Muztagh Pass: The Old Baltoro Crossing to Xinjiang

The Muztagh Pass (also spelt Mustagh) is an old glacier crossing on the border between Gilgit-Baltistan and China's Xinjiang, high in the Baltoro Muztagh range north-east of the Trango Towers. The main or "Old" pass is at about 5,422 metres. It was once the shortest route from Yarkand to Skardu, but ice made it impassable to caravans in the 19th century, and today it is not an open crossing: no trek in Pakistan goes over it.

It is famous for one journey. In 1887 Francis Younghusband, a 24-year-old British officer travelling overland from Peking, crossed it on foot with a handful of local men and came down onto the Baltoro glacier. This guide covers where the pass is, that crossing, why you can't follow it now, and how it differs from Muztagh Tower.

Where is the Muztagh Pass?

The pass sits on the main crest of the Baltoro Muztagh, the stretch of the Karakoram that holds K2 and the Gasherbrums. On the Pakistani side the ice falls towards the Baltoro glacier, the route trekkers follow to Concordia and K2 base camp. On the far side is the Sarpo Laggo glacier in Xinjiang, whose meltwater runs down a valley towards the Shaksgam river and, beyond that, the old caravan towns of Yarkand.

In a straight line the pass is about 10 km west of Muztagh Tower and about 43 km east-north-east of Askole, the last village on the Pakistani side. The land north of the crest, including the Sarpo Laggo and the Shaksgam valley, is administered by China under the boundary agreement Pakistan and China signed in 1963; India disputes that agreement.

There are in fact two passes. Younghusband described an old pass, which had been abandoned for thirty or forty years because of the ice that had built up on it, and a newer one that had been in partial use until about ten years before his visit. Wikipedia puts them about 16 km apart. The newer one leads down to the Panmah (Punmah) glacier rather than the Baltoro.

How did Younghusband cross it in 1887?

Younghusband left Peking on 4 April 1887, crossed the Gobi and reached Yarkand, then turned south towards the Karakoram. His own account, published by the Royal Geographical Society and reprinted in the Alpine Journal in 1888, is the best source for what happened next.

1. Up the Sarpo Laggo. His party followed the Sarpo Laggo river and saw K2 from the north, "straight, bold, and solitary".
2. Ponies on the glacier. They dragged their ponies up the Mustagh glacier for several days, marking a route with small cairns.
3. The new pass is ruled out. Two men went to look at the new pass and reported that ponies could not get down it. Younghusband left the ponies with three men and set off over the old pass with the rest, carrying almost nothing.
4. The summit. They reached the top at midday after hours of knee-deep snow, at what he estimated as about 19,000 feet, and found the old descent blocked by fallen ice.
5. The descent. A guide named Wali tied a rope round his waist and cut steps across a steep ice slope above a drop. Below a cliff, the party tied together every rope, turban and waistband they had and let themselves down one by one. They reached the bottom at sunset.
6. The Baltoro and Askole. After a night out on the glacier they came onto the Baltoro the next morning, then walked for that day and two more to reach Askole.

He then tried to get back to his ponies by the new pass, going up the Punmah glacier, but was stopped three marches from Askole by ice blocks "as big as houses". The ponies went round by the Karakoram Pass to Leh instead. Younghusband travelled on via Skardu and Kashmir and reached Rawalpindi on 4 November, seven months after leaving Peking. The Royal Geographical Society later gave him its Patron's Medal.

Has anyone crossed it since?

Very few. Before Younghusband, the surveyor Godwin-Austen had come close to the top of the new pass from the south in the early 1860s and turned back in bad weather. Afterwards, Wikipedia records only two further crossings: an Italian exploring expedition in 1929 and a French ski expedition in 1986.

Even in Younghusband's time the route was dying: by the 1860s only a few Baltis living in Yarkand still crossed it to visit their families.

Why can't trekkers cross the Muztagh Pass?

There are two reasons, and either would be enough.

It is an international border with no crossing point. The pass lies on the Pakistan and China frontier, and there is no immigration post or legal crossing there. No trekking permit issued in Pakistan covers going over it. The only road crossing between the two countries that travellers use is the Khunjerab Pass at the top of the Karakoram Highway.

It is serious glacier mountaineering. The approach is a heavily crevassed icefield at well over 5,000 metres, and the ice that closed the pass to caravans in the 19th century has not gone away. This is expedition terrain, not a trekking route.

The Baltoro is a restricted trekking zone, so even the normal treks need a permit and a licensed guide. Plans to upgrade the Muztagh route under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor have been reported, but we found nothing showing work has started.

Muztagh Pass or Muztagh Tower?

People mix them up because they share a name, which means "ice mountain". They are different things about 10 km apart.

• Muztagh Pass is a saddle on the frontier ridge at about 5,422 metres, a historic route between Baltistan and Yarkand.
• Muztagh Tower is a 7,276-metre granite peak further east, famous for its sheer shape and seen by trekkers from the upper Baltoro. Our Muztagh Tower guide covers it.

How can you get close?

The practical way to see this part of the Karakoram is the trek up the Baltoro glacier from Askole, past the Trango Towers and Muztagh Tower to Concordia. Our Baltoro glacier guide describes the route, and our K2 base camp trek guide covers permits, timing and what the walk involves.

It is a long, hard trek of around two weeks for fit adults, not a family holiday. For the Karakoram by road, see our destinations page.

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