The Top is reached! The second climbing Greater Chimgan, Uzbekistan

Hello! About one month ago, I posted about my first attempt to conquer the Greater Chimgan. As you probably remember, I did not reach the Chimgan's top because I was afraid that the safety cable fixed along the wall would not withstand me and decided to stay with a part of the group in the Grotto. It haunted me :). Finally, a month later Mysterious Uzbekistan team announced again the recruitment of a group to climb Greater Chimgan. Of course, I immediately signed up! I will not particularly talk about Chimgan itself - you can read about him in my previous post. I can only say that the second time it was harder to climb, because I already knew what is awaited me :). As usual, thanks to @cesspit for helping me to edit the photos. By the way, I decided to open Instagram account (yes, I finally have an Instagram account) and publish photos from my trips there. Usually I make a lot of photos and I cannot to publish all of them. Otherwise my Steemit-posts would be overloaded. So, kindly ask to follow me in Instagram too :).

Now, back to my climb. As usual, we left Tashkent early in the morning. The hottest season in Uzbekistan “chilla” has already ended and in the morning it was pretty cool. It was even cold in the foothills and I had to put on a jacket.

This time the group was not so big - 8 guys, so we started the climb quite cheerfully - everyone walked at about the same pace. After a couple of hours, the group began to stretch but still we got up pretty quickly. However, I found the opportunity to photograph the surroundings :).

The terrain has changed a bit - the grass burned out and the slopes of the mountains from green turned into tan. But, nevertheless they did not become less beautiful. Although, maybe in the spring while the grass is still green, the species will be more picturesque ... We must try!

In the meantime, we quickly got to the final point of my previous ascent - the Grotto.

There we rested a bit before forcing a plot called the Gendarme. Why the Gendarme? As I was explained, this site as a strict gendarme - does not let pass to frivolous and thoughtless tourists. Seeing that it is necessary to crawl along an almost sheer wall, clinging to stones and a cable, frivolous comrades usually turn back. Like me last time. However, this time I decided to be bolder and reach the mountain's top.

I was the second guy from our team who pass the Gendarme in order to photograph the passage of the other guys:

The passage turned out to be very simple and not scary. And why did I get scared previous time?!

All of us passed Gendarme and climbed further up.

Looking ahead, the section from the Gendarme to the top was the most difficult. In turn the final segment is the most difficult by descent- it is necessary to go down on the talus. There is no strength anymore, legs constantly glide over dust and small stones and it seems that this descent will never end. It seems to be going down for an hour, but didn't come closer to the road.

Well, that’s all later, and now we’ve got to the rocky section, where we could test our climbing skills.

As you climb, the surrounding landscapes become more and more exciting ...

In front of the top, we again encountered a site where necessary to climb with a cable. But we already knew that the cable was strong and could withstand me, so without any hesitation I started to climb up.

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The slope here is relatively small - around 45 degrees. Basically, it wasn't so difficult to climb. Another little effort and finally I'm here on the top!! The Greater Chimgan's top is reached! Finally I crawled here! By the way, I crawled thesecond, and not the last - which is very pleased me :). This point is called the "Triangle" - because of the triangulator set here. But this is considered the generally accepted peak (3275 meters above sea level) and there is still a true peak, which is called the "Cross" (3309 meters above sea level). Unfortunately, it is possible toclimb it only when the snow melts in the area between the "Triangle" and the "Cross". By the way, it’s even good that I did not reach the top previous time. The previous group reached only the "Triangle" because it was cold and there was still snow near the Cross. But I could to visit both peaks.

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Waiting for the rest of the group, I took a few pictures of the surroundings. The views from the top opened just wonderful!

By the way, over there in the distance you can see the Pulatkhan plateau. Tourists also go there, but need to go for a few days. The plateau is beautiful and magnificent. I set myself a note to climb in there too. In the future. Local ufologists say they saw there an UFO a couple of times. It will be necessary to check :).

When the other members of the group got to the top, we had a dinner and a halt.

After resting for about forty minutes, the most indefatigable guys like me dragged on to the "Cross". Half of the group refused to go, saying that they can also enjoy the true peak through the “zoom” on the camera.

We rested more than planned, therefore we forced to go back in order to be in time before sunset. Walking on the talus in the dark is very unsafe.

Legs after climbing pretty tired. Therefore, when we approached the site where it was necessary to go down clinging to the cable, it became a little scary. Funny, we climbed the same slope without any problems. Here the slope is only 45 degrees. But on the descent, it seemed that you were crawling almost along a sheer wall. But, pah-pah, everyone returned alive and healthy.

Of course, according to an already established tradition, I publish photos of "ladybirds" :).

The sun was already setting when we went down to the van. I overslept all the way back to Tashkent.

Every time after such kind of difficult trips I promise myself to think before to go somewhere. But as soon as the fatigue passes a little, I'm looking again look for new trip announcements. Last week me and my friends visited mountainous regions of Samarkand. I will tell you about them soon in the following posts.

!steemitworldmap 41.551123 lat 70.027869 long The Top is reached! The second climbing Greater Chimgan, Uzbekistan d3scr