Stories & memories
What the mountains give back
Itineraries fade. These don't. Field notes from our seasons in the valleys, and from the travelers who lived them with us.
Field notes from a family departure · Fairy Meadows, June
Three generations, one meadow, and the mountain that silenced them all
Grandma Renate was the one we worried about. She was also, it turned out, the one we needn't have.
Read the story →
Field notes from a Baltoro expedition · Concordia, August
The long way to Concordia: fourteen days to the throne room
There is a moment, two hours past Goro II, when the trek stops being about endurance and becomes something closer to ceremony.
Read the story →
Field notes from blossom season · Hunza, April
Blossom week: when Hunza turns pink and the photographers go quiet
Blossom doesn't arrive in Hunza so much as climb it, village by village, a hundred metres of altitude at a time.
Read the story →
Field notes from a winter expedition · Khunjerab, February
Tracking shadows: a winter week waiting for the grey ghost
You do not find a snow leopard. You arrange your week so that a snow leopard might consent to be found.
Read the story →
Field notes from the Shandur festival · July
Dust and drums at Shandur: three days at the top of the polo world
Nobody warned me that the world's highest polo ground would also be the loudest, coldest, happiest place I'd sleep all year.
Read the story →
Field notes from a Hunza winter · January
Winter morning in Hunza: the valley nobody told me about
Everyone plans Hunza for blossom or autumn gold. I came in January by accident of timing, and I would now defend that accident with my life.
Read the story →
Field notes from Gulmit · March
The music school of Gulmit: an evening where the old songs live
I have spent twenty years convincing teenagers to practise. In Gulmit I met a room full of them who needed convincing to stop.
Read the story →
Editorial · The creators bringing Gilgit-Baltistan to the world
Riding the Karakoram: The Year the World Watched Northern Pakistan
In August 2025, one of the world's most-watched motorcycle travelers pointed her bike at the Karakoram — and millions of viewers rode along through Skardu, Hunza and valleys most maps barely name.
Read the story →Editorial · Women travelers, in their own words
Solo Women in the Karakoram: What 2025's Travelers Actually Reported
A blogger who spent five months traveling Pakistan alone called the north the safest, most welcoming region she found. She wasn't the only woman who came back saying so.
Read the story →Editorial · Off-season in the high Karakoram
A Winter Drive to the China Border, and Other Off-Season Truths
Every guide says come between May and October. Two published accounts of deep-winter Gilgit-Baltistan explain what happens when you don't — the hardship, and why neither traveler regretted it.
Read the story →Start the conversation
Your story starts with an email
Tell us your dates, interests and pace — we'll design a private itinerary with local guides, reliable 4x4s and hand-picked stays.