Use The World :: Climbing Mustagh Ata (7546 meters) in China

Tags: Climbing
I climbed Mustagh Ata in the Xinjiang province in western China (bordering Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan). This area is mostly inhabited by muslim communities, and getting to Khasgar is a journey in itself and the easiest, but certainly not the shortest, route is to stop-over in Beijing.

The actual climb was scheduled from the 1. July to the 24. July, however due to weather and other unforseen problems I planned for extra days. I chose an american travel agent SummitClimb that has much experience with this mountain.

Mustagh Ata is 7546 meters high, but not very technical, and mostly climbed on snowshoes. Some climb it on ski, but after my last ski trip to the North Pole I prefered to try snowshoes

I relaxed a week in northern Thailand and did a bit of trekking in the Golden Triangle before travelling to Khasgar - you can see some pictures of this here.

I had to fly from Chiang Rai - Bangkok - Beijing - Urumqi - Khasgar. In Urumqi I had more than 8 hours to wait and I left the airport to go sightseeing, some stewardesses on the flight to Urumqi gave me some tips on where to go and with a few Chinese sentences on the back of a piece of paper I went out of the airport. I told the taxi driver "Hong Shan Gong Yuan" .......... and after half an hour I was at a park. I spent a few hours there and I must have look silly carrying a huge backpack and a sleeping bag around this park

Even Chinese security officers looked stunned when I walked through check-in wearing these boots. The things you do, to make your carry-on look smaller and keep the weight of the checked-in luggage down

Oh, and if you want to attract Chinese girls just wear a pair of Millet Everest boots, sit down at the cafe in Urumqi airport and take them off. One of the girls working there came over to me every 5 min. saying "they are too big"

After arriving in Khasgar we had a few days of planning, sightseeing and preparation for the climb, including the guide, but not including the sherpas etc. we were 19 people on this climb

On the 3. July we arrived at Karakul Lake, there is a stunning view of Mustagh Ata from Karakul Lake

We do not have access to Oxygen when we climb this mountain, but we do have a Gamow Bag with us if needed. You can read about Gamow Bags here

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