Altitude acclimation doesn’t happen overnight. After a week crossing Tajikistan, Ricardo and I had gradually climbed higher and higher, at one point reaching 4,800 meters. By the end of that first week, my watch showed I was acclimated to around 2,000 meters — though it had cost me nights of restless sleep, frequent nosebleeds, and constant dehydration.
Armed with that hard-earned “superpower,” we were eager for new adventures. The first was a hike up to Traveller’s Pass, on the approach to Lenin Peak — one of the world’s most renowned seven-thousanders. Straddling the border of Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, Lenin Peak is unmistakable on the horizon, easily spotted from the village of Sary Mogol.
This time, our goal wasn’t the 7,134-meter summit — we would only flirt with 4,150 meters, using the climb as a way to continue acclimating before tackling a multi-day trek in the Alay Mountains.
But you might be wondering: why the name Lenin Peak? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
Lenin Peak was originally named Mount Kaufmann after Konstantin Kaufman, the first Governor-General of Russian Turkestan. In 1928, the mountain was renamed Lenin Peak after the Russian revolutionary and first leader of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin. In Tajikistan, the peak was renamed again in July 2006, and today it is officially called in Tajik Qullai Abuali ibni Sino, after Abu Ali ibn Sina, a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world.
Lenin Peak was thought to be the highest point in the Pamirs in Tajikistan until 1933, when Ismoil Somoni Peak (known as Stalin Peak at the time) was climbed and found to be more than 300 metres higher.
These anecdotes speak to the depth of Russia’s influence in the region. With any luck, the new names will endure this time.
From Sary Mogol, we drove to Tulparkol Lake, the trailhead for an 18-kilometer hike. At 3,500 meters, the air was thin and the sky a piercing blue, as it so often is at that altitude.
We then came back down and got to meet the locals.
And that’s it! See you soon for a longer one in the Alay Mountains! 👋