![\"Karakoram\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/P1020523.jpg?resize=800%2C600\")
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Here is a story I wrote for The Financial Times<\/a> about Karakoram:<\/p>\n Tour operators are hoping trekkers will return to northern Pakistan after the UK relaxed its warning against visiting. On a hike over the remote Hispar Pass, Matthew Green experiences the spectacular sights that await them<\/p>\n Ever alert to the risk that one of his guests might stray on to a trapdoor-like patch of ice, plunge into a hidden crevasse and never be seen again, Atta Khan gave the gleaming crust of the Biafo glacier another exploratory prod. A well-weathered guide, who had once rescued a man wedged 35m below the surface, he put aside his stick and uncoiled a yellow cord. \u201cBetter rope up,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t trust this snow.\u201d<\/p>\n The clink of metal striking metal pierced the thin air as our three-strong party snapped open carabiners and, one by one, clipped on to Atta\u2019s line. His orders were strict: maintain single file and walk perpendicular to the chasms. Otherwise, if one should slip, the rope may drag everybody down.<\/p>\n It was day four of our attempt on the Hispar Pass, a 5,151m saddle deep in the Karakoram, an ethereal, granite-spired bastion in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of north-east Pakistan. Dominated by K2, the world\u2019s second highest peak, the range began to lure a growing influx of trekkers in the early 1980s, but a surge in militant attacks in Pakistan after 9\/11 has since deterred all but the most intrepid international tour companies and hit local operators hard. A further blow came on June 22, 2013, when gunmen entered the base camp of the 8,126m Nanga Parbat, killing 10 foreigners, among them Ukrainians, Slovakians and Chinese, as well as a local Pakistani cook.<\/p>\n Here is a story I wrote for The Financial Times about Karakoram: Tour operators are hoping trekkers will return to northern Pakistan after the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1305,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,6,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afganistan","category-financial-times","category-stories"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/P1020523.jpg?fit=800%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4ilu4-l2","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1605,"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions\/1605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/matthewgreenjournalism.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}…Continue reading<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"