The high Pamirs

On my way up acclimatising a night at 3500m

Offroading at 4200m on a side track up to Kolsay lake; trying to circumnavigate snowfields on the track...seems I was the first this year up here by car

this was a tricky one, did not realise that there is always a 10cm layer of pure ice below the snow so I was sliding sideways in the deep mud... luckily the angle was not too steep and with a bit of hacking away the ice I eventually got through

well that was the end of it, a frozen river with a 1m layer of ice... at some point one has to make a choice considering effort and risk being all on your own..so I continued on foot

the ground was soaked with meltwater and very muddy and on top is was very windy and cold and the air pretty thin...

wolf tracks and ponds of meltwater...

but the actual lake was still frozen over...enjoyed the vistas though...

can you spot the truck? ...dimensions are different here...

wildlife and frozen river

The Pamir highway

well, highway is relative, this truck must be stuck here for a few days already...up to the belly in mud

Images along the highway...

However, I was taking a lot of side tracks roaming around in the backcountry...

around some lakes with surrounding hot springs and geysers

the local dwellings are extremely simple and one can only imagine how hard the life must be with winters up to -50 degrees C...

along the highway for a bit... towards Murghab

camp along the Murgab river

Murgab the biggest town sort of half way on the highway... The market is in old containers and makeshift sheds of old vehicles etc. Here i met the first other travellers again, nice to exchange a bit of stories...