Passes in main ridge of Kokshaal-Too.

“It was 10 o’clock in the morning when we climbed the pass. It is a small platform, about 6 steps wide, lying between a collapsed guardhouse and the fragments of a rock, which is even higher than the pass. From these fragments I took a sample, which turned out to be talc shale.”

“Kashgaria and the passes of the Tien Shan.” N. Zeland. 1887.

Trip to Bedel Pass.

High-mountain Bedel Pass is located at an altitude of 4284 meters above sea level, is located in main ridge of Kokshaal-Too ridge between Suuk-Kyr and Kara-Bel mountains, in Jety-Oguz district of Issyk-Kul region. From the pass to the northwest flows one of the left tributaries of the Bedel River, 6.5 kilometers long, which flows into the main channel of the Bedel River, which in turn belongs to the Ak-Shyirak River basin.
The saddle of the pass is rocky and clayey, the slopes on both sides are steep, composed of sandstones, conglomerates, shales, limestones of the Paleozoic. There is eternal snow and glaciers on the pass. 11.5 kilometers to the northwest of the Bedel Pass is a border outpost with the same name.
The old road towards the pass from the border outpost "Bedel" is laid at a distance of 9 kilometers along the left bank of the river of the same name. In 2023, during the state visit of the President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarv to the People's Republic of China, an agreement was reached on opening the Bedel Pass for transport communications, building and opening a checkpoint.
History of Bedel Pass.
The Bedel Pass has been known since the 2nd half of the VIIIth century, a caravan road passed through it. 
In volume 3 of the collected works, Chokan Valikhanov in the chapter "Routes collected by me during the trip to Kashgar" reports on "Routes to town of Ush-Turfan":
2. Route to (Ush) - Turfan of Dr. Zilberstein, who traveled to the Chinese post of Shate 1. From Lake Issyk-Kul to Mount Zauke-Duan (Davan) 2. From Mount Zauke-Duan to Mount Akbel (Ak-Bel) 3. From Mount Akbel to Mount Bedel-Duan (Bedel-Davan) 4. From Mount Bedel to the Chinese guardhouse of Djide 5. From the Chinese guardhouse of Djide to another - Shate 6. From the guardhouse of Shate to the city of Turfan (Uch-Turfan). 
On September 11, 1888, the expedition of Nikolai Lvovich Zeland passed by the lake, who was traveling from the city of Verny to Kashgar. In the period from 1881 to 1888, N.L. Zeland worked as a regional doctor in the Semirechye region, town of Verny.
In 1888 - 1896 - assistant military medical inspector of the Turkestan military district, the city of Tashkent. Member of the Turkestan Medical Society. Member of the Turkestan circle of archeology lovers.
N.L. Zeland made a short description of the Bedel pass, the route and its features:
“Finally, we are at the turn to the pass itself. In front of us towered a wall, by the most modest estimate of 200 feet, on the crest of which a stone guardhouse was visible, and next to it a narrow horizontal strip, where some tracks in the snow were directed. This was the pass.
The wall is so steep that the average slope can be considered to be 42 - 45 °, which, as is known, is a very difficult climb, especially for animals. It should be added that the ground is level and the only support that the feet find is sticky snow and protruding rocks in places.
The steepest and smoothest place is the last 2 - 3 fathoms. Although in places this wall can be climbed in zigzags, this is not possible everywhere, and in any case this climb is so difficult that at times, i.e. when snow alternates with ice, it is absolutely inaccessible without help from above.
In view of this, in the past, part of the Urta-Kurgan garrison lived in the aforementioned guardhouse, which was obliged to drag pack animals with the help of lassos. Under the Chinese order, all this was abandoned. In addition to the steepness and height of the climb, there is a rarity of air, as a result of which riding horses, even empty ones, climbed up with great difficulty, catching their breath every 5 - 6 steps.
Half of our people were climbing at the same time as me, others behind, some on horseback, others on foot. It wasn't easy, though, even on foot. Trofimov was holding my horse by the bridle again, and at the steepest point even our philosopher-horseman No. 1 dismounted and walked next to me, supporting the horse.
The pack and the merchant caravan were still far behind. Most of our people felt a headache, which, however, gradually passed on the pass itself. I, on the contrary, felt I easily reached the pass, but due to the long delay on it (which will be discussed soon), I gradually developed a severe headache, which lasted until nightfall.
