03/01/2025
Back to the Hippie Trail: CNN names Gilgit-Baltistan on its list of 2025 must visit destinations
Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) has been included in a list of the top 25 destinations worth visiting in 2025 curated by US-based broadcaster CNN.
Thousands of tourists and foreign climbers visit the region annually for expeditions on various peaks, paragliding and other activities.
In the list published on Wednesday, CNN Travel said, “The Gilgit-Baltistan region in the Karakoram Mountains isn’t the easiest place to get to — flight schedules can be unreliable, roads can be blocked off seasonally — but it has more tantalising peaks than a lemon meringue pie.
“It’s home to five of the 14 ‘eight-thousander’ peaks recognised as the world’s highest. That includes K2, the world’s second-tallest mountain but No. 1 in terms of difficulty and danger,” the broadcaster said.
CNN Travel added that hiking in GB “makes the Himalayas look like a traipse in Central Park” but added that travelling alone is “not an option”.
Though 2024 saw a surge in mountaineering expeditions in GB, nine mountaineers were killed while attempting to summit various peaks, according to the Alpine Club of Pakistan.
Five of these climbers were from Japan, one from Russia, one from Brazil and two were from Pakistan.
On July 3, 2024, a Japanese climber died after falling into a crevasse while descending the 7,027-metre Spantik Peak, also known as Golden Peak, situated in Gilgit-Baltistan’s Nagar district.
Nagar Deputy Commissioner (DC) Ataur Rehman told Dawn.com that a Japanese expedition team — comprising Naka Jimatoshiya, Onishi Hiroshi, Izumi Ryoma and Matsumoto Shuji — already summited the peak after starting their journey from Hoper Valley earlier.
News courtesy dawn.com
