Cycling the Karakoram Highway

Overview

The Karakoram Highway is the highest paved international road on earth, climbing from the heat of Islamabad's plains to the Khunjerab Pass at 4,693m on the Pakistan–China border. Cycling it is an act of sustained commitment: three weeks of daily effort against altitude, gradient, and the relentless scale of the Karakoram and Hindu Kush ranges. Leave Islamabad in the cool of early morning. The first four days cross Punjab's agricultural flatlands — deceptively easy, deceptively hot. The road kicks up at Besham, where the Indus Gorge narrows and the mountains close in. From here everything becomes spectacular and everything becomes hard. The Indus is a constant companion, pewter-grey and violent, as the road clings to cliff faces blasted out of the rock. Karimabad in Hunza Valley is the trip's emotional midpoint. The fort of Baltit stands above the terraced apricot orchards, framed by the 7,788m pyramid of Rakaposhi. Rest two nights. Buy dried mulberries from roadside stalls. Let the altitude begin its acclimatisation work. The final push to Khunjerab crosses the Attabad Lake tunnel system, built after a 2010 landslide created a 22km lake overnight. You'll pass the turquoise water and the otherworldly Passu Cones — a row of cathedral spires rising straight from the valley floor — before the road tilts up to the pass itself. At Khunjerab, on a clear day, K2 is visible to the east. There is no better reward for three weeks of pedalling.

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Alex Summit3mo ago

Did this solo in August 2023. The KKH above Chilas is legitimately scary — road is one lane cut into a cliff with a 300m drop and trucks coming the other way. But Hunza Valley erases all memory of the bad bits. Karimabad is magic.

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Maya Trails3mo ago

Altitude hit me hard at Khunjerab. Took two days to acclimatise in Sust before tackling the pass. Take the Diamox seriously, don't think you can skip it because you're fit.