K2 adventure climbing and extreme thrills

We feel great pleasure to introduce SALTORO SUMMITS as the Adventure Tour Operating Company in Pakistan. We provide adventure trekking using off-the-beaten-path, Mountaineering Expeditions, Rock Climbing, Jeep Safaris, Cultural Tours and Mountain Bike Tours in Pakistan. We will take you to far-off places as an honored guest served by our professional guides, cooks and other field staff and promise you the journey of lifetime to see Pakistan’s most incredible places and friendly faces.

SALTORO, Pakistan’s highest and legendary valley, the last human settlement before the walk up Siachen Glacier.

AMJAD ALI KHAN owner of the company and the field staff has immense and precious experience in the field of adventure tourism and they all belong to Northern Areas of Pakistan, which facilitate them to understand the area, its people, their culture and folklore. We have decade of experience in the field of adventure mountain tourism providing cross-cultural learning and nature based exercise. We emphasize groups but also make sure personalized excellence services to each individual traveler.

Our trips are more than a vacation. Our company provides opportunities to extend your understanding of our mountains environment. Participants can enjoy the exploration of our traditional culture and natural environment with minimum impact, because we organize our trips in an ecologically sensitive way. We constantly aim to provide superior and high quality services at competitive prices. We take care of all the little travel details while you enjoy your holiday.

Contact us for Mountaineering Expedition, Trekking Trips, Tours, Jeep Safaris and Mountain Bike Tours in the core of Karakoram, Himalaya and Hindukush Region Pakistan. We are confident in our abilities to provide our outstanding services in the heartland of greatest assembly of mountains that stand on this earth.

This is an awsome climbing crew check them out for sure if you want to visit K2 and make the high climb! http://www.saltorosummits.com/

Enjoy Bahamas, Mexico, & Central America

Beautiful rainbows in Costa Rica

COSTA RICA (2006 Winner)


Cross-Country Traverse
Price: $2,790
Difficulty: Challenging
Here's how to get off the tourist track in Costa Rica: Try crossing the country from the Pacific to the Caribbean by bike, foot, and raft. You'll start this 18-day sea-to-sea journey by pedaling two days from the coastal pueblo of Dominical to the Tinamaste Mountains, where you'll hike through the cloudforest to your first night's campsite—a cave surrounded by waterfalls. The next day takes you over a ridge, where you'll stay at a quaint hotel on the Chirripo River before starting a porter-supported weeklong trek through the highland forest of the Cordillera de Talamanca. You'll spend the last several days on a rugged stretch of the Pacuare River, running Class III-IV rapids and floating through lush canyons where water cascades from hundreds of feet overhead. The river will deposit you in the Caribbean lowlands, and you'll spend your last wilderness night camping at the rainforest's edge.
Outfitter: World Expeditions, 888-464-8735, www.worldexpeditions.com
When to Go: March, September, December

PANAMA (New)
Darién Explorer Trek
Price: $4,995
Difficulty: Strenuous
As your piragua putters along the Tuira River en route to an abandoned mining town, you'll see far more tapirs and peccaries than travelers. Total seclusion is the payoff for five to seven hours of daily trekking (and canoeing) across rugged, often muddy terrain on this two-week exploration of the Darién Gap, the mysterious 6.4-million-acre rainforest that separates Central and South America. When you do come across humans, it will be at the remote villages where you'll stop to mingle with Embera elders. You'll overnight at ranger stations and rustic camps, and wake to a cacophony of macaws and caracaras.
Outfitter: Myths and Mountains, 800-670-6984, www.mythsandmountains.com
When to Go: December-April

BAHAMAS
Fishing Tutorial
Price: $3,190
Difficulty: Easy
This South Andros Island outpost will re-define your notion of "fishing lodge"; everything at Tiamo Resort—from its solar power to its banana-fiber office paper—is geared toward protecting the environment without sacrificing luxury. Breezy raised bungalows are steps from a secluded beach where you'll spend four days kayaking, snorkeling, and learning to cast for bonefish and tarpon in the island's legendary shallow flats. Beyond that, the Adirondack chairs on your beachfront porch lend themselves nicely to loafing.
Outfitter: Orvis, 800-547-4322, www.orvis.com
When to Go: March-July, October-December

