Understanding the complexities of mountain geodynamics in the Karakoram Himalaya requires an assessment of the scale-dependencies associated with the coupling of climatic, surficial and tectonic processes. Operational scale-dependencies of erosion and uplift are very difficult to ascertain, given the polygenetic overprinting of glaciation and glacierization, river incision, mass movements, and tectonic deformation. Collectively, polygenetic topographic evolution governs topographic complexity and anisotropy. Consequently, our research objective is to characterize topographic anisotropy to determine if we can identify erosion-tectonic coupling zones. Specifically, we evaluate the multi-scale directional dependence of relief where erosion-tectonic coupling is known to exist, based upon field work and geologic maps. We utilized a Shuttle Radar Topographic Mapping Mission (SRTM; 30m) digital elevation model to assess topographic anisotropy out to a scale of 10km. We assumed topographic symmetry in computing directional-dependence of the minimum relief. We used geovisualization of ellipsoids and graphed anisotropy parameters to examine relief production and terrain-orientation fabric. Our results indicate high-magnitude erosion caused by river incision and glacierization in tectonic zones exhibit a high degree of anisotropy that is directionally controlled by surface processes or differential erosion along fault boundaries (e.g., Karakoram Fault). Highly variable scale-dependent anisotropy is associated with more complex topography, highlighting structural and lithological variability. Our results clearly reveal the scale-dependent complexity of topographic anisotropy in the Karakoram Himalaya, and demonstrate the use of a new property of the topography for assessing and understanding mountain geodynamics.