Gilgit-Baltistan

Fairy Meadows: the walk to the Märchenwiese

German climbers named it the fairy-tale meadow. There is no road to it, which is most of the reason it is still worth going.

6 min read Fairy Meadows

Fairy Meadows is a grass shelf at 3,300 metres in Diamer district, facing the Rakhiot side of Nanga Parbat. Locals call it Joot. The name everyone else uses is a translation of Märchenwiese — fairy-tale meadow — which is what German mountaineers called it, and which is either sentimental or exactly right depending on what the weather is doing when you arrive.

It was made a national park in 1995, and since 2021 has been part of the larger Nanga Parbat National Park.

A short history

The meadow's history is mostly the mountain's history. It sits at the foot of the Rakhiot face, which is the route German expeditions used through the 1930s and the one Hermann Buhl came down in 1953 after the first ascent. The name stuck from those expeditions.

As a destination in its own right it is recent. Local operators have run the camps since about 1992, and the huts and tented sites on the meadow are community businesses rather than hotel chains. The hospitality on the meadow brings in something in the order of 17 million rupees a year, which in a district with few other opportunities is a significant part of why the forest is still standing.

Places worth your time

The meadow itself: Coniferous forest — pine, spruce and fir — on the north-facing slopes, juniper scrub on the southern ones, and open grass in the middle looking straight at an eight-thousander.
Beyal camp: An hour or two further on and higher, and for most people the walk they remember best. The mountain gets closer in a way that is hard to prepare for.
Rakhiot base camp: A long day from the meadow and back, onto the glacier moraine under the face. Proper walking, and worth a full day with an early start.
The night sky: No road, no town, no light within a very long way. Take the extra night purely for this.

What makes it special

The fact that you have to walk

A 15-kilometre jeep track runs from Raikot Bridge on the Karakoram Highway up to Tato village. It is narrow, unsurfaced and driven only by local drivers who know it, which is the correct arrangement. From Tato it is about five kilometres on foot, three to four hours, and there is no alternative. Nothing motorised reaches the meadow.

That single fact does all the work. It sets the number of people on the meadow at any one time, it means the last hour of your journey is spent at walking pace with the mountain coming gradually into view rather than arriving all at once through a windscreen, and it means that when you sit down in the evening you have earned the view in a literal sense. Plenty of beautiful places have been improved by a road. This one has been protected by not having one.

Before you go

June to September; the track and the meadow are under snow outside that. Two nights minimum — one is a lot of travelling for a single evening. Pack warm regardless of the month, and expect no phone signal at all.

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