Climbed the world’s last explored mountain ranges

None of the nomads that the team encountered had met westerns before - They got a glimpse of a snow leopard - Watched wild camels - Found tracks of red wolf and ibex

The Motorola Pamirs Expedition has just returned from an unique tour (Global Adventure). Paul Deegan leaded the expedition. They made successful ascents of five unclimbed peaks in the area, but the risk of avalanche prevented attempts to climb any 6000 metres peaks.

The mountain ranges are located on the borders of Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan and China. Here they explored vast tracts of the range, known as the Zaalayskiy Khrebet. This is one of the world's last explored mountain ranges.

Friendly nomads invited the climbers to drink their favourite brew; fermented horse milk. They reported that the taste was a bit horsy, and the lumps of fat tended to get stuck in the throat. I now really wonder what was the biggest challenge for these brave adventures; was it the ascent of the un-climbed peaks, or was it drinking the horse milk?

Stein Morten Lund, 15 December 2000

Additional information

The manager of the expedition, Paul Deegan, is the Contributing Editor in Global Adventure, and he will write about the expedition in a future issue of the magazine.