Tours in ridge of Academy Nauk.

“It is important to conquer the adoration of your subject in yourself. Travel is fraught with the threat of an immense passion for a foreign country, the "discovery of America" ​​at every turn. Everyday life seems to be the life of some extraordinary events and interests. Travel is a book. Only those who can read the observed life between the lines can read it. Anyone who is looking for original, exotic, tuned "poetically", inevitably falls into error, because in normal conditions of life he is looking for abnormal"

Academician V.M. Alekseev. 1907.

Climbing in ridge of Academy Nauk.

The ridge of the Academy Nauk is a powerful barrier stretching from the valley of the Muksu River in the north to the Yazgulemsky Range in the south. Its average height is 5760 meters above sea level, the highest point is peak of Communism - 7495 meters above sea level.
The western slopes of the ridge are adjacent to the ranges of Peter I, Darvaz, Vanch and Yazgulemsky. The wide valleys of the Obihingou, Vancha and Yazgulema rivers are cut almost to the crest of the Academy Nauk ridge, and moist western and southwestern air flows freely upstream and through the saddle pass to the eastern slope of the Academy Nauk ridge, where the annual rainfall reaches 1000 - 1500 mm.
The large accumulation of snow (from 100 to 200 grams per centimeter square per year), the considerable height of the mountains and their deep dissection create favorable conditions for the existence of a large glaciation site here.
East slope Academy Nauk in its the southern part is so buried with snow and ice that "the spurs of a ridge sunken in the sea of ​​ice here represent, as it were, an archipelago of islands made up of small chains and separate rocks rising 300 to 500 metro above the ice surface" (Korzhenevsky, 1948. P. 79).
A total of 2187 glaciers in the Western and Central Pamirs 3480.1 km square, which is 46.5% of the total glaciation area of ​​the entire Pamirs. In the western part of the region, due to the relatively small height of the ridges, glaciation is represented mainly by shallow and hanging glaciers.
To the east, with an increase in the height of the mountains, valley and complex valley glaciers of ever larger sizes appear, and glaciation reaches its maximum development in the area of ​​the ridge of the Academy Nauk and its junction with the ridges of Peter I, Darvaz, Vakha and Yazgulem.
Here there are large complex valley and dendritic glaciers with a wide network of tributaries, and small valley and The caravan glaciers for the most part comprise the second tier of glaciation and are located on the slopes of the valleys above the tongues of large glaciers, from which many of them have severed in recent historical times.
On the ridges of the Western and Central Pamirs 51 glacier has an area of ​​more than 10 square kilometers each, of which 16 glaciers are larger than 25 square kilometers, and among them is the Fedchenko glacier, the area of ​​which together with tributaries is 649.6 square kilometers.
There are 139 glaciers in the ridge of the Academy Nauk with a total area of ​​1,134.4 square kilometers. 90% of this area (1018 square kilometers) is accounted for by 11 large complex valley and dendritic glaciers, many of which also receive food from the slopes of the Peter I, Darvaz, Vanch, Yazgulemsky, Northern Tanymas ridges, etc.
Thus, the total area of ​​glaciation of the Academy Nauk ridge is somewhat overestimated due to other ranges of the Western and Central Pamirs.
The total area of ​​glaciation, including Fedchenko Glacier in Akademy Nauk ridge, is 1,500 square kilometers.
The largest glaciers of the ridge of the Academy Nauk
Fedchenko Glacier, the main trunk with a length of 77.0 kilometers, an area of ​​156.0 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 2900 to 6280 meters above sea level, belongs to the Seldara River Basin.
The Glacier of the Geographical Nauk, including the Kashalayak Glacier with a length of 24.2 kilometers, an area of ​​25.5 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3600 to 6250 meters above sea level, belongs to the Mazardara River Basin.
The Garmo Glacier, including the Belyaev and Vavilov glaciers, 30.4 kilometers long, 73.1 square kilometers in area, located at an altitude of 2980 to 6350 meters above sea level, belongs to the Garmo River Basin.
The Bivachny Glacier, with a length of 30.1 kilometers, an area of ​​37.1 square kilometers, is located at an altitude of 3480 to 5400 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The Yazgulemsky Glacier, with a length of 19.5 kilometers, an area of ​​25.5 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3600 to 6250 meters above sea level, belongs to the Vanch River Basin.
The Maly Tanymas Glacier, 17.6 km long, covers an area of ​​43.5 square kilometers, is located at an altitude of 3150 to 6340 meters above sea level, belongs to the Maly Tanamys and Seldara river basins.
The Medvezhy Glacier, with a length of 15.8 kilometers, an area of ​​23.3 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 2900 to 4690 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Abdukagor River.
