Silk Road Trekking Dispatch
August 5, 2009 – Team Visits “Vertical” Climbing Camp
Views in the high alpine of the Fann Mountains
Today is our fourth day of trekking in the Fann mountains. It was relatively easier than the other days. We trekked from our camp above the Aluddin Lakes to the alpine base camp known as “Vertical”.
We were surprised as we trekked out of the wilderness area of Aluddin to Vertical camp. We saw a lot of young Russian and Uzbek climbers getting their gear ready to ascend some of the big routes of these very steep mountains all around us.
The Vertical camp is a real sport camp for climbers and an important climbing center in this area. We stopped by briefly and we saw a poster with the face of Yury Vizbor, the man for whom this camp was named. He is a Soviet era film maker who made the classic film “Vertical”, which was about a group of soviet climbers scaling an unconquered summit in the late 1960s. This camp still operates in his honour and with his spirit.
Now we will settle into a lovely camp at 3,000m (9,843ft) in an alpine meadow that looks just like Switzerland. The big peak standing tall across from our camp is called “Maria”.