Hiking trip on Pamir mountains in Tajikistan.

“... I smoked for a long time over the snowy abyss,
Now I could not help but understand:
The night, my beloved, sleeps serenely
But mother secretly prays"

Yuri Vizbor. December 1954.

Mountain hiking Pamir mpuntains Tajikistan.

Gando Glacier is located in the Sangvor district of Tajikistan. The length of the glacier is 22.0 kilometers, an area of ​​44.6 kilometers square, located in a relatively narrow longitudinal basin between the ridge of Peter the Great and its large spur - the ridge OPTE.
The Gando Glacier belongs to the Obihingou River Basin. In the west, the basin has access to the Kirgizob river valley, through which moisture is supplied - western and south-western air currents, and the ridges closing it form a high barrier on their way, causing heavy rainfall.
The main stream of the Gando Glacier has a complex multi-chamber feeding area in the area of ​​junction of the Peter the Great ridges and the OPTE (Society of Proletarian Tourism and Excursions). On the northern slope of the OPTE ridge, there is a vast firn area of ​​the Dorofeev Glacier, the main left tributary of the Gando Glacier.
Part of the Gando glacier fills almost the entire bottom of the basin, its width gradually decreases: from 2 kilometers in the upper reaches to 500 meters in the lower part. The middle moraines formed during the confluence of the main components in the middle part of the glacier form loops characteristic of pulsating glaciers.
Perhaps the Dorofeeva Glacier is pulsating. According to the testimony of the participants of the 1931 expedition, this glacier was connected with the Gando glacier with “a huge ice element that at the same time turned over itself” (“Five years in the Pamir mountains”. 1935. P. 68).
In 1948, this section was relatively easy to pass (Timashev. 1949). For 8 - 9 kilometers from the end of the Gando Glacier, the moraine forms an almost continuous cover. A hilly and cellular relief with rounded hollows filled with water and gentle hills is developed here.
The lower 2 - 3 kilometers of the end of the glacier are severely destroyed by water flows. In addition to the Gando Glacier and its tributaries, there are 24 more glaciers in the basin, and the total glaciation area of ​​the basin is 58.2 square kilometers.

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

Photos
Alexander Petrov.