushe Valley. This is an exciting, challenging trek, geared for hikers with previous high altitude mountain trekking experience.