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Published: November 11th 2007
Got Splitter?
Brad on the money pitch, perfect hands and fist with basecamp way, way below...In july, Brad Mcmillon and I set off for the Ak-Su valley of the Karavshin region of southwest Kyrgyzstan. The place has fantastic huge granite big-walls and we were one of the first americans to visit since the 2000 hostage crisis involving four North Face expedition members. This region is one of the most remote and unspoilt areas I have ever visited and while we found confounding weather conditions we still managed to enjoy the surroundings and the friendliness of the local people. Kyrgyz pastoralists take to the high mountain pastures in the summer and while not crowded, it was impossible to walk by a yurt without being invited in for tea, bread and some kind of yogurt variant.
We were at basecamp in Ak-Su for only about 16 days, (too short in my opinion) and 10 of those days were rainy and stymied any attempt at rockclimbing. Still two days were spent doing valuable reconnaissance and one full day we managed to simul climb 3000ft on the right hand buttress of Peak 4810. Unfortunately we came 1500 ft shy of the summit before bailing for another attempt. On our return up the peak the weather turned for what we
Got Granite?
This shot is looking across the valley from a couple of thousand feet up Pk 4810, probably our best weather day thought would be just a few short days. Ten days later we were forced to pull our fixed ropes and prepare for the long hike out with virtually no climbing and damp spirits.
However, our final day we managed to talk our horsemen into waiting a few hours while we made an attempt on a smaller rock tower. Ten pitches later we stood on our first and only summit after jamming some fine splitter cracks and corners. Unfortunately for Brad we rochambeau'd for the money pitches and while I had some of the better climbing on the route he wound up with a dangerous offwidth pitch and one of the finest gardening efforts Ive ever witnessed. At point he hammered his nuttool vertically into a grass tussock clipped the rope to it for protection and pulled off delicate 5.10 grass to gain access to the proud splitter cracks above. It was small but beautiful consolation to stand on top of something after so much disheartening weather.
Despite the lack of climbing the trip was incredible for the interaction with the locals. I have traveled a lot of different places and there is nowhere quite like this. There was
Peak 4810
From the unnamed summit looking across at 4810, our original route was up the right shoulder of the peak. one family in particular that basically adopted us; we were the first foreigners in the valley this summer and with so much down time due to weather we often took turns visiting each other. They were wonderfully kind, spending their days making yogurt, milking cows and generally relaxing. Nadir, a Tajik hunter, gave us a tour of the valley; he had spent the last 12 seasons there, pointing out various basecamps, spotting Ibex and hunting bird and game to share with us. Despite no common language we were able to have wonderful simple conversations and of course share food and laughter. This was true for all the people in the region, lots of laughter, digital photos of everyone and ubiquitous tea and bread everywhere. The trail in and out of the region was wild with tall passes and some of the most convoluted terrain I've ever seen. Beautifully untouched trekking with virtually no sign of modern development. Every place we visited was probably the same 500 years before, though as we got closer to the climbing we did begin to see evidence of the firefights from 8 years ago. I would strongly recommend both climbing or trekking in this region,
Short approaches
From my tent I could hit Central Pyramid with a rock. We never got a chance to climb it however. Russian tower is in the upper left, home of Perestroika Crack. This was our first and probably best weather day...funny how that happens its definitely not Everest Basecamp and for that you will definitely not see any other westerners.
We hiked out later that afternoon and made a marathon two day march to the trailhead where we had the joy of dealing with our expedition outfitter botch everything all the way back to Bishkek. Once there we spent a day or two together enjoying the comforts of post-soviet life before Brad flew home. All in all dissappointing as a climbing trip but culturally and ecologically rewarding visit to one of the least visited areas of the world.
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Stewart
non-member comment
Wow, sounds sort of similar to my 2004 trip!
We spent 21 days in the Kara-Su valley just next door and had rain almost every day as well with snow on top of Asan and Usan (our objectives). We ended up climbing the Diagonal Route on the Yellow Wall (past the wrecked portaledges of the kidnapping) and then seiged a new line to the left of that fixing a pitch or two each day before the rain. Really have to go back!