Pik Lenin Expedition Reaches Base Camp

We have arrived at Base Camp to beau­ti­ful skies, Pik Lenin ris­ing direct­ly above. The dri­ve to camp took us over a near­ly 4000 meter pass, on a high­way that, in places, was so dam­aged there was room only for one vehi­cle. We drove south from Osh, through the Trans-Altai moun­tain range, final­ly emerg­ing into the Alay Val­ley and the start of the Pamir Range and Pik Lenin. The final 30 km of the jour­ney took us through high alti­tude plains and dri­ving through creek wash­es to arrive at Base Camp in a peace­ful mead­ow direct­ly under the mountain.

Today we did an acclima­ti­za­tion hike up on the ridge of Petro­vsky Peak, pic­tured in the right of the pho­to. Tomor­row we head up to Advanced Base Camp (Camp 1) where we will start the climb­ing in earnest!

~ MM Guide Tino Villanueva