Winter half marathon Changikhisarak - Shuldak, Tashkent region, Uzbekistan

Hello! Today I would like to tell you about my first intensive winter hike in 2021. The organizers named it a half marathon because of the distance of 21 km. Although, judging by my pedometer, we walked three kilometers more.

The hike was in the middle of January, a week after my visit to the unnamed peak of the Chatkal ridge.

In its announcement, "Mysterious Uzbekistan" warned that the track will be intense and rich in descents and ascents. Well, I signed up immediately after the announcement was published.

Due to the distance and the relative difficulty of the route, the organizers scheduled the departure at 4 a.m. I had a lot of work the day before and I finished late. I thought that there was no point in going to bed and then getting up again after 3-3.5 hours. I'd rather sit and watch the TV series. This was my mistake, because by the time of departure I was wildly sleepy and don’t care about this winter half marathon. But I had to kick myself up, get dressed and go to the gathering place of the group. I felt rather nasty and a treacherous thought was spinning in my head to call Sharof and say that I would not come, and then go to sleep. And don’t care about the money. But still, I came and did not regret this trip!

We left early, well, as for me, very early. We arrived at a village called Changikhisarak and unloaded from the cars. It was still far before dawn, and therefore the next couple of hours we had to go through illuminating the road with headlamps.

It was quite warm, even a little stuffy. So we started to undress. Soon we went up the hill and from there a wonderful view of the night Tashkent city opened up.

After another half hour or so, the sun began to rise, painting the sky purple and pink.

We continued to climb. The previous few days it was rather warm here and a dense crust formed on the slopes. The other members of the group walked easily on the hard crust of snow, but I’m a heavyweight guy and constantly fell down.

Looking ahead, I will say that during the day the temperature rose to +10 degrees and the snow melted. On the one hand, it became easier to walk, but on the other, wet snow soaked my feet through.

Soon it was completely daybreak and we climbed one of the hills.

It overlooked the "Institute of the Sun" - a unique heliocomplex. It's funny, but I visited many locations around the Institute of the Sun, but I was not at the Institute itself. And the object is amazing and interesting. I will definitely go there!

We, meanwhile, continued to go up and down the hills, moving towards our final goal - Mount Syurenata.

Our group was divided into two parts - half rode forward, and the other half lagged behind the first by about 20-30 minutes. I walked along with the first group, from time to time lagging behind to take pictures of these most picturesque places, and then, slipping in the wet snow, I caught up with the group.

We walked, walked and walked again. Rested, drank tea from thermos and walked again.

At some point, a griffon vulture flew over us, almost over our heads.

We oohing and aahing over it and went further. Syurenata was already visible ahead and on the sides there was a magnificent view of the surrounding valleys.

Finally, we got to Syurenata. Several people who first appeared here decided to climb to the very top, and the rest - "seasoned" decided to stay downstairs and have a full meal in anticipation of the second (lagging) half of the group.

Frankly speaking, my legs are pretty tired. Moreover they were soaked through and through. Therefore, I was looking forward to the moment when we get to the warm minibus, where I can change into dry clothes (which, by the way, I was carrying in my backpack all this time).

After eating and waiting for the lagging members of the group, we walked down the deep snow, sometimes falling knee-deep.

After about an hour and a half, we went down to the road. And I was finally able to change into dry clothes. God, what a happiness it is just to be in warm and dry clothes!

By the way, I managed to photograph (see the photo below) one interesting optical phenomenon, similar to a rainbow, only not in the form of the usual semicircle, but in the form of a point. Yes, yes, it actually looks like this and this is not a defect in my camera lens. By the way, if someone knows what this phenomenon is - please enlighten me! Someone said that it is halo but I’m not sure.

We plunged into a blessed warm, comfortable minibus and went back. A sleepless night and an intense hike did their job - I dozed off and woke up only at the entrance to Tashkent. I hope I didn't snore :).

Yes, I'm tired and cold, soaked through and smeared with clay - but I'm very glad that I went on this trip. It was very interesting to test my physical form.

I thought it was a difficult hike, but after a week I returned to these area again, but this time to the neighboring Kokbet mountain - which we climbed. Oh, what a climb it was! During the week between these two hikes, a lot of snow fell here and we spent part of the way to the waist in snow, making our way through a thick layer of snow. But more on that in my next post :).