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 Pakistan–China border. Trekkers who walk to Concordia see it every day of the final approach: a long, broad-shouldered wall of rock and ice that gives the mountain its English name.

This is a facts page rather than a trek guide. It covers the mountain's height and history, and where you actually see it if you are planning the walk in.

How high is Broad Peak?

Broad Peak rises to 8,051 metres, making it the twelfth-highest mountain in the world and one of fourteen peaks above 8,000 metres. It sits on the border between Gilgit-Baltistan and China's Xinjiang region, in the Karakoram range, close enough to K2 that the two mountains share the same base camp approach up the Baltoro glacier.

The name comes from its shape rather than any measurement: a wide, multi-summited ridge roughly 1.5 km across at the top, quite different from the single sharp point of most of its 8,000-metre neighbours.

Who first climbed it?

Broad Peak was first summited on 9 June 1957 by an Austrian team: Hermann Buhl, Kurt Diemberger, Marcus Schmuck and Fritz Wintersteller. What made the climb notable was how they did it. All four reached the top together, without supplemental oxygen, without fixed high camps stocked by porters, and without a large siege-style expedition behind them, a style of climbing that was unusual for an 8,000-metre peak at the time and became a model for later lightweight ascents.

Since then Broad Peak has been climbed by most of the world's leading high-altitude mountaineers on their way through the 8,000-metre list, and it is generally regarded as one of the less technically demanding of the fourteen, though "less demanding" at that altitude still means serious mountaineering, not trekking.

Where you see it from

Almost nobody who isn't climbing it sees Broad Peak up close. What trekkers see is the view from a distance, on the walk up the Baltoro glacier to Concordia, the glacier junction where K2, Broad Peak, the Gasherbrums and Chogolisa all stand in view of one camp. Broad Peak's long ridge fills a large part of the skyline to the south-east of K2 on that final stretch, and it is one of the mountains most trekkers photograph without ever setting foot on its slopes.

Reaching that viewpoint means walking the K2 base camp trek or the Gondogoro La trek, both of which pass within sight of Broad Peak on the approach up the Baltoro glacier from Askole. There is no separate trekking route to Broad Peak itself; its own base camp, used by climbing expeditions, sits close to K2 base camp and is not visited by ordinary trekkers.

Broad Peak base camp for climbers

Mountaineering expeditions use a base camp near the foot of the mountain, reached the same way trekkers reach Concordia and K2 base camp: on foot from Askole, over the Baltoro glacier, with a jeep transfer from Skardu at either end. Because Broad Peak and K2 share so much of the same approach, some expeditions attempt both peaks in a single season from adjoining camps.

Climbing Broad Peak itself is a serious undertaking, restricted to the July–August window when the route is in condition, and it is not something a general trekking trip attempts. For a Pakistani traveller, seeing the mountain from Concordia, rather than climbing it, is the realistic goal.

Is it worth planning around?

Not on its own. Nobody plans a trip specifically to see Broad Peak; it comes as part of the wider reward for walking to Concordia, alongside K2 and the Gasherbrums. If your aim is the classic view of all four giants together, the K2 base camp trek is the route, and Broad Peak's long wall is simply the mountain on the right as you look at K2.

Frequently asked questions