Page 18 - 2021 AMA Summer

EXPEDITIONNEWS
#KY21
Danai Osmond
Itching to get out, Danai Osmond led a civilian mountaineering expedition, including fellow AMA member Joe
Robertson, to the Kuiluu Range in Kyrgyzstan.
Travelling abroad during a lockdown isn’t easy, and it seemed almost impossible that a military expedition would make it away this year. When a friend asked me in December 2020 what my plans were for the summer, the logical reaction was obviously to get out my to-do list and start exploring a few on Google Earth with them.
We explored a few options, but Kyrgyzstan was the one that really stood out to us as the right option this year. The mountain ranges are relatively easy to access, with some established tour providers who are used to catering for exploratory expeditions – perfect when your mind is preoccupied with how you’re actually going to make it in and out of the
country. Most importantly, neither the UK nor Kyrgyzstan had been on one another’s red lists, meaning that the chances of a late cancellation were low.
Mountains cover 95% of Kyrgyzstan, much of which has seldom been exploited by climbers post-USSR; the Kuiluu Range even less so. Often overshadowed by its bigger sibling, the Central Tian Shan (which flouts peaks such as Khan Tengri and Peak Pobeda), the Kuiluu should not be overlooked as a playground for exploratory mountaineering. The area tops out at Konstituzii (5281m) but what it lacks in high-altitude mountaineering, it makes up for in accessibility and endless unclimbed 4000-5000ers.
It seemed a miracle in itself when we took our first steps past the immigration
counter at Manas Airport in late July. My friend and I had assembled a team of nine and the equipment, logistics and sponsors to support an attempt at a set of unclimbed 5000ers in the Bardytor Valley; in less than 7 months, in a summer where we couldn’t even have climbed in the Alps. We didn’t even think twice before getting in the LPG-powered taxis to our hotel. The journey to our base camp was a few hundred miles, half by minibus and half by “KAMAZ”, a Russian 6x6 TCV designed to take expedition teams along the narrow shepherd tracks at altitude. At times, as the truck tipped downhill, we could see hundreds of metres down the cliff from our track to the riverbed. When we got out of the truck, we were confronted with a wave of emotion that made the fear of the journey seem distant and irrelevant. We were free, in the most beautiful setting, for the first time in over a year.
18 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Kyrgyzstan approach 20 - The KAMAZ on the final approach to basecamp
Basecamp Tim scouts a potential BASE exit using his drone