MEXICO
Scouting for Jaguars
Price: $1,500
Difficulty: Moderate
Jaguars roam the tropical forest, wetlands, and dunes of Mexico's Sian Ka'an Biosphere Reserve, a Delaware-size protected zone along the Yucatán coast. With the help of biologist guides, you'll likely spot their tracks during your weeklong stay at the no-frills Santa Teresa research station, a ten-minute walk to a white-sand beach, and take daytime and nighttime hikes in a jungle that few outsiders get to explore after dark. You'll also camp one night amid the spider monkeys and white-tailed deer, and visit nearby Maya ruins.
Outfitter: EcoColors, 011-52-998-884-3667, www.ecotravelmexico.com
When to Go: January-March

Adventure Packages to Eastern Europe and the Middle East

CYPRUS (2006 Winner)


Mountain-Biking the Trails of the Troodos
Price: $1,895
Difficulty: Strenuous
For a trip to fat-tire nirvana, try this six-day, 170-mile mountain-bike excursion on the island of Cyprus, south of Turkey. Pedal over rocky singletrack, fire roads, and chalky foothills, all of which have a mountain backdrop or a Mediterranean view. Your base camp is the Pendeli Hotel, in the high-country resort of Platres. From here, take daily cross-country explorations into the 6,000-foot Troodos Mountains, offering cool riding conditions even under the summer sun. Terrain is a mixed bag: technically demanding loose rocks and tight turns, scrappy climbs, fast traverses, and even faster descents. Ride up skittish slopes to the 6,401-foot summit of Chionistra and down to the sea, but be sure to pack that extra tube: The support vehicle can't follow you here. Postride, swim laps, soak in the hot tub, or have a sauna back at the family-run Pendeli Hotel.
Outfitter: KE Adventure, 800-497-9675, www.keadventure.com
When to Go: June, July, September

TURKEY
Sea-Kayaking the Mediterranean Coast
Price: from $3,495
Difficulty: Moderate
Scout Turkey's dramatic Mediterranean shoreline from the cockpit of a sea kayak on this eight-day multisport adventure. Then explore it on foot with a local guide, visiting ancient Lycian rock tombs, Apollo's birthplace, and tiny Kas, a chic and lively 2,400-year-old village. A luxurious wooden gulet with a gourmet chef is your floating hotel, but the starry nights will make you ditch your stateroom for a mattress on deck. Paddle your kayak along empty beaches before dipping into Greece to snorkel over sunken ruins.
Outfitter: The Northwest Passage, 800-732-7328, www.nwpassage.com
When to Go: September-October

YEMEN
Arabian Trek
Price: from $4,995
Difficulty: Moderate
Once home to the Queen of Sheba, Yemen had an advanced civilization more than 3,000 years ago. While security concerns have deterred visits in recent years, conditions seem to be improving. Over 18 days, you'll explore the diverse Arabian countryside. Begin in Sana'a, the 7,425-foot-high capital, then travel to the hilltop villages of the north before winding down in seaside al-Makallah. En route, sleep in castles right out of the Arabian Nights, wander through colorful, spice-infused souks, and four-wheel through steep-walled dry riverbeds.
Outfitter: Geographic Expeditions, 800-777-8183, www.geoex.com
When to Go: March and November

BELARUS, UKRAINE & MOLDOVA
Touring New Republics
Price: $4,895
Difficulty: Easy
Newly designed for 2006—Ukraine recently dropped visa requirements for U.S. citizens, and expanded flights have made the area more accessible—this 16-day cultural traverse starts in Minsk and heads south, for visits to cathedrals in Kiev, Yalta's seaside homes (where Pushkin and Chekhov summered), and the marble Livadia Palace. You'll sleep in charming four-star hotels, hike the Black Sea coast, and taste wine in Moldova, the unsung charmer of Eastern Europe.
Outfitter: Mir Corporation, 800-424-7289, www.mircorp.com
When to Go: May, August

