The mountains of Tajikistan contain wonderful country to trek through, crossing high passes and camping amidst summer pastures.
The Fann mountains are the most accessible, lying just a day’s drive from Dushanbe and just across the border from Samarkand in Uzbekistan. Here it is possible to make treks of up to a week crossing high mountain passes and camping beside azure lakes. Some of the peaks are relatively easy to ascent and can be combined with a trekking trip.
The Pamir provide a much larger canvas on which to sketch your plans but more time is required. The journey into the mountains will usually take 3 days from Dushanbe and with most of the land lying above 3000m it is important to take it slowly at first to acclimatise. Paradoxically, once acclimatised, the Pamir treks can feel less strenuous as the vertical relief when crossing passes is often less than in the Fann mountains.
There is no tradition of human porterage in the Pamir or the Fann and loads are usually carried on donkeys. For more adventurous routes including glacier travel where donkeys will not venture it is possible, but expensive, to arrange in advance for local mountaineers to act as porters. Alternatively, get ready to carry a big sack.
In the mountain valleys where animals are moved up and down from mountain pastures the trails are mostly quite good. However, on the passes and moraines they are little used and therefore more rugged. Although the routes are not difficult, sometimes the passes are steep. There are several river crossings, some over good bridges, some over roughly made ones. The average day involves some 5-7 hours walking. Some days are rest days. Although the walking treks are not very physically demanding, you need to be reasonably active and in good health. Previous hill walking experience is desirable.
Described below are just a few of the most popular and interesting trekking routes. For more details, contact us