Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Embedded Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Get NPR+ Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics Greetings from an isolated region in northern Pakistan's Hindu Kush mountains Chitral borders Afghanistan and isn't easy to reach. Breathtaking views abound in this remote mountainous region — as do rockslides and avalanches. Special Series Far-Flung Postcards Greetings from an isolated region in northern Pakistan's Hindu Kush mountains July 29, 202610:21 AM ET By
Betsy Joles
Betsy Joles for NPR The rawness of Pakistan's mountain regions is one of their main selling points. High-elevation passes feature on Instagram pages of adventure travel influencers, who promote their journeys along some of the world's most dangerous roads. Jeeps and buses can get stalled for hours while workers clear rockslides that clog entire stretches of highway. During one of my trips to the mountains, we had to wait at a safe distance while a boulder blocking the road was blown up with dynamite.
The intensity of the elements, along with sketchy infrastructure, can make traversing Pakistan's mountains feel like a grand adventure. That's mostly how I felt as I moved through Chitral, a district in the Hindu Kush range, during a reporting trip earlier this summer. There are currently no flights to this part of the country, so people are entirely dependent on passable roads. In winter, when the heavy snows come, it's hard to get around this area at all.
But for the people I met in Chitral, including my local reporting partner, Siraj Uddin, these unpredictable mountains are home, and they spoke matter-of-factly about managing floods, landslides and avalanches. They find ways to carry on. After pausing in Upper Chitral to take this photo during one long day on the road, that's what I did too.
For more Far-Flung Postcards, click here.