Unfortunately, from this very elevated point, due to the pile-up of mountains and the winding course of the gorges, there is not at all the picturesque view that one might expect. A sea of ​​white tops - and nothing more. The morning was still calm, so that the slight frost of 1½ ° R. was not felt at all.
The sky at this time in places presented a light transparent cloudiness. These clouds were, of course, cirrus, which float very high, while ordinary clouds could be below us. The height of Bedel, until now, on the basis of an approximate calculation, was considered from 14,000 to 15,000 feet above sea level, but according to the barometric determination of N. M. Przhevalsky (in the fall of 1885), it rises to 13,700 feet.
However, it would not hurt to have a few more definitions to derive an average figure, since the state of the atmosphere has an effect on the sought value. Unfortunately, I myself did not have the opportunity to stock up on tools, because my preparations were too unexpected and hasty, and at first I did not intend to return through Bedel, while along the Naryn route the height of the passes had already been determined earlier.
The highest points of the Kok-Shal peaks, according to the approximate calculations of K. A. Larionov, reach 16,000 - 17,000 feet. We had long been at the top, but the pack remained below. Various parts of the caravan dragged on for a long time, under the mountain along a horizontal ledge, but as soon as they approached the turn of the pass, the same trouble began with the horses as with the camels near Tash-Rabat.
Exhausted already during the passage along the rocky bed of the gorge and the first ascent, the pack animals, despite all possible efforts of the drivers, began to pack one after another. Some rose, constantly falling on their knees and with excessively long pauses for rest, others lay down on their sides and could not be forced further.
The latter included most of the horses of our pack. Time passed, but still no sense. If under such conditions the wind had risen, then the situation in such a place and with separation from the pack would have been quite serious. Finally, our fellows rescued us.
The younger horseman, Dementiy and 4 Cossacks (two remained with the horses at the top) began to go down several times and dragged various parts of the pack on their shoulders to lighten the horses. On one of these journeys Dementius could not hold on to the steep slope and rolled down, but held on to a protruding stone.
What kind of work it was could be concluded from the fact that even a single ascent, without any difficulty, was a difficult task; I saw what it cost the merchants, who almost all climbed up on foot, out of breath and red as if from a bathhouse. It was hardest of all for their wives, especially one who, thanks to a barbaric custom and the absurd jealousy of her husband, even under these circumstances did not dare to remove her thick curtain, as a result of which she suffered even more from lack of air.
The entire curtain was already soaked from her breath, her chest rose high, the poor woman stamped in one place, not knowing how to overcome the last steepness, and no one gave her help. It turned out that among those already standing at the pass was her husband, who was watching her from the heights of grandeur.
Having learned that it was he, I demanded through the interpreter that he at least allow her to take off her veil. He shook his head with sullen indifference. I exploded. "Yaman!" (scum) I shouted at him and ordered him to immediately bring help to my wife.
Then he deigned to go down and give her the handle of the whip and, thus, climbed up together with her. While we were busy with the pack, one bundle of firewood rolled into the abyss and stopped at such a depth that it was impossible to get it out in any way. We waited 3½ hours at the pass, finally, somehow, we raised the horses and we set off.
The merchants managed a little earlier than us, probably their pack horses were better. At first the descent is quite gentle, but then the road goes through such a place that trouble almost happened to me. You have to make your way along a tiny ledge (cornice) that runs halfway between a high wall and a deep chasm.
The ledge itself slopes toward the chasm and this time it was covered with loose, deep snow that made it difficult to feel the road. Despite my raging headache, I had to sit on horseback, but at the first steps I noticed that my horse, whose leg had been injured while walking over rocks, began to slip, which was of course also facilitated by the fact that the snow was caked under the hooves.
In view of this and in the hope of alleviating my headache, I got off and went on foot, but here I found myself out of the frying pan and into the fire. I was carrying a pair of felt boots with me, which I did not need on the entire journey, but I put them on that morning in case of a possible wind. At that moment I had to repent of that.
