Tours to Aksu gorge in Turkestan ridge.

“I believe that mountaineering should be fun, even when it gets really tough, and even when someone has to pay for a challenge. After all, if we are willing to pay such a price, then mountaineering is really fun"

Chris Bonington.

Trekking in gorge Aksu in Turkestan ridge.

Turkestan ridge in the place of the Aksu gorge, goes from west to east, separating Kyrgyzstan from Tajikistan. On the maps of these republics, the dominant peak Pyramidalniy peak, 5509 meters above sea level, is always shown.
The rocks of the region are mainly represented by metamorphosed granites, depending on the tectonic conditions of their formation - various fracturing, but mainly of large-block type. The columnar structure is quite characteristic, with steep walls, its own height from 500 to 1500 meters, and as a result, there are no simple exits (and descents) from the north to the bridges, which in some places can be considered passes only because there are no simple passes at all.
This was told by Vitaly Abalakov, who once led a group of the country's strongest climbers, who were looking for a way to the Tin Wall nearby. These places fall into the so-called Turkestan-Alpine zone of deep faults, therefore, the displacement of blocks of the earth's crust is very large here.
Characterized by the isolation of the peaks, which are rocky massive pyramids, separated by relatively low dips of the bridges, and the exits to them are steep and dangerous, and the ascent from them to the peaks also goes mainly along difficult wall paths.
This part of the Turkestan ridge is the highest and has a powerful glaciation. The height of the snow line of the northern slopes is 3700 - 4000 meters above sea level. The southern slopes are more gentle, and the headwaters of the glaciers are located in close proximity to the crests of the ridge to heights of about 4500 meters above sea level.
Due to the exposure of the walls from the north, before the valley winds, separate periods of bad weather with heavy snowfalls are characteristic. Weather changes can happen unexpectedly during the day. However, bad weather is rare in July and August. In dry seasons, the combined routes can become pure rock.
For rock walls, given their great steepness, cornices and overhanging sections, as well as a small number of cracks, are also characteristic; in bad weather such walls can become impassable. The main peaks of Aksu make up a rocky barrier, a horseshoe bending around the Aksu glacier: from west to east these are the Iskander peaks, 5120 meters above sea level, Petrograd, 5165 meters above sea level, Admiralteets, 5090 meters above sea level, Aksu, 5355 meters above sea level, Alexander Blok, 5229 meters above sea level, Aktyubek, 5125 meters above sea level, Dostoevsky, 4974 meters above sea level.
Directly in the Turkestan ridge itself there is a section of the Admiralteets - Blok peaks, the rest are in the northern spurs along the sides of the Aksu glacier. In the eastern spur, between the peaks of Aktyubek and Dostoevsky, from peak 4660, there is also a branch to the west, ending with peak 3900 (Domashniy), a good panoramic point from which almost the whole picture of the region is revealed, except that Iskander obscures the view of the Admiralteets.
From the "Alai" camp, located at an altitude of 3000 meters above sea level, the approach to the upper reaches of the Aksu glacier takes 2 - 3 hours. The foot of the Aksu gorge is located at an altitude of 3500 meters above sea level.
From this place it seems that the rocky walls and bastions surrounding the circus hang over you, as if even leaning towards each other in huge incomplete vaults. They make a particularly magical impression if you happen to visit there on such rare cloudy days, in the gaps between the clouds of fog - suddenly, fleetingly, as in a brightly lit window, the peak of the peak, illuminated by a sunbeam, appears.
Here it will clearly seem that this flaming peak, like a sword, hangs over your head!

Authority:
P. Zak. "The rocky kingdom of the Pamirs". Almanac "Wind of wanderings". No. 24, 1989.

Photos by
Alexander Petrov.