Oshanin Glacier with a length of 14.0 kilometers, an area of ​​25.0 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3840 to 7000 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Bivachny glacier.
The Mushketov Glacier (Karasel), with a length of 14.0 kilometers, an area of ​​17.1 square kilometers, is located at an altitude of 2870 to 7100 meters above sea level, belongs to the Karasel river basin.
The Walter Glacier, with a length of 12.3 kilometers, an area of ​​20.1 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3900 to 6840 meters above sea level, belongs to the Fortambek River tributary (glacier) basin.
The 11.4-kilometer Abdukagor Glacier, an area of ​​12.9 square kilometers, is located at an altitude of 3560 to 6060 meters above sea level, belongs to the Abdukagor River Basin.
The Krasnoarmeysky glacier, with a length of 11.2 kilometers, an area of ​​15.7 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3260 to 5200 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Glacier of the Geographical Nauk.
The Kalinin Glacier, with a length of 10.0 kilometers, an area of ​​18.5 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3650 to 6560 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Bivachny glacier.
The Cascade Glacier, with a length of 9.8 kilometers, an area of ​​5.5 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3560 to 5660 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Abdukagor River.
The Moskvina Glacier, with a length of 9.2 kilometers, an area of ​​16.4 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4250 to 6600 meters above sea level, belongs to the Fortambek River (glacier) basin.
The glacier of the USSR Academy Nauk, with a length of 8.5 kilometers, an area of ​​48.1 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4560 to 5500 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The glacier of the Communist Academy, with a length of 8.0 kilometers, an area of ​​18.9 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4150 to 6175 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The Voroshilov Glacier, with a length of 8.0 kilometers, an area of ​​14.9 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4200 to 6600 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The Elena Rozmirovich Glacier, with a length of 7.5 kilometers, an area of ​​17.5 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4280 to 5600 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
Kashalayak Glacier, with a length of 3.5 kilometers, an area of ​​9.6 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4160 to 4330 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The Vasilevsky Glacier, with a length of 6.5 kilometers, an area of ​​9.7 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4060 to 5600 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Bivachny glacier.
The Glacier of Military Topographers, with a length of 6.5 kilometers, an area of ​​13.3 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 3960 to 6000 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The Muzjilga Glacier, with a length of 6.1 kilometers, an area of ​​5.2 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 2880 to 6200 meters above sea level, belongs to the Muksu River Basin.
Glacier of Moscow State University, with a length of 6.0 kilometers, an area of ​​14.0 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4160 to 6850 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Bivachny glacier.
The Meteorological Glacier, with a length of 6.0 kilometers, an area of ​​7.3 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4000 to 5900 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The 5.5 km long Akjilga Glacier, an area of ​​6.9 square kilometers, is located at an altitude of 4370 to 6650 meters above sea level, belongs to the Ayujilga River Basin.
Glacier 56, with a length of 5.5 kilometers, an area of ​​3.8 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4150 to 5400 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The Garmo Glacier, with a length of 5.3 kilometers, an area of ​​3.8 square kilometers, is located at an altitude of 3400 to 5400 meters above sea level, belongs to the Muksu River Basin.
The glacier of the Academy Nauk of Uzbekistan, with a length of 5.1 kilometers, an area of ​​8.8 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4860 to 5300 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.
The 5.0 km Ordzhonikidze Glacier, an area of ​​16.3 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4560 to 6700 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Bivachny Glacier.
The High Tanymas Glacier, with a length of 5.0 kilometers, an area of ​​12.2 square kilometers, located at an altitude of 4980 to 5080 meters above sea level, belongs to the basin of the Fedchenko Glacier.

Authority:
"Glaciers." L.D. Dolgushin, G.B. Osipova. Series "Nature of the world." Moscow, the publishing house "Thought". 1989.

Photos
Alexander Petrov.