Mountain Kingdom, Hindukush

The word Hindukush has long since attracted a large number of mountaineers all over the world. They see the scope of adventure on grand peaks like Terichmir 7708m, Noshaq 7492m, Istor o Nal 7403m or Saraghrar 7349m.
Chitral and its mountains were just brought to public notice after Major John Biddulph first visited this region in 1876 after a long journey. He was highly impressed by the calm environment, majestic mountains and high passes and the unique Kalash culture. On his return, he wrote his book - The tribes of Hindukush. So Chitral was introduced to the outer world as an attractive region.
In 1892 the British regularly visited the Hindu Kush valleys to explore its passes, peaks and glaciers and then Germans came, to be followed by Americans and Norwegians, climbing the high peaks. From 1960 to1980 there was a big rush of tourists, especially mountaineers and trekkers of different countries who took interest in the mountain blocked valleys of this region and dozens of teams came here each year. Many people lost their lives while climbing.
In the early 1980s, this great rush decreased due to the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. The interest in the Hindukush dropped dramatically and a new generation of climbers knew very little about the region, except from information from older climbers. There was a great need of further exploration but lack of information about peaks prevented climbers from entering the region.
During this period, a large number of expeditions visited the Karakorum and the Himalaya and those areas became overexposed with negative effects like pollution while the Hindu Kush still remained and remains today in good order, with no or minimal pollution. The local porters have been given training in eco-tourism and the destinations are by far cleaner than in other ranges.
Hindukush lies in the North of Pakistan and the highest section of their range lies within Chitral - Pakistan. All of the 43 seven thousand-metre peaks have got defined routes that lead through Chitral and the Terich valley. The main chain forms a division between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the big peaks are form a mountain wall just on the border of the two countries. There are also about 180 named and 50 unnamed peaks over 6000m high and most of them are still unclimbed.
Chiantar Glacier is 74 km long, Udren Glacier 30 km, Terich Glacier 20 km and Roshgol Glacier 18 km long. All of them make out an attraction in its own right.