The expedition to Kyrgyzstan was full of changes and surprises. The original plan was to climb in 3 weeks technically easy Peak Lenin (7 134 m) in Pamir. Due to the unstable political situation in the southern part of the country the organizing agency offered a last minute alternative: Tian Shan peaks in the northern part of Kyrgyzstan at the border with Kazachstan and China, namely Karly Tau (5 450 m) and Chan Tengri (7 010 m), climbing the northern route via Peak Chapayev (6 300 m). There were eight of us from Great Britain, Ireland and Czech Republic, for four members it was their first attempt of climbing out of Europe, for two even out of the British Islands.

From the capital Bishkek we drove east to Karakol by minibus, then by a truck to heliport at a place called Maida Adyr. From there we were flown directly to base camp (BC) on the Northern Inylchek glacier at 4 200 m by helicopter. We have saved a lot of time, but missed all the country below the mountains. We had no porters and apart from the load carry on the mountains we did not need any.

We started by an acclimatization climb of Karly Tau. Due to the weather and avalanche danger we have reached only the false summit (5 150 m). The acclimatization climb was originally planned for two days, but due to bad weather it took four days. We were loosing precious time from the beginning and had a delay compared to the planned schedule.

Three members of our group decided to return and flew back by helicopter on the sixth day. The remaining five of us made a load carry to camp one (C1) on Chan Tengri resp. Peak Chapayev at the altitude of 4 800 m. The route crosses an avalanche prone slope, where the avalanches fell quite frequently after the regular snowfall. When we started our second ascent to C1, the first avalanche fell just as we were crossing the glacier from BC to the mountain. We returned to BC. The slope needed a day to settle, few avalanches fell on the slope during the day and there were many more all around.

It was freezing the following day, we made it to C1 without any complications. It started snowing again in the afternoon and snow kept falling the following day as well. We were in great pressure due to lack of time, which made the progress planing even worse. Day after the snowfall we started the ascent to C2 (5 600 m). Only two of us summitted Peak Chapayev and returned back to BC the same day late after dark. There was no time to continue from Peak Chapayev to C3 in the col between both mountains and attempt to summit Chan Tengri. The weather was not supportive either. During the three weeks we were there only five people summitted Chan Tengri.

We returned the same way – by helicopter to Maida Adyr, by truck to Karakol, continued by a minibus to Bishkek making just a short stop at the Issyk Kul lake.

The expedition was not organized well, it was much more demanding compared to the original plan and part of the team had no previous experience from high altitude climbing. The progress was very slow. Due to all that we have climbed only part of what we originally wanted. Despite all those complications Tian Shan is beautifull but rough, and it has shown us its dark side even as far as weather is concerned. All of us returned healthy and unharmed even though the route was difficult and avalanches were falling all around us.

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