Sunshine and optimism in the High Pamirs: my attempt on Peak Lenin

If I’d known about the climbing history of 7134m Peak Lenin in the Central Asian Pamirs, then I might have thought twice about going there. But before I go on to describe two of history’s lesser known but biggest mountaineering disasters, I’m going to start with some good news and some background.

Lying on the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Peak Lenin was first discovered in 1871 by the Russian naturalist and explorer Alexei Fedchenko, who was to die on Mont Blanc two years later. He di...