Have you seen the weather forecast? asks the ranger as he checks our permit in the Backcountry Office. It’s not looking too good, he says with a skeptical tone that gives us a pause. It’s not exactly the way we were hoping this adventure would begin. (more…)
This is the final day of trekking for us in Kyrgyzstan this summer. It’s our 27th day taking in the sights, sounds and smells of this amazing country, one footstep at a time. As often happens at the end of a well-planned journey, my mind turns reflective as I try to sum up all that we have learned and experienced over the past five weeks. (more…)
I wake up at 2 in the morning and need to use the bathroom, but I’m too lazy to get out of bed. At 5:30, I can’t take it anymore, and I finally decide to get up. The sun is just about to come up over the mountains, and a sliver of a crescent moon is hanging in the deep blue sky just above the snowy peaks. Nobody is up but me, so, after taking care of business, I walk around camp for a few minutes, taking in the beautiful pre-dawn scene at 14,435 feet. (more…)
Camp One stirs to life at 3 am as the first shift of climbers awakes. Breakfast is served twice to accommodate trekkers and climbers, first at 3-4 am for those who need an early pre-dawn start, and again from 8-9 am. Mercifully, we are in the second group this morning. (more…)
We have been trekking in Kyrgyzstan for 23 days now. We have only four days left, and we have saved the biggest challenge and hopefully the best scenery for last. For our final trek, we will be hiking around Peak Lenin, Kyrzygstan’s highest peak at 23,405 feet. They say that Peak Lenin is one of the easiest 7000+ meter peaks to summit, but we have no interest in going that high. (more…)
Today we will complete the 6-day loop known as the Heights of Alay Trek, and the day starts off with an unusual challenge. The blankets at this yurt camp are exceptionally heavy, and just getting out of bed is hard work. We feel like we are removing the lead vest that protects your chest when you get X-rays at the dentist office. Maybe the idea of those weighted blankets that are so popular now came to us from Kyrgyzstan! (more…)
We have breakfast in the kitchen yurt this morning at 6:30, which is clearly too early for company according to the little boy in the camp. He has been woken up to make room for us, and he is crying when we come in. His mother gives him a bowl of yogurt to console him, and he turns his back to us hoping that if he can’t see us we aren’t really there. His sister is still sound asleep on the floor right next to where we are eating our fried eggs and potatoes. She doesn’t flinch the whole time we are there. (more…)
Today is, by design, a short day of travel as we move up the valley to a yurt camp that will put us closer to Jiptik Pass, our last big challenge, which we will tackle tomorrow. As a result, no one is in any great hurry to wake up and get going. Thankfully, even our host family at this delightful guesthouse beside the raging river does not rise early and enter our sleeping space. We got a full night of sleep last night, wake up naturally and even have some time to read quietly before anyone stirs. (more…)
We have a two-pass day ahead of us today, so we are eager to get up and going when the alarm goes off at 6. The family is already up and at work around the homestead when we emerge from our room. One of the sisters is carrying breakfast from the kitchen to the dining room, while the other is busy getting all of the kids dressed outside underneath a large tree that one of the kittens is using as its morning playground. (more…)
Rob describes the yurts that predominate summer life here in Kyrgyzstan as stationary RVs, and he’s right in the sense that the yurt performs multiple functions in a single tiny space throughout the day. It is a place to sleep at night, of course, but it’s also a place to dine—for afternoon tea, dinner and breakfast— as well as a place to gather and converse. If it has a stove, it’s also the kitchen and, if necessary, a place to dry wet shoes and socks in a pinch. (more…)
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