The convex bottom of the felt boots prevented me from feeling the ground when I put my foot down, and under that condition my foot would inevitably lip. I felt it was impossible to walk along this path without slipping off it, especially with the unsteadiness that the oppressive headache imparted to my steps.
To slip off the road in this place would have been equivalent to falling into an abyss, because the slope from the mountain below the path in this place was very round, 60 degrees or more, and there was no way to stay on it, but I would have to roll to the very bottom.
Even assuming that the snow would have protected me from injury during a fall, it would have been absolutely impossible to get out of this abyss, at the bottom of which, moreover, the snow was higher than my head. In a word, this was the most critical moment of the entire hike for me.
I, of course, realized that I had to take off my felt boots and walk in boots alone, but this was a very difficult task under the given conditions. Fortunately, my faithful and agile Dementiy came to my aid. Standing himself on the edge of the abyss, but firmly bracing himself with one foot, he still managed to pull off my felt boots and put on rubber galoshes instead, in which it was much easier to walk.
Thus, led by the hand by the horseman walking in front, I somehow made my way through this place, and we had to walk like this for about ¼ of an hour. All the horses made it through safely. Then little by little the road became as smooth as we had not seen it for a long time.
It went along the bottom of the valley, the left side of which was covered with snow, and the right more or less bare. At first I rode again on horseback, but then, because of a headache, I was forced to sit in a litter. From 1½ o'clock (the time we left the pass) until midnight we walked without stopping, trying to find a place to spend the night that was bare of snow and had water.
The area where the road becomes level is already part of the Sary-chat ridge. The Sary-chat plateau rises to 11,800 feet. (Larionov). The Bedel-su river (which should not be confused with the aforementioned river of the same name, which flows to the south) flows along the valley along which the road from Bedel goes.
The Bedel-su flows into the Ishtyk or Istyk, which is one of the tributaries of the Dzhanart. In general, the road from Bedel to Issyk-kul goes northwest and only briefly deviates to the v. In the Bedel-su valley it meets the river several times, going partly along its bank, especially along the right one, and in several places it crosses it.
There were two more small passes. Between the first and the second, the road in one place goes around a ledge, on the left side of which there is such a steep abyss that it is impossible to see its bottom from the road. The ledge itself is a considerable slope. This place is called Kelen-Taigak.
Fortunately, at this time the moon was already shining for us, and without it it would have been bad. At the bottom of the abyss flows the Bedel-su River. I walked along the ledge on foot, led by the horsemen. Afterwards I had to go in a similar way again.
The second pass was unpleasant, its ascent is very difficult for horses. The last hours of that evening passed through flat valleys and steppes covered with snow, and finally, exhausted by fatigue, at midnight we came to the Ishtyk ravine, where there is a place bare of snow, and good water, i.e. a river and a spring.
There is a small stone fence here, and in it we found a yurt pitched, in which dry manure (dung) was smoldering instead of a fire. This yurt, as it turned out, was specially brought by an acquaintance of our kind horsemen, and he himself met me, inviting me to warm up.
The yurt, let's say, was such only in name, all in holes and without a dome, but still, when it was covered with felt from our pack, it was possible to spend the night in it. Like wolves, we pounced on our provisions, including me, whose headache had only passed by this time.
The poor horses were also in dire need of rest and food, many of them had their legs bruised and wounded, and they had not eaten all day, and the horsemen's horses, as was said, had been on a diet for several days. There was already some forage here, and our herd went there.
We probably covered at least 50 miles that day, and what miles! We lost sight of the merchant caravan. It had fallen behind somewhere in the darkness, having probably stopped earlier for the night." 
Geographic coordinates of Bedel Pass: N41°24'37 E78°24'34

Authority:
Alexander Petrov.
Valikhanov Ch. Ch. Collected Works in Five Volumes. Volume 3 - Alma-Ata, Main Editorial Board of the Kazakh Soviet Encyclopedia, 1985, 2nd ed. add. and revised, pp. 237 – 249.
“Kashgaria and the passes of Tien Shan”. Travel notes of N. Zeland. Omsk, 1887.

Photos by: 
Alexander Petrov.