aktengi big hike

[by aaron]

This is a really long post. You've been warned.

As promised, here is the post about our return to Aktengi to scale the mount Kurganak, elevation 4058 m (13,314 ft). It is the tallest peak north of the Fan range that Brent and I trekked last year.

I went with a Dutch friend (whose country is mostly below sea level) and we planned to summit the peak in two days. First we were to climb up and camp at the lake we were at the previous Sunday. Then we were to get up early to get on the ridge and try to make the summit by lunch. Overall we were trying to trek up and down a total of about 1800 m (5900 ft) of elevation in 1.5 days. You'll have to click on the pic below if you want to see the Google Earth image of the area of our hike...

You can barely see Mount Kurganak off in the distance in this photo taken from the city of Istaravshan...
A view down the valley shortly after staring. The black car (parked at 2600 m = 8500 ft) is visible toward the bottom of the pic...

After only about an hour, we had arrived at Lake Oykul, elevation 3100 m (10,200 ft)...


In spite of the near freezing water, it was worth a swim after the walk up...

We had lots of time to hike around the lake and exploring before evening...

The view back down to the valley from the lake...

All we had to camp in was a little play tent that I borrowed from another family. It was even too small for us to fit in, so we left the door open for our feet to stick out. Since it was not waterproof, and since we expected some rain in the night, we set up in this pavilion that was located next to the lake. Here we are at 5am, getting ready for the big day, having our breakfast of boiled eggs and Coke...

Half way up to the ridge, walking on shale...

We were up on the ridge after about an hour...

Looking across the valley to the Fans...

A view to the lake 600 m (2000 ft) below...

Looking forward along the ridge to an intermediate peak: Oykul peak, elevation 3800 m (12,450 ft)...

The last push up to Oykul Peak...

Our perch atop Oykul peak gave us the best views of the day. To really appreciate the panarama, click on it to open it in a new window...

Looking back down the ridge from where we'd come...

Looking across the valley to the south toward the north ridge of the Fan mountain range...


And finally, a view to our big goal, Mount Kurganak. Looks pretty straightforward until the end...

On our way...


It started to get tricky...

This looked a LOT easier on Google Earth...

Then we came to the final climb to the top...

...upon which reaching said "top" we looked up to realize that there we were not quite there. ARGHHH...

After we had already climbed through a few consecutive sections of increasing difficulty/danger, my tolerance for risk expired upon looking at the final cliff. Due to the danger associated with what would have actually been the final climb, we were forced to be happy with the point we had reached. It was frustrating for me to turn back, even at a point where I could have thrown a rock to the top.

The arrow shows where we got to...


The view from our "top", elevation approx 4040 m (13,250 ft)...

After a break on top, we began the task of getting back down, which turned out to be quite challenging at points...

Only minutes from the top, and shortly after this pic was taken, I twisted my ankle, making the rest of the 1800 m (5900 ft) descent even more difficult...

The clouds started coming in, and for a while we were in a whiteout...


Eventually it cleared up and we made our descent to the lake, then back down to the car...

It was quite a trip, and I'm glad we did it, but I think I'll stay home next weekend, close to the ground.