Zarafshon: Mount Khoja-i-Muso [part 4]

The attempted glacier hike was a good time, but I was still very disappointed that we could not reach the glacier. That night as my fellow travelers were nursing sore muscles, it was suggested that the next day we should have a quiet morning around camp and plan to leave by noon.

Here I saw my opportunity, eying a handsome piece of rock immediately behind camp that was calling out to be climbed. In an attempt to wash the taste of disappointment out of my mouth from the previous day's glacier failure, the next morning I was running up Mount Khoja-i-Muso. I knew that my time would be limited, as I needed to be back at camp by noon, so I set out with the goal to get as far as I could by 10am, then turn back. I knew that summiting was unlikely, due to the time constraints and the relative elevation of 1550 m (5000 ft) from camp to the peak, but I was going to see how high I could get.

View of Khoja-i-Muso from camp...
I reached the snow line at about 9:30. Here some some views from my perch...

Looking north across the valley. Also the camp is almost visible at the bottom of the pic...

The view west down the valley, including peak Piramidalny, the 2nd highest peak in the Fans...

The view up the valley. I took some consolation in that fact that I could at least see the glacier from this vantage...



And this was my view up Khoja-i-Muso. I was still about 300 m (1000 ft) short of the top, and had two things going against me. The first was time, and the second was that I had reached a point where I didn't see a safe way to proceed...

On my perch I spied these mountain daisies, which reminded my that my wife would probably like me to call it a day and head down the mountain...

Even though I didn't summit, I did crack 4000 m (13,100 ft) and had an elevation gain of 1200 m (4000 ft) in about 3.5 hours. And the views were great. I was ready to head down the mountain, across the basket bridge one last time and down the valley.

Next time: Obburdon Pass