Askole: A hard life in the Karakoram mountains

Askole Village is the last human settlement on the slopes of K-2, Pakistan’s highest peak. Located at an altitude of three thousand meters, this village is the starting point for the high peaks of the Karakoram Mountains. On which life is impossible. In ancient times, this area had deep connections with Tibet and Ladakh. The effects of which can still be seen on the lives of those living here today.

This village looks beautiful in the summer, but snow reigns here for four months of the winter. The only road connecting the village to the rest of the world is closed, and about a hundred families in the village are cut off from the world.

For housing, the people here build two-story wooden houses with very low ceilings so that the houses can be kept warm for longer in winter. As soon as the snow begins to fall in winter, these people move into basements built in the courtyards of their houses and spend the next four months in these basements.

Spending these four months of life in these basements is the most difficult phase of these people’s lives. During this time, they survive on dry grains and yak milk, which they spend four months with in this small basement.

To pass the time in the basement, women spin yarn and wool, while men, they say, spend their time sleeping.

Some young people even go on huntings and spend weeks in the mountains searching for this endangered animal.

It is quite cool here even in summer, so on sunny days, women and men come out of their small homes to bask in the sun.

During the summer months, preparations are made for winter. Clothes are washed, grain is gathered, and firewood is gathered to cook and keep the house warm.

There is a dispensary in the village with a doctor available only in the summer. During the few days the doctor spends here, lines of patients can be seen outside the clinic.

For the rest of the year, all the patients in the village are at the mercy of a compounder.

Food and other essentials for the locals arrive by jeep from the city of Skardu once or twice a week. People seem very happy with the arrival of these jeeps.

The people of Akole are porters, carrying the equipment of mountaineers who come from far away.

Climbing K2 and other peaks is the livelihood of seventy percent of the people in this village.

Poverty, hardship, and harsh weather conditions cause residents to age prematurely.