Explore Oceania and the South Pacific

SOUTH PACIFIC (2006 Winner)


Secluded-Isle Hopping
Price: $5,950
Difficulty: Moderate
In 1790, the mutineers of the HMS Bounty selected Pitcairn Island, some 1,200 miles southeast of Tahiti, to live with their Tahitian brides because it was so far away and nearly an impossible place for their pursuers to anchor safely. Today, their 50-some descendants see few visitors for the very same reasons. Get a feel for their isolationist way of life by spending a week hiking craggy hills, helping the residents maintain their longboats, and hearing tales of life on a forgotten island. That's just the headliner of this three-week South Pacific voyage, most of which you'll see from the comfort of a 60-foot luxury sailboat. You'll also snorkel reefs teeming with tropical fish, hike the goat paths of Mangareva (a "floating mountain" in the Gambier Islands, 320 miles west of Pitcairn), and learn to trim the mainsails en route to uninhabited sand spits like Henderson and Oeno islands, where you can pretend you're starring in your own episode of Lost.
Outfitter: Ocean Voyages, 800-299-4444, www.oceanvoyages.com
When to Go: July-October

NEW ZEALAND
Circumnavigating the South Island
Price: $2,999
Difficulty: Challenging
During Active New Zealand founder Andrew Fairfax's 2,700-mile cycling expedition from Istanbul to London in 2003, he thought, Why aren't we doing this at home? The result of that epiphany is the Weka, a 13-day supported bike trip circling the South Island. It hits all the top spots, like the majestic peaks and gushing waterfalls of Milford Sound and the blue ice of the Franz Josef Glacier, while staying off most of the main routes, worn thin by tourist traffic. You'll log roughly 400 miles on Specialized hybrids that can handle gravel farm paths and other classic Kiwi obstacles like cow dung and stubborn sheep. Typical day: Pull off the Central Otago Rail Trail, ditch your gear in a renovated millhouse that serves as home for the night, and head to a tiny rural-outpost pub for a Speight's with the locals.
Outfitter: Active New Zealand, 800-661-9073, www.activenewzealand.com
When to Go: October-April

FRENCH POLYNESIA
Sea-Kayaking Raivavae
Price: $4,775
Difficulty: Moderate
Want to find out what Bora Bora was like in the days before tourism took over? Set out on a 13-day paddling recon mission to Raivavae (Ri-VA-vi), one of five time-forgotten archipelagos in the Austral chain, 2,244 miles northeast of New Zealand in French Polynesia. On this, one of the first outfitted kayaking trips from the island, you'll hop from motu to motu (tiny uninhabited islands) in the outer reef in the mornings, set up camp for the night, and head to the lagoons on an underwater hunt to spear grouper for dinner. (Don't worry, other provisions will be provided if you come up empty-handed.) Keep an eye out for blue whales—the reef's horseshoe shape brings the deep-dwellers of the Pacific right up to the shoreline.
Outfitter: Explorers' Corner, 510-559-8099, www.explorerscorner.com
When to Go: July

AUSTRALIA
Diving with Sharks
Price: $1,570-$1,950
Difficulty: Moderate
After three days spent exploring the ribbon of coral along the Great Barrier Reef, you'll keep heading east, some 110 nautical miles off the northern coast of Oz, to the Coral Sea, where the currents converge and the heavies of the Pacific come out to play. That's where Osprey Reef gives way to a 3,300-foot underwater shelf swarming with barracuda, tuna, manta rays, and scads of sharks—threshers, blacktips, whitetips, hammerheads, and leopards. Take it all in on four daily dives over six days. (If the deeps start to give you the creeps, try snorkeling.) Above water, watch and learn from Undersea Explorer's resident marine biologists, who measure and tag the reef sharks in an effort to secure protection for this remote and still-pristine marine environment.
Outfitter: Undersea Explorer,
011-61-74-099-5911, www.undersea.com.au When to Go: April-December

Best Trips to Asia

Here is our list of top trips to the asian continent!

