Tajikistan

Dushanbe was a breath of fresh air after Tehran, a bit cooler, far less traffic and pollution and, best of all, Tajikistan is a secular state not a theocracy like Iran. Women are not required to cover their heads and alcohol is legal!!!
Iran and Tajikistan have one thing in common, the people are extremely open and friendly.
The drive from Dushanbe to our destination Khorog in the Pamirs started off well.
Great scenery and okay roads, this was to change when we hit the river that formed the boundary between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. The next 8 hours was a trying journey on marginal roads with Afghanistan only a rope length or two away.
One consolation was that the roads on the Afghan side were even worse. We had been told that the road could be dangerous. That became evident when, a couple of hours out of Korhog, we came across this wreck being pulled from the river.The crash had occurred the night before and 8 people drowned.
Finally, after 15 grueling hours, we arrived at Bo White’s temporary home in Khorog. By we I mean Jen Fleming and Chris Weidner who accompanied me from Iran. Bo had been in Tajikistan for nearly a year on a Fulbright Grant. Bo had done some scouting and, most importantly, could communicate with the locals. The team now consisted of the four of us along with Mikey, another Fulbright guy, Evo, an expat from Switzerland, and Jessie and Darren who were there on an AAC Grant.
A formation a half hour out of town that Bo had appropriately named the Tusk became our first objective.Bo and I tried one line while Chris and Jen opted for a line to the left.The climbing was much more difficult than we expected. Flaky rock and weird vegetation made the climbing more interesting than we wanted. With evening coming we bailed from our highpoints. On the way back to the road we encountered the only precipitation of the trip. Back early the next day the assault continued. Eventually our lines converged and we found ourselves directly below Jen and Chris. Chris had just led a pretty sketchy pitch to a tiny stance. He told us to hold tight while he saw if the climbing above went. It didn’t, Chris pitched out of the overhanging groove above hanging onto some desiccated shrubbery he thought might suffice as a handhold. He asked if we wanted a go. After mentally reviewing Chris’s 5.14 credentials, we prudently declined.
Defeat sometimes leads to opportunity. On the way out I couldn’t help but notice some intriguing rock peaks in the next valley.The next day Bo and I did a recon. We were invited for tea by the family who lived in the last house before entering the valley. The house is off the grid but lovely. A couple of hours and a few thousand feet up the valley we were sure we were onto something.
Stay tuned for part 2