Tian Shan: The adventure begins in the village of Chimgon at approx 1600 m amsl
Tian Shan: Overlooking the Tian Shan foothills
Tian Shan: Ski lift, hotel and some infrastructure, complete, abandoned, not complete, abandoned
Tian Shan: Abandoned swimming pool
Tian Shan: this building has seen better times
Tian Shan: Indian tourists get the ride of their life on this chairlift!
Tian Shan: As a starter, we go for a short hike up a valley, to familiarize with ourselves and with the terrain
Tian Shan: road to Lake Chorvok shores
Tian Shan: Lake Chorvok
Tian Shan: Chorvoq Reservoir. Peaks in the background belong to Kazakstan
Tian Shan: View from our hotel, Chorvok Oromgohi. Not recommended, btw.
Tian Shan: The snow capped mountains mark the Kazakh border
Tian Shan: Double Helipad and a lake - what an aviation-friendly place!
Tian Shan: The architecture of our hotel is, well, individual
Tian Shan: I even might start to like the architecture...
Tian Shan: Sunset over Chorvok reservoir with the dam visible
Tian Shan: hotel view by night (64s exposure and full moon)
Tian Shan: Hiking time! This creek (and the parking lot behind me) mark the starting point of our 5 day trek
Tian Shan: Marble creek
Tian Shan: A mountain guide, his assistant, our tour guide and 10 tourists
Tian Shan: Amazing rock formation, just like someone spilled some plaster
Tian Shan: look closely, this has been submarine ground a very long time ago
Tian Shan: So many fossils, they were lying all around. Of course we did NOT take any
Tian Shan: (probably) Juniperus polycarpos, Persian Juniper
Tian Shan: rose hips
Tian Shan: this is some hallucinogenic plant - so was I told. Ideas?
Tian Shan: this is some hallucinogenic plant - so was I told. Ideas?
Tian Shan: Next strange thing was this woolly tree... full of wasps
Tian Shan: Thistles everywhere and many visited by butterflies
Tian Shan: great view to the west after a little ascent
Tian Shan: Big Chimgan, a 3309m tall rock overlooking the region, shows it's west face for the 1st time
Tian Shan: We cross a pass into a side valley of the Beldersay river
Tian Shan: Our first night's camp has already been erected
Tian Shan: Very nice setting for our camp. The white stone heart can be seen on google maps here: 41.489370, 69.994738
Tian Shan: Beldersay river, maximum 10°C
Tian Shan: hiking sticks also work well to support the clothesline
Tian Shan: Camp by night
Tian Shan: some clouds but still great weather
Tian Shan: Big Chimgan greeting from far
Tian Shan: Interesting plant along the way
Tian Shan: Horses grazing (and drinking) at approx. 1800m amsl
Tian Shan: probably a Juniper again
Tian Shan: Horses grazing on this ridge
Tian Shan: View into Beldersay valley
Tian Shan: Hiking up the ridge on the right, with Big Chimgan always in sight
Tian Shan: Deep down in the valley, we spot the horses, they advance quicker than us
Tian Shan: Big Chimgan now just a few 100m away! Impressive west face!
Tian Shan: Petroglyphes along the way. 20'000 years old!
Tian Shan: I could not get enough of this impressive face of Big Chimgan
Tian Shan: some 100m below us (approx 2'500m amsl), we can spot our next camp
105 pics
Uzbekistan Vol.2
After the starter in Tashkent, we headed east for some hiking in the Chatkan Range in the western Tian Shan Mountains. Awesome days out in the middle of nowhere with spectacular views on (mentally) relaxing hikes.
