Baltoro Glacier

The Baltoro Glacier is a mountain glacier in the Karakoram range of Pakistan-administered Gilgit-Baltistan, reached from the town of Skardu, the principal gateway to the region. It covers about 1,500 square kilometers and extends 63 kilometers in length, flowing past K2, the world's second-highest mountain at 8,611 meters, and three further peaks above 8,000 meters within just 20 kilometers. The glacier is the source of the Braldo River and is fed by tributary glaciers including the Godwin-Austen Glacier; where the two meet at 4,600 meters, the junction known as Concordia has become a major trekking destination alongside K2 Base Camp. Rather than retreating between 2001 and 2011, the glacier showed surging and shifting behavior near Concordia, even as growing trekking tourism has brought littering and waste-management problems to the route.