XinJiang Part 1 - Getting "THERE"

Journey to Base Camp Mustagh Ata involved three flights and a six hours bus ride from Kasghar aka Kashi to “204”. “204” is actually the distance in kilometer from Kashgar along Karakoram Highway, KKH. Karakoram literally means “Crumbling Rock” in Turkish.

Mountains along Karakoram and Himalaya were form about 55millions years ago. KKH threads its way through 5 mountain ranges: the Pamir, the Kunlun, the Karakoram, the Hindukush and the Himalaya. The land (Indian continental plate) moves northward at the speed of 5cm/year. That is also the speed Tasmania is drifting from Antartica, or the rate our fingernails grow. Earth tremors every three minutes.

Mustagh Ata at 7546m asl along KKH at 4000m asl
look like a "simple" white mountain

Mustagh or Muztagh literally means “Ice Mountain” in Uyghur (Wei Wu Er language), and Mustagh Ata or 慕士塔格峰 mean “Father of Ice Mountain”. It is sometimes refer as part of Kunlun, although it is physically closer to the Pamir. The word “Pamir” roughly mean “pasture” in local dialect, it can be geologically described as a flat plateau which rises in excess of 4000m asl. Walking at such altitude is not an easy task. As the 20-century scholar-traveller John Staley wrote: ‘this is terrain in which birds in flight are seen against a backgroung of mountain’. The birds probably know about Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS) long before human attempt high altitude mountaineering.

I was a little curious and unconvinced when read about John Staley remarks. I read about geese that migrant over Mount Everest at 8848m asl. I did a little search and found an interesting fact – “The highest-flying bird ever recorded was a Ruppell's griffon, a vulture with a wingspan of about 10 feet. On 29th November 1975, a Ruppell's griffon was sucked into a jet engine 37,900 feet above the Ivory Coast, more than a mile and a half higher than the summit of Mount Everest.” The plane was damaged, but it landed safely to tell the World the story.

Road from Khasgar toward Tashkurgan

On 29th June 2007, Linda and Joyce took Thai Airway to Chengdu at 8am, my Silkair departed about two hours later. I was shocked to see the ladies at luggage collection area when I reached Chengdu. Apparently, their luggage was lost during the transit at Bangkok. We waited a while for the paper work to complete. We realised our booked transport to Sim’s Cozy wasn’t ready after we cleared the custom. It took a while before three of us make it to Sim’s Cosy again.

This is the third time I am Chengdu. Mr Sim never fails to improve the environment of his little cozy guest house each time I visit. We paid the internal connecting flight, which cost us 4130Yuan/each. Zeng Xin, our trip coordinator came during late evening to discuss the trip. There were two main discreptancies to be sort out in the very beginning - climb schedule and a climbing permit which cost the team 8900yuan.

We met Phei Sunn at Chengdu, Shuang Liu International Airport the next day at around noon time. The team was supposed to catch the flight from Chengdu to Urumqi about two hours later. However, the flight was delayed. This delayed our arrival date at Khasgar. It was 1st July, we reached Khasgar, the start point of 1300km Karakoram highway which leads all the way to Islamabad through Khunjerab Pass at 4730m asl. History of Khasgar runs more than 2000years ago. There are official document of Alexander the Great conquer this piece of land, India King Asoka and Chinese emperors were also masters of this city. There is a saying, “One doesn’t know how vast China is till he sees XinJiang, and one doesn’t know XinJiang til he sees Khasgar.” The statement highlights the importance Khasgar as a trading city for central Asia.

My Team at Khasgar, turning cock-wise...

San Ji Mu at Bottom Right in Khaki Top, Phei Sunn, Lang Tou, Hong Bo, Joyce, Ren Qing, Me, Linda, Jian Qiang

The head guide for the Mustagh Ata is “San Ji Mu”. Ren Qing and Hong Bo would be assisting him to make our mountaineering trip a successful one. San Ji Mu is no stranger to me. He was also the guide for my Au Tai Na trip during Dec 2005. Together with four of us, is another Chinese climber, Lin Chong. We would only see him at Mustagh base camp.

Our expediation group would tag along one of the Xin Jiang teams lead by Yang Chun Feng. We met another guy, Yan Jian Qiang, the same day. We discussed about the climb schedule again. It is also during this period when we sort out our payment. 16000Yuan for the guide and 2225Yuan each for the climbing permit. Working with shrewd Zeng Xin remotely was not quite an easy task. My head guide would normal communicate with his chief guide, Su La Wang Ping, when he face a difficult situation.

As it is the very beginning of the trip, we are very “cooperative” when come to payments. I wasn’t too sure if Zeng Xin thinks I am stupid when I made payment without seeing any receipt. I was actually sticking to the S$4000 budget which I was told before of the trip. We were successfully with pushing the climb schedule early. On 2nd July, Joyce, Linda, Phei Sunn and me would proceed to Tashkurgan at 3200m asl. We’ll stay there for two nights and proceed to Karakul Lake at 3600-3700m asl on 4th July. The team would proceed to Mustagh Ata base camp at 4400m asl on 5th July. We tried to follow the rule of keeping the daily ascend within 2000 feet when we were above 2500m asl.

On 2nd July, we took the bus southernly to Tashkurgan. That is also the day my pink nalgene bottle parted me. We realised there are two timing in Xin Jiang, the official BeiJing time and an unofficial Xin Jiang time. All flights and bus schedules follow BeiJing time. However, if one needs to discuss timing with another local. It maybe wise to ask which timing does he refers to. For 9am bus departure actually mean 7am XinJiang time. Unlike Khasgar which consist of mainly Uyghur, Tajiks (Ta Ji Te ethnic group) are the main inhabitant of the town which is near ro Afghanistan and Tajikistan.