CHINA (2006 Winner)
Hiking and Rafting in Yunnan


Price: $4,990-$5,490
Difficulty: Strenuous
The Mekong may be renowned for its starring role in Apocalypse Now and as the newest target of China's village-displacing hydroelectric-dam campaign, but it's never been known as a commercial whitewater hot spot—until now. Under the leadership of your veteran guides, kick off the beginning of what may be a Mekong revival: commercial rafting trips on the wilder Class IV-V sections of the upper river. You'll spend the first week acclimatizing to Yunnan's Tibetan culture and altitude, with hikes through the 700,000-acre, bamboo-dense Baima Nature Reserve and a 5,000-foot ascent to the 12,000-foot-high village of Yubong, while sleeping in traditional Tibetan homes. By the second week, drop your raft into the Class IV rapids beneath the flapping prayer flags of Xidang's monastery for six days and 80 miles of gorge-squeezing whitewater bliss.
Outfitter: Mountain Travel Sobek, 888-687-6235, www.mtsobek.com
When to Go: March

INDONESIA (New)
Cycling Remote Bali
Price: $2,798
Difficulty: Moderate
Though the major Balinese tourist centers on the southern coast may still be reeling from the 2002 and 2005 bombings, the heady scents and lush foliage of the island's secluded interior and northeastern coast remain as untouched as ever. On this eight-day sampler, you'll get the full-immersion tour, biking 12 to 47 miles a day and sleeping in garden and seaside spa resorts at night. Starting inland, in Ubud, pedal to the Pura Taman Ayun, a "floating" 17th-century royal temple surrounded by a moat, and past acres of hydrangea and clove plantations. When you reach the northern coast and the black sands of Lovina Beach, strip off those Lycra shorts and take a dip in the Bali Sea. Then head east past volcanoes and verdant rice paddies, stopping to snorkel the coral reefs of the Blue Lagoon and dine on fresh coconut rice and rich green curry in the town of Candidasa.
Outfitter: Backroads, 800-462-2848, www.backroads.com
When to Go: October, January-April

MYANMAR (New)
Exploring the Mergui Archipelago
Price: $3,995-$4,495
Difficulty: Moderate
The Moken "sea gypsies" who travel the recently opened Mergui Archipelago, an 800-island cluster off the southern coast of Myanmar, are among the few who still practice their traditional nomadic marine life, fishing for sea cucumbers and lobsters and wandering from island to island in hand-built boats. For 12 days you'll emulate this vanishing culture, hopping from the powdery beaches of Clara Island to the stunning old-growth coral of the underwater reef gardens around Hayes Island. Snorkel and dive uninhabited Lampi Island's boulder-strewn seafloor and kayak through the limestone cliffs and tunnels along Horseshoe Island's dramatic coast. Base camp is one of five air-conditioned cabins aboard an 85-foot wooden yacht, where meals are a merging of Moken and Thai flavors, such as fish fresh from the Andaman Sea steamed with coconut and lemongrass.
Outfitter: Wilderness Travel, 800-368-2794, www.wildernesstravel.com
When to Go: November-March

INDIA
Tracking the Snow Leopard
Price: $3,575
Difficulty: Strenuous
Hidden in the Himalayan high-desert passes of Ladakh are some of the oldest untouched Tibetan monasteries in the world, as well as one of the highest concentrations of the near-mythic snow leopard. For 19 days, play Peter Matthiessen under the guidance of the Snow Leopard Conservancy. You'll sleep in tents and mountain farmhouses while trekking and tracking the elusive cats through the 5,000-square-mile Hemis National Park, home to about 170 of the world's last remaining 4,600 to 7,000 snow leopards. Along the way you'll visit the spectacular tenth-century Hemis Monastery, enjoy the view at your 12,500-foot-high Rumbak homestay, and trek to the 16,700-foot-high pass of Kongmaru La. A portion of your trip's fee is donated to the conservancy to help improve conditions for the locals—both human and feline.
Outfitter: KarmaQuest, 650-560-0101, www.karmaquests.com
When to Go: April-October

Best Trips to South America

Imagine kayaking in the galapagos islands!

