Broad Peak: Facts, Height and How to See It

Broad Peak is the twelfth-highest mountain on earth, at 8,051 metres, standing in the Karakoram about 8 km from K2 on the border between Baltistan and China. Trekkers who walk the Baltoro glacier to Concordia see it for days, and those who carry on to K2 base camp walk right past the foot of it.

This is a facts page for people planning that walk or simply curious about the mountain. It covers the height and the summits, the climbing history up to the 2026 avalanche, and exactly where you see Broad Peak from.

How high is Broad Peak?

The main summit is 8,051 metres. That makes it the twelfth-highest of the world's fourteen mountains above 8,000 metres, and the fourth-highest of the five that stand in Pakistan, after K2, Nanga Parbat and Gasherbrum I. Our guide to the 8,000 metre peaks in Pakistan sets them side by side.

Broad Peak is a long wall with several tops along it, which is what makes it look so different from K2's single pyramid:

The Rocky Summit catches people out. The main summit is only 23 metres higher, but it lies further along the crest, at an altitude where every step is slow, and some climbers have turned back from the forepeak without reaching the true top.

Why is it called Broad Peak?

The English explorer Martin Conway named it in 1892, during his expedition up the Baltoro glacier. The summit ridge is more than 1.5 km long, and it reminded him of the Breithorn, the "broad horn" above Zermatt in the Alps.

You will sometimes see a Balti name, Falchan Kangri, given for the mountain. That is a modern literal translation of "broad peak" and is not a name Balti people themselves use.

Who climbed it first?

A German expedition under Karl Herrligkoffer tried the mountain in 1954 and was beaten back by storms and cold.

In 1957 a four-man Austrian team arrived: Marcus Schmuck, who led it, Fritz Wintersteller, Kurt Diemberger and Hermann Buhl, who had made the first ascent of Nanga Parbat four years earlier. They climbed the West Spur with no bottled oxygen and no high-altitude porters, carrying their own loads between camps. On 29 May, Wintersteller and Diemberger reached the Rocky Summit and realised the true top lay further on. On 9 June all four reached the main summit.

It was a new way to climb an 8,000 metre peak. The big mountains of the 1950s were being climbed by large expeditions with long lines of porters, and often with bottled oxygen. Broad Peak showed that a small team could do it on its own strength.

The story has a hard ending. Less than three weeks later, on 27 June 1957, Buhl was killed when a cornice broke under him on nearby Chogolisa. His body was never found.

Later history

• 1983. Krystyna Palmowska of Poland made the first ascent by a woman.
• 1984. Krzysztof Wielicki of Poland climbed it alone in a single day, in about 21.5 hours, the first one-day ascent of any 8,000 metre peak.
• 5 March 2013. A Polish team made the first winter ascent: Maciej Berbeka, Adam Bielecki, Tomasz Kowalski and Artur Malek. Berbeka and Kowalski did not return from the descent.
• July 2013. Three Iranian climbers opened a new route and died on the way down.
• 23 July 2016. The French pilot Antoine Girard flew a paraglider over the summit, the first such flight above an 8,000 metre top.
• 14 July 2019. Shehroze Kashif of Lahore reached the summit aged 17, the youngest person to do so.

The 2026 avalanche

Broad Peak is often described as one of the less difficult 8,000 metre peaks. The summer of 2026 was a reminder of what that phrase leaves out.

At about 9:30 am on 30 July 2026, an avalanche released at roughly 6,600 metres, between Camp 2 and Camp 3 on the normal route, and swept away ten climbers. According to the Alpine Club of Pakistan and the expedition company involved, none survived. The dead included the Nepali-British mountaineer Nirmal Purja, the Omani climber Nadhira Al Harthy, the American Mallory Geis, the Pakistani guide Sohail Sakhi and several Nepali Sherpa guides. Heavy snow had fallen on the mountain in the days before. It is the worst single accident in the mountain's history.

The accident happened high on the climbing route, far above anywhere trekkers go. It does not change the walk to Concordia, but it is why the mountain was in the news this year.

Where do trekkers see Broad Peak from?

Three places, in order as you walk in from Askole:

1. The upper Baltoro glacier. On the stages above the camp at Urdukas, at about 4,050 metres, the peaks at the head of the glacier come into view, Broad Peak among them.
2. Concordia, about 4,650 metres. At the glacier junction, K2 stands at the head of the Godwin-Austen glacier to the north and Broad Peak forms the whole right-hand side of that valley. The Gasherbrums close the view to the east. Our Concordia guide describes the camp.
3. Broad Peak base camp, about 4,850 metres. The day walk from Concordia to K2 base camp goes up the Godwin-Austen glacier directly beneath the west face. Trekking itineraries allow about four hours from Concordia to Broad Peak base camp and more again to K2 base camp at about 5,100 metres. In the climbing season you pass the expedition tents.

So there is no separate "Broad Peak trek". You see it on the K2 base camp trek, or on the Gondogoro La trek, which follows the same route up the Baltoro glacier before crossing to Hushe. Both start with a jeep from Skardu to Askole and take about two weeks on foot.

The Baltoro is a restricted area. Trekkers need a permit and a licensed guide, arranged through a registered operator; our trekking permit guide explains the process. July and August are the months, as set out in our guide to the best time for the K2 base camp trek.

You cannot see Broad Peak from Skardu or from any road. It is hidden behind the nearer ranges until you are well up the glacier. A few high passes reached on short treks claim a distant view on a clear day; our K2 view point guide covers those.

Is it worth planning around?

Not on its own. Nobody walks for two weeks to see Broad Peak alone; it comes as part of the reward for reaching Concordia, alongside K2 and the Gasherbrum peaks. What it adds is scale. K2 is a single shape at the end of the valley, while Broad Peak is beside you for a full day's walk, close enough to pick out the line of the climbing route.

If the Baltoro is beyond your time or fitness, be honest with yourself about that rather than hoping for a shortcut. There isn't one for this mountain.

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