SAMAYA x KBF
PROJECT MOUNT COACH 2023
KBF, the Belgian equivalent of the CAF, carried out the Mount Coach 2023 project in Kyrgyzstan, with a team of six young mountaineers. During the summer, this well-trained team opened up new routes in this remote region. For Samaya, Annelore Orije recounts their expedition and its many mishaps.
"We were in southeastern Kyrgyzstan, where only a few other mountaineering groups had been, which meant there were plenty of as yet unclimbed mountains to explore. We had a base camp in the Kaichi valley, just before the Djangart valley. From there, we made our way to the Djangart mountain range in search of beautiful mountains to climb.
We were a team of six young mountaineers, aged between 22 and 30. For the past two years, we have been following an intensive program called Mount Coach, run by the Flemish mountaineering federation KBF. Together, we have spent many weeks training in the mountains, gaining the necessary experience for the expedition. Spending every holiday together over the past two years, we've become a close-knit team, which also made the expedition easier.
In total, we spent 5 weeks in the Djangart mountain range. We managed to make a few first ascents in rock climbing and climb some untouched mountains. Three of us climbed Pik Illumination, a mountain first climbed in 2010 by an Anglo-American expedition. The mountain reaches just over 5,000 metres. Christian, Cédric and Miel took a variant of the original route, estimating the difficulty at D.
The Djangart mountain range is quite rocky and the snowline is higher than we're used to. Our base camp was located at around 3300 meters, mainly in the middle of a grassy landscape next to a large wild river. Being just before the onset of winter, there was no snow before 4,000 meters.
We were lucky enough to be alone in the area, the nearest town being 60 kilometers away on an unpaved road. We didn't see anyone for the first few weeks, which gave us the impression of being totally alone with the mountains. Unfortunately, we soon realized that this wasn't really the case.
One day, Niels and Miel were trying to climb a rock face in the Djangart valley, their tent set up at the foot of the mountain. They were almost 150 meters up when they suddenly saw horses approaching in the distance.
The Djangart mountain range is vast, but these riders seemed to know where they were going: straight to the only small tent set up in the valley. Five soldiers and a dog stopped at their tent, watching Niels and Miel in the distance. Astonished by their visit, our two climbers quickly decided to set up a rappel to descend as quickly as possible, while the soldiers took the liberty of searching their tent.
The soldiers were satisfied with what they had found, took one last look at the climbers and left.
Arriving at the tent, Niels and Miel checked the equipment, but it seemed that the soldiers hadn't touched anything.
When we all met back at base camp, we were stunned to hear the story. We asked our cook if he'd seen the soldiers too. He confirmed: they had even come to chat and share a cup of tea.
In just one day, the team of soldiers found our base camp, which was well advanced, and our stockpile of equipment, which was out of sight from the valley. It has to be said: these soldiers know what they're doing.
Our best guess is that they were checking to see if we were hunting without a permit. Seeing that we were simply harmless mountaineers, they left, feasting on a few sausages they had taken from us."
