Tajik mountain climber reaches Ozodi Peak

TAJIKISTAN — On Aug. 11, Tajik mountain climber Shamsullo Kakhkhorov reached Ozodi (Freedom) Peak, which is 6,230m high. Head of Tourism in the government’s Youth, Recreation, and Tourism Committee, Muzaffar Begmatov, said Kakhkhorov raised the Tajik flag and mounted a plaque with the peak’s new name, only recently named Ozodi on the initiative of President Emomali Rakhmon in Feb.

Kakhkhorov led a group of 150 climbers from Russia, the Czech Republic, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Lithuania, Slovenia, Spain, France, and Iran. The expedition set out to climb three peaks, including Ismoili Somoni, Yevgeny Korzhenevsky, and Ozodi in the Pamir Mountains in Tajikistan’s Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous district.

The expedition first climbed the 7,105m Yevgeny Korzhenevsky peak. They are now preparing to climb the highest peak in the Pamirs, Ismoili Somoni (7,495m.), named in honour of the founder of the Tajik state who lived in the ninth and tenth centuries. The highest mountain in the former Soviet Union, it was previously known as Communism Peak.

Begmatov said the Committee will continue to promote similar international expeditions. “Tajikistan must develop its tourism potential. We receive up to 250 mountain climbers from various countries each year, but that [number] will be much higher if the tourist business grows to the level it should be,” he said.

The Pamir and Tyan-Shanya mountains cover about 93 percent of Tajik territory. The Tajik portion of the Pamir range includes two peaks over 7,000m and several over 6,000.