MOUNTAIN LIFE - Coast Mountains | Fall / Winter 2017

FALL/WINTER 2017 MLCM 101 That night we drank black tea and packed for exploration while sitting on thick blankets adorned in beautiful embroidery representing the moun- tains and animals of the area. Our conversation drifted from “what do you think those spines will look like up close?” to “are we bringing too many cans of sardines for 15 days?” Via very jumbled three-language translations (Kyrgyz /Russian/English), we instructed three shepherds on where we wanted our gear stashed, then watched their horses slowly turn into specks as they crossed the plateau. Hiking past wandering cattle and stray dogs, the scale of these mountains became more palpable with each step, as the reality of our remoteness set in. After seven hours we reached camp (placed exactly where we’d asked, on dry ground, on the edge of a ravine with a pristine stream providing fresh water). This would be our home for the next two weeks. We spent a week exploring access to the massive peaks surrounding camp and assessing the snowpack, slowly working on bigger and bigger lines and moving towards the spine wall that had captured our attention. We fell into a rhythm—rising with the sun, oatmeal and instant coffee for breakfast, slow skin up the creek shore, stripping layers, applying sun- screen, bootpacking steep spines and ridges to gain a peak, shredding a line, shooting a line, high fives, smiles, one last line at sunset before poling our way back down the creek. Most evenings we were greeted by herds of yak, golden eagles flying overhead and enormous marmots. The "People of the Mountains", including Kas's father Akylbek (LOWER LEFT), dressed in a snow leopard fur his own father harvested decades ago in a traditional hunt (a practice that has since ceased).