Zarafshon Glacier Hike [part 3]

After traveling 300 km (185 mi) over mountain pass, up valley, and across river, we were finally ready to do some hiking. Camp was 16 km (10 mi) from the snout of the glacier, and we had the somewhat ambitious goal to reach the glacier.

The morning view of up the valley with our tents in the foreground...
Hiking east...
One thing that we did not take into consideration was all of the stream crossings. On the way, we had to traverse these cold and fast flowing tributaries no less than 8 times. Sometimes we would find a place to jump across...

But usually we just had to take off the shoes and walk through...
A view north across the river...

A view south along the way...

After about 4 hours we came to the half way point in the journey to the glacier. At this point it was easy to do the math and realize that if we continued we would be returning in the dark. Fortunately there was a back-up plan, for at the half-way point another trail turns up a mountain to a lookout called haf kul meaning "seven mountains". But a few steps up a fellow hiker called out that he wasn't going to make it, so we split and 2 of us headed up to a grassy plateau with some nice views...

On the way back we stopped in this mountain lake for a splash (well I splashed anyway)...



Next post: Mount Khoja-i-Muso