Wildlife Tours in Tien-Shan mountains.

“What is that feeling when you're driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing? - it's the too-huge world vaulting us, and it's good-bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies” 

Jack Kerouac, «On the Road».

Photos of Central Tien-Shan  mountains.

Mushketov Glacier is a valley tree-like glacier in the Central Tien Shan in Kyrgyzstan (Issyk-Kul region), located on the northern slope of the Sarydzhaz ridge, at the head of the Adyrtor river, the left tributary of the Sarydzhaz river, 20.5 km long and 68.7 km square.
Its firn region lies in a huge gorge with high (up to 1.5 kilometers) steep sides. Glacial tributaries flowing into the main glacier from the northern slope of the Sary-Jaz ridge are bordered by moraines and have the characteristic appearance of “lion paws”.
The food area lies in a huge circus at an altitude of 4500 - 5500 meters above sea level, the firn line - at an altitude of 4100 meters above sea level. The end of the glacier ends at an altitude of 3440 meters above sea level.
The lower part of the glacier is covered with moraine for 5 kilometers. In 1957, there was a sharp movement of the glacier: its end advanced down the valley to a distance of 4.5 kilometers. Until 1956, the glacier receded, and the ice of its lower part was practically motionless, but by August 1957 the end of the glacier quickly advanced 4.5 kilometers.
At the same time, its surface was covered with a dense network of cracks for several kilometers from the end, and the inflows of the lower course were blocked. Since then, the end of the glacier recedes (Osmonov. 1974).
In the western part of the Sary-Jaz ridge, shallow valley glaciers and slope glaciers predominate. In the basin of the Inylchek River, the left tributary of the Sary-Jaz River, there are 198 glaciers with a total area of ​​946.1 square kilometers.
The glacier is currently retreating. The glacier was named after the outstanding Russian researcher Ivan Vasilievich Mushketov.

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

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.