Inylchek Geology Expedition

As Pasha and I are about to leave to pick up some sleeping bags for our trip, we overhear a conversation between some of the other guests and the hotel staff.

Turns out they’re a couple of geologists and they’ve lost their GPS unit up in the mountains and they need to know where they can find another. Thinking we’re going to some tour company to rent our sleeping bags, I invite them along.

We stop at a random street in Karakol, to find a woman renting camping gear out of her garage. There is no signage to indicate that there is a shop here, and unfortunately for the geologists, there is no GPS unit to be found.

Thinking altruisticly, I offer my GPS unit to them for the next couple of days, then thinking it could be a fun trip, ask if we can join them. They have space in the car and tell us we can sleep in their kitchen tent.

We setup camp some 12km from the town of Inylchek, an abandoned town where they used to mine uranium. The evening is spent drinking and playing cards.

The first order of business is to try and recover the lost GPS unit. The following morning Yura (driver), Euan (Scottish geologist), Vasya (Ukranian geologist) and myself head out towards the area where they’d lost the unit. Along the way we run into a shepherd and tell him of our plight. He tells us he’ll join us in the search and will return for his horse (20min down the mountain and 20min back).

After searching for half an hour, the shepherd appears on horseback with his son. Vasya starts describing the unit, saying it’s roughly the size of a phone and in a black leather case. The shepherd replies with “I know.”.

After Euan offers a reward for the unit (a substantial sum of money, and for shits and giggles sake, a 200mL shot of vodka), the shepherd and his son move further ahead to continue the search. After we’ve given up the search and are sitting taking a break, the shepherd rides up to us on the horse with the unit. No one noticed him getting off the horse. We ask him where he found the unit, he points to a spot that both Vasya and I had walked past and searched thoroughly.

We return back down the mountain and give the man his drink. Euan watches in awe as the man downs it in one hit. Euan is even more surprised when the man patiently sits there asking for more.

Left to right: Sneaky shepherd, Euan, Pasha, myself and Sneaky shepherd’s sneaky son.

Sneaky shepherd tells us he has a marmot (pictured above for those that have never seen one before) at his house and will happily give it to us as a present. Liking the idea of marmot meat, we pour the shepherd another shot, give him the money and laugh as he almost falls on his face while climbing back on his horse for the five minute ride back home.

An hour passes and sneaky shepherd doesn’t return with the promised marmot. The geologists have more work to do, so we pack up camp and head closer to the Inylchek permit checkpoint.

We stop fifty metres from the checkpoint and decide to speak with the soldiers prior to setting up camp. When we ask the soldiers whether or not we can setup camp, they ask us what we’re doing, whether we have permits, where our passports are and who we’re working for. We’re told to clear out and if we don’t, we’ll be arrested.

We end up returning to where our camp had previously been setup and decide to pay our friend the sneaky shepherd a visit. Turns out he’s not home. Since he’s not home, we decide to wait. After an hour the sun sets and we decide we’re going to turn back. As we start walking, we find our friend sneaky shepherd trying to sneak back into his house.

We ask him where’s the marmot he promised us. Sneaky shepherd tells us that he saw that we’d left and set the marmot free, but it’s ok he has another one up in the mountains which he’ll fetch for us tomorrow. We tell him we can wait while he fetches it. He says it’s too dark and he could be lost. We offer to join him for the company. He says that he has the horse for company. With that he heads up the mountain for the supposed marmot. After half an hour’s waiting, he doesn’t arrive so we decide to leave, without any of the meat we’ve been promised.

I end up taking matters into my own hand and find us some meat.

Mortimer the mouse proves a hit with everyone so we set him up with a cage made from a plastic bottle. Since he’s still alive in the morning, I decide to set him free.

The following day we head further off the beaten path to search for more remote rocks.

Unfortunately our AWD’s 78hp engine doesn’t hold out at the first steep incline and we come flying back down in reverse almost crashing the van into the rock face and sending it hurtling down towards the river. After clearing the old path which is less steep, we’re able to continue the drive into the great unknown. After a few minutes, I ask Yura why he continues driving on such dangerous roads. He says that if Euan has been here last year, the road should be fine to drive on. At this point, I tell him Euan didn’t make it out this way on his last trip and Yura goes incredibly quiet.

After the clouds come out and it starts raining, we decide to pull over and setup camp with the wind almost blowing our tents away in the process.

The following morning after the previous day’s road dramas, we decide to walk to the glacier. Just around the corner from our camp, barely one hundred metres from where we’d setup camp in the middle of nowhere, we bump into a large group of geologists who offer us to stay in their cabins for the night.

We decide to take up the offer and head back to our camp to pack it up. We start driving to the glacier, along the road that none of the locals attempt to cross. We get stuck between a rock fall and a big drop. From there, we walk. It starts raining almost straightaway.

Left to Right: Euan, Vasya, myself and Pasha.

Along the way to the glacier.

We reach five lakes formed from glacial melt of two glaciers and the view is amazing. It stops raining and starts snowing.

Glacier melting into glacial lake.

We come down from the mountain, shoes and socks completely drenched, looking forward to not spending the night in tents and staying in a cabin instead.

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