SAMAYA x THOMAS PUEYO
DISCOVERING UNEXPLORED FACES IN TAJIKISTAN
©Photography by Thomas Pueyo @thomaspueyo
The National Ski Mountaineering Excellence Group (GESAN) from the FFCAM consists of about a dozen skiers selected over two years to carry out an exploratory expedition into the heart of wild places. In March 2022, GESAN set its sights on Central Asia, specifically Tajikistan, a rather unknown country that was closed until recently and where winter tourism is extremely scarce. Thomas Pueyo tells us about their expedition.
"It was initially a huge job of mapping.
The first step was to find local contacts, to see if there were any people who had skied there, in order to determine a mountain range, as the region is immense. We gathered old military maps, which weren't very precise but still gave us some information, and we used Google Maps a lot. The international language is Russian, since it's a former Soviet Republic, which adds a language barrier.
We also had to think about the best weather window to avoid the monsoon. We developed several plans with different mountain ranges to face every possible condition on-site and have fallback solutions.
We were very lucky; the weather was great.
©Photography by Thomas Pueyo @thomaspueyo
Plan A was to go to a part of the Pamirs, the western tip of the Himalayas, in an area we had identified as skiable.
We spent a day by 4x4 starting from Dushanbe, the capital, to head into the first valley, the first of our ten-day itinerary. The areas we were going to cross were completely desolate; we were totally autonomous, carrying all our equipment and food on our backs, as the terrain made using pulks impossible.
We had days where we traveled between camps. When we found suitable valleys, we would set up camp for several days and then do multiple star-pattern ascents on faces over 5,500 meters.
We counted every gram of our equipment. Having ultra-light tents was almost mandatory.
©Photography by Thomas Pueyo @thomaspueyo
The lines we skied were on mountains for which we had found no history. We were the first to set ski tips in these places. It was almost unprecedented every single time.
It’s still a bit stressful because you are in places where there is no possibility of rescue. We play it much safer, because out there, the slightest issue can become extremely complicated.
The most important aspect of our expedition was the locals. It is a culture, a country that no one knows. After 10 days of total self-sufficiency, we arrived in a small village called Jilandi, with a few cows and a 1940s Soviet truck.
Arriving in a place like this with our modern equipment created a huge contrast. We probably had half the village's wealth on our backs.
The inhabitants welcomed us with open arms, despite the language barrier that made communication laborious. Yet, these were some of the most striking moments. Tajikistan remains a closed country, with all the post-USSR heritage and current issues with China, which is establishing many companies in the country for mineral resources. It is important to discuss their lives, the violence, what they experienced during and after the USSR. Otherwise, the point of taking a plane and going so far seems less relevant.
©Photography by Thomas Pueyo @thomaspueyo
We also passed through Ziddi, a village two hours from the capital, where Swiss people had come in the 1990s. They had left skis, and the locals started skiing with them. Today, the kids use the same old equipment with real climbing skins that they attach to the skis with cords. We also left some equipment, a bit more recent, so they could enjoy it too.
For our next expedition in March 2024, we chose Kyrgyzstan, in this same spirit of exploration."