BRAZIL (2006 Winner)
Tribes of the Amazon
Outside Trip of the Year


Price: $5,386-$6,983
Difficulty: Easy
Very few outsiders have traveled to the heart of the Xingu Amazon Refuge. The 9,000-acre forest reserve is the isolated home of the Kamayura Indians; no roads link it to the modern world. Tribal elders have granted special access to trip leader John Carter, a former Texas cattle rancher, because of his years spent lobbying the federal government to protect their surroundings and way of life. This translates into one of the most authentic cultural-immersion experiences you'll find anywhere in the Americas. After being deposited by Cessna on a hand-cleared runway, you'll hike and canoe beneath the thick rainforest canopy, then sleep in hammocks inside the chief's own hut before flying out the next day. The rest of the 12-day trip is only slightly less remote, with a visit to a frontier cattle ranch and the Xingu Refuge Lodge—a simple riverside retreat built to resemble a native village—and an overnight stay with the Waura Indians.
Outfitter: Ker & Downey, 800-423-4236, www.kerdowney.com
When to Go: June-August

PERU (New)
Cordillera Blanca Climb
Price: $2,750
Difficulty: Strenuous
This triple-summit foray into high-altitude climbing in the Andes requires little technical skill, but the thin air and occasional crevasses make the two-week journey anything but easy. After a few days of acclimatization in the foothills of the Cordillera Blanca above the town of Huaraz, you'll trek through the lupine-carpeted meadows of the Quebrada Quilcayhuanca valley. The hike takes you on pre-Inca trails that trace the edges of alpine lakes. Here you enter crampon country, where you'll camp and, in less than a week, top three snowy peaks—Maparaju (17,470 feet), Huapa (17,761 feet), and Ishinca (18,138 feet)—before returning to civilization and a well-earned Peruvian feast.
Outfitter: Mountain Madness, 800-328-5925, www.mountainmadness.com
When to Go: July

ECUADOR
Sea-Kayaking the Galápagos
Price: $3,650-$6,280
Difficulty: Easy
When a turtle the size of a grizzly bear glides beneath your kayak, you'll understand the significance of Lindblad's new status as the first and only large-ship operator with a Galápagos paddling permit. The conservation-minded company has been escorting visitors to the islands since 1968. Travelers onboard the 80-passenger MS Polaris have access to another perk when not snorkeling, beachcombing, hiking, or viewing wildlife: outdoor spa services administered on a glass-bottomed pontoon.
Outfitter: Lindblad Expeditions, 800-397-3348, www.expeditions.com
When to Go: Year-round

ARGENTINA
Northwest Trek
Price: $1,375-$1,735
Difficulty: Challenging
Amid the deep red gorges of Argentina's rugged northwest, aboriginal adobe huts stand as reminders that this country's rich history far predates the tango. This nine-day trip covers both past and present, from the pre-Spanish Calchaquis relics in Quilmes to the up-and-coming wineries of Cafayate. After a stay at a comfortable bodega lodge, you'll embark on a three-day trek through the Cachi Mountains, where you and your packhorses will hoof it 29 miles up the Belgrano River Gorge to the multicolored sandstone formations of the Pukamayu Valley.
Outfitter: Adventure Life, 800-344-6118, www.adventure-life.com
When to Go: April-October

Next on our list of must have components to any exciting adventure is a reliable flash light. Robert Peltons says, "Flashlight: You know the blindingly bright lights the military uses during night ops? That's the Surefire E2D Executive Defender ($105; www.surefire.com). The flashlight runs on two lithium batteries, and it's not only compact and incredibly powerful, but, thanks to its serrated edges, also works as a weapon of self-defense." These flashlights are the same type that the special ops forces use on their night time operations. Some even attach to firearms. Check them out as these are the very best. Go to Surefire for more information.