Climbing Syurenata Mountain, Uzbekistan

Hello, in my previous post I announced two trips with the “Mysterious Uzbekistan” team. First one is climbing Syurenata Mountain and the second one is visiting the frozen waterfalls of Tavaksay. Both trips were very interesting and beautiful.

Today I want to tell you about a trip to the snow-capped Syurenata Mountain, which took place on last Saturday. Actually Syurenata is not a single mountain but a range with several peaks. We climbed to the highest peak of this ridge. According to the organizers, this is enough to experience the charm of winter ascents fully. We left Tashkent at 6 a.m. and were already in the foothills by dawn.

The sun was slowly rising, painting the sky and the slopes of the mountains in a pale pink color.

The whole previous week was warm enough and we thought that there wouldn’t be a lot of snow. However, it was a mistake 😊. Our driver also expected that the road would be clear of snow, that’s why he did not take the chains to the wheels with him. So, we forced to go out from minibus and walk eight kilometers to the point of rise.

I am always interested in how certain toponyms occurred. Unfortunately, the guides didn’t know the origin of this name. From the Uzbek language, "-ata" (or "-ota") is translated as "father", i.e. denotes a respected old man and even a saint person. Accordingly, the Syurenata (or Syuren-ata) is named after some respected man named Syuren. By the way, the idea immediately arises that "Syuren" is a mutated Caucasian name Suren. If we continue to fantasize, then we can fantasize to the point that the mountain was named in honor of some Armenian guy named Suren. :-) The idea is interesting, but I think that it is wrong.

We continued to walk along the rut to the foot of Syurenata and I thought that in spring or autumn after rains there must be impassable dirt. Good thing we set off in the winter. The snow crunched underfoot and I admired the surroundings.

There was something about minus 5 degrees Celsius but the cold wasn’t felt at all. We slowly began to climb, approaching the starting point of the ascent.

We gathered at the foot of the mountain, had a bite to eat while waiting for the rest of the group. When the whole group gathered, we lined up in a single file and the guides began to trample the path in the snow.

There was a lot of snow. Somewhere ankle-deep, somewhere knee-deep and somewhere I even fell almost to the waist. It was pretty hard. I was completely busy with the climb and didn’t really photograph the process. Therefore, I will borrow photos from the photo-report of "Mysterious Uzbekistan".

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Well, we finally climbed on the peak. There is opened an amazing panorama. Unfortunately, I am not a very skilled photographer and cannot convey the beauty that surrounded us.

The slopes of the Western Tien Shan were clearly visible. About ten minutes we admired the views and took pictures.

The air has already warmed up, so we took off our top jackets and started dinner. After an almost four-hour hike it was obligatory to eat something. Unpretentious sandwiches seemed to us the food of the gods. :-)

Having had lunch and a little rest, we set off on the return trip. The descent didn’t take much time - we just rolled down in the snow, helping ourselves with trekking sticks. After an hour and a half or two hours, we were again at the foot of the mountain.

We also had to go back eight kilometers to the car. While we climbed the slopes of Syurenota, the snow and ice melted below and later in the afternoon they froze again, turning into a skating rink. Fatigue already made itself felt, so even the legs constantly slipped in different directions. I walked and walked, hoping that our minibus would be behind the next bend. But alas, the next turn turned out to be a new turn and we stepped on ...

The sun was gradually setting and the sunset was very beautiful.

Finally, tired but very pleased, we came to our minibus. My legs were buzzing with fatigue and I thought about tomorrow – there was planned a new one trip to the Tavaksay waterfalls. Can I do it? Looking ahead I can say – yes, I did it!

In the middle of February, I planned a trip to the mysterious Surkhandarya (the southernmost region of Uzbekistan), where I will take a walk along the deepest canyon of Uzbekistan and hope to swim in the underground river. Read more about it in my next posts! Thank you!

!steemitworldmap 41.236142 lat 69.827283 long Climbing Syurenata Mountain, Uzbekistan d3scr