Mount Kongur or Gong Ge Er from Karakul Lake

We moved north to Karakul Lake on 4th July. Karakul Lake is some 196km from Khasgar, about 8km North of Mustagh Ata and 8km South West of 7719m Mount Kongur. Karakul literally means “black lake” in Uyugur. But the water there is actually blue. This is place Kyrgyz (Ke ethnic group) nomad stay. Karakul is a good place to do a day hike. U may also arrange a horse excursion around the lake or simply laze under the sun admiring the two giants that was “pushed” off the Ocean bed. It is the first time I stay in the Mongolian tent. As we travelled in a relatively large group, we got to stay in the tent at 20Yuan per night.

Mustagh Ata from Karakul Lake

It is virtually impossible to pen the history of Khasgar, Tashkurgan and Karakul. As you have read, the places are link to many different ethnic groups. As the places lie on ancient Silk Road, many conquerors tired relentlessly to capture and hold this important trade route. I would use photographs to display people, food and sceneries between Khasgar and Tashkurgan.

Traditional Food of Khasgar, Mutton Bun and Kebab

Stone City and "Pamir" beyond






Smiles from XinJiang

Planning for the 2007 trip

I had enjoyed long holidays during Year 2005. Year 2006 was a year of work and many races. Being deprived from nature, snow, high altitude and a good holiday. I wanted an uncommon holiday that can stretch up to a month. The holiday should be challenging and something I should have some difficulty accomplishing.

Wee Lee at high camp, over seeing Chulu East at 6500m asl

Since June 2003, I have never breathed the air above 6000m asl (above sea level). The decision was made during late 2006 - a high altitude (above 7000m) mountaineering trip. Many peaks were considered. Below are some of them…

Personally, I favor the simpler 7000er. The peak should have minimum avalanche risk and the mountain gradient not exceeding 60degree. Finally, we zoomed down to three peaks.
>>> Lhakpa Ri at Tibet, an easy 7000m peak next to Everest. The gradient varies from 20-48degree.
>>> Dhaulagiri VII at Nepal, one of the routes at northern flank is about 35degree. This peak is less explored. Snowfall is less during autumn season.
>>> Muztagh Ata at XinJiang. There are two routes to summit. Muztagh is described at one of the easiest peak above 7000m. The gradient is around 35degree below 7400m and 15-20degree above 7400m.

The price for individual peaks was considered with 3-5climbers in mind. Dhaulagiri VII was the first peak removed from the list. The total cost for climbing this peak is more than S$8500/climber. The main contributing factor for the exorbitant price is the climbing permit at USD3000/team. Lhakpa Ri can be done at around USD4200 – 4500 (excluding airfare) depending approach route to the mountain, Kathmandu or Chengdu. Muztagh Ata is most attractive in term of price. According to my China counterpart, the climb would cost S$4000. All costs would be covered from Khasgar onward. However, the journey to Khasgar is furthest and the estimated cost for flight was at S$1400.

During the early stage, I only know Linda Tan was extremely interested to climb a 7000er. She has been super helpful and very motivated. We started looking for teammates. We then invited a few friends who have done mountains higher that 6000m asl. Most of them have problem obtaining one month leave from their boss or love one. Initially, the team is formed with JiaYing, Joyce, Linda, Michael and me. As time passes, Michael and JiaYing realized they were unable to commit. Phei Sunn came in later.

During March, we were searching for possible agent. Summit Climb, San Au Xue Shan and Singapore Adventure Club are our possible choice. Sa Au was chosen as my team mates and I have good experience working with them previously. Linda did most of the coordinations after we decided on San Au Xue Shan.

Alan, Micheal and me did Au Tai Na at Hei Shui during Dec 2005 with San Au Xue Shan

Physical fitness is the hallmark for all outdoor activities, the team engaged into a series of trainings which include runs, long walk (6-8hours) with load, stair climbing on HDB and Bukit Timah nature reserve. We were training an average of three or four sessions a week. Personally, I also planned for a trip to Mount Kinabalu as part of my training before Muztagh Ata.

I was out stationed most of the time from April till May. I spent a total of three weeks at Korea and another three weeks at Munich, Germany. Training was very much disturbed then. There were little training when I was at Korea, and I can only do run when I was at Germany. Apart from work commitment, a fair bit of time was devoted to training.

Mount Kinabalu was the main highlight of my training. While Kinabalu is one of the highest pinnacles at South East Asia, it is lower than Muztagh base camp. I have Trun Wee, Yew Mun, Chwee Ling, Kar Eng, Lauryn, JiaYing and his GF for the trip. There are not many changes on terrain since I first trek the peak with Chee Yuan and his wife during June 2001. However the price and number of people climbing the mountain increased tremendously after the mountain was adopted by UNESCO during late 2001. Any booking should be done at least 4-6months prior to the climb date.

Mount Kinabalu via Mersilau Trail

Summit Shots of loving husbands and wives....

Apart from physical training, logistic is also another main concern. Thanks to Linda’s coordination, we paid little for the required equipment from NUS. I am impressed by her capability to pick 4 pair of boots, 4 set of snow shoes, some booties and mitten all by herself. She made things easy for the team. We only need to pick up what we need from her place.