Log cabins at Fairy Meadows with Nanga Parbat glowing at sunset

Stories & memories

What the mountains give back

Itineraries fade. These don't. Field notes from our seasons in the valleys, and from the travelers who lived them with us.

Log cabins at Fairy Meadows with Nanga Parbat glowing at sunset

Field notes from a family departure · Fairy Meadows, June

Three generations, one meadow, and the mountain that silenced them all

Grandma Renate was the one we worried about. She was also, it turned out, the one we needn't have.

Read the story →
High Karakoram peaks and glacier ice on the trekking route

Field notes from a Baltoro expedition · Concordia, August

The long way to Concordia: fourteen days to the throne room

There is a moment, two hours past Goro II, when the trek stops being about endurance and becomes something closer to ceremony.

Read the story →
Apricot blossom in front of snow peaks in the Hunza Valley

Field notes from blossom season · Hunza, April

Blossom week: when Hunza turns pink and the photographers go quiet

Blossom doesn't arrive in Hunza so much as climb it, village by village, a hundred metres of altitude at a time.

Read the story →
Himalayan ibex on the winter cliffs of Khunjerab National Park

Field notes from a winter expedition · Khunjerab, February

Tracking shadows: a winter week waiting for the grey ghost

You do not find a snow leopard. You arrange your week so that a snow leopard might consent to be found.

Read the story →
Freestyle polo at full gallop on the Shandur Pass ground during the festival

A photographer from Lisbon · Shandur, July 2025

Dust and drums at Shandur: three days at the top of the polo world

Nobody warned me that the world's highest polo ground would also be the loudest, coldest, happiest place I'd sleep all year.

Read the story →
The Hunza Valley under snow in winter with Rakaposhi rising above

A writer from Copenhagen · Hunza, January 2026

Winter morning in Hunza: the valley nobody told me about

Everyone plans Hunza for blossom or autumn gold. I came in January by accident of timing, and I would now defend that accident with my life.

Read the story →
Gulmit village in upper Hunza, home of the Bulbulik Heritage Music School

A music teacher from Montreal · Gulmit, March 2026

The music school of Gulmit: an evening where the old songs live

I have spent twenty years convincing teenagers to practise. In Gulmit I met a room full of them who needed convincing to stop.

Read the story →

Start the conversation

Your story starts with an email

Tell us your dates, interests and pace — we'll design a private itinerary with local guides, reliable 4x4s and hand-picked stays.