Before the 1970's when the combined efforts of the Chine and Pakistani goernments produced the Karakoram Highway on of the most dramatic engineering feats in the modern world the Hunza Valley was among the remotest regions on earth. Earth travelers journeying above Gilgit to capital, Karimabad reported a foot and mule path cantilevered out from the cliff face on logs sunk into cracks in the rock, hundreds of feet above the river.

Perhaps because of its inaccessible, almost legendary reputetion, Hunza became one of the regions, along with certain areas of the high Andes and Tibet, where the inhabitants were rumored to live for hundreds of years. In fact, a healthy lifestyle emphasizing, by necessity, steep aerobic climbs everywhere they go, are a diet in which fruits and grains predominate, does produce remarkably fit and long-lived population.

the last porton of the river, before it meets the Gilgit and thence the Indus, has uniform 30 foot per mile gradient. by June, its flow was upto 30,000cfs, the holes and explosion waves assuming dangerous size. Sneaking is possible but even that requires efforts to avoid being funneled to the center by diagonal waves leading from the shore. Ten to 15 portages are required, and 2 days are best allocated bor this run.

Typical of this region, the big Hunza Valley is barren and rocky, extremely hot at low elevations, dominated by wind blown dust in the air and silty rock flour in the water. it is a land of huge scales, with peaks like 25,550 foot Rakaposhi hanging over the powerful rivers. It is challenging and awer-inspiring, but no one would call it inviting or embracing, as are many of the rivers of Kashmir and other parts of the Himalaya.