Darvoz Range

This section has three sub-sections:

First Darvoz Ridge Crossing
Vakhyo Traverse
Second Darvoz Ridge Crossing

The Darvoz Ridge is not a straight line. See map below:

[insert map]

This area was regularly visited by climbers from the late 1960s and the late 1980s, including from Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and Moldova. It has now been almost entirely abandoned, with the very few teams that show up in the area only briefly using it as an entrance or an exit to another region.

First Darvoz Ridge Crossing

The goal of crossing this range is to get from the upper Vanj Valley to the area known historically as Vakhyo, a name that appears nowhere on any official map. Vakhyo is the upper reaches of the Khingob River and its tributaries. The problem here is that the easiest passes here have a 1B rating, and all involved glacier travel.

The Pamir Trail will probably cross in this area as well. It seems that Starghi Pass (AKA Akbaysitarg) will be the pass that route will go through (find it by finding the village of Stargh on the map). Local people use this pass (very hardened local people), and a couple of very, very experienced off-trail trekkers did this pass within the last couple of years. It is, however, glacier-to-glacier, and the glacier on the north side will open up its crevasses after mid-summer. There are bergschrunds and crevasses here. I see this as an early summer crossing. And I don’t think the ascent and descent are very interesting. So I’m investigating alternatives.

Other passes farther down the Vanj Valley are impossible for a hiker (the mountains get very high), or they descend to an area that is impossible to traverse.

The next pass down the Vanj Valley pass is Shirgovad Pass (4520 Meters), above the village of Shirgovad. This has the same problem as Starghi Pass, and even more so: a glacier that will present problems (crevasses) after early summer. If you are curious, a local Youtuber hiked up to Shirgovad Pass and looked down the north side, starting at about 5:00 minutes into this video.

The historical pass across the Vanj Ridge to Vakhyo is Bunay Pass. But I believe that travelers at this time (pilgrims on their way to the Hazrati Burkh shrine) went in early summer when glacier travel was possible, and then used a series of bridges that no longer exist (due to Soviet-era destruction of villages here and the deportation of their population). If you have lots of experience with glacier travel, dangerous river crossings, and horrible moraines, and you really want to do Bunay Pass, you will need to be able to read Russian and translate these old reports from 1977 and 1967.

I approached from the Hazrati Burkh shrine and I can confirm that the river crossings here are not possible for a hiker.

My plan, after getting over the Vanj Range, is to head to the village of Poymazor, the highest and last village in the Vanj Valley. Here you will need to register with the forest range and pay a fee. The official fee is roughly $2 per day. How many days will you pay for? Coming from Yazghulom it would be believable to say that you have been in the Tajikistan National Park for 3-5 days already, and that you have 5 more ahead of you (it may be way, way more than 5 days). Ten days is a good number. In 2019 a Russian group arrived by car to Poymazor and paid for 5 days (20 Somoni per person per day), but they did not arrive from the mountains on foot.

Who is the park ranger here? The last account gave his name as Jafar (and another account states that the owner of the local guesthouse is Jafar Kholov, so probably the same guy). But that was a while ago. You should just ask in the village for the house of the “jangalbon” (in Tajik) or the “lesnik“ (in Russian). But, apparently, he will find you. It’s a small village.

There is a guesthouse on the map in this village. Is it run by the park ranger? I don’t know. What about paying ahead of time for your Tajikistan National Park permit? You could do that, but I personally would prefer to pay the ranger directly. It seems they would also prefer that method. Also, one group reported that the permits secured by their tour company were no good, and they had to pay again. Their account:

“While unloading from the car and repacking things, an employee of the National Park came up and said that we needed to go with him to the village of Poymazor to register in the visit log. Since we had paid in advance to the host company Pamir Peaks all the permits for visiting, including the national park, we were not particularly worried. In fact, it turned out that Pamir Peaks did not transfer money to the national park and we had to pay again on the spot. The clarification process took 01:45 hours“

Photos of Poymazor village via Vanj.info and fed_zhimulev:

My plan, after hopefully resupplying in Poymazor (or more likely hiring a driver to take me downriver to a grocery store and back) is to walk from the village of Poymazor across the road bridge and make my way towards the Mazordara River. You may have recognized this name. It is everywhere on the map on various rivers. But here you should see it as a tributary to the Garmodara River (Mazordara is sometime seen on maps erroneously as Daraipoymazor).

The start of the approach leaves the road halfway to the village of Vanvani Bolo, and angles up and to the northeast, passing through the shepherd camp named ‘Basta’ (which is one hut and might be just women and children). After Basta the trails fades and you must choose: up and over the ridge, or maintain elevation and head into the gorge?

One Russian group reported that locals tell them that they go over the ridge to get up the upper Mazordara Gorge. Various Russian groups have attempted to hand out a Russian name (Nochnoy) and a misleading name (Vanvansky) to the pass over the ridge. Another Russian group descended from a climb and followed the route through the gorge, reporting their unhappiness with traversing a steep slope and navigating obstacles while trying to maintain a foothold. Overall, it’s about 50/50 when looking at all of the approximately 20 Soviet and Russian climbing groups who have come up or down this river: some go over the ridge, some go up the gorge. The lower gorge route has been named by Russian groups as the “Unpleasant Cirque.“ Based on all the accounts I read, this is the comparison of the two routes:

Negatives of the ridge: very steep up and down, you lose 700 meters of elevation.
Positives of the ridge: great viewpoint down the Vanj Valley from the top of the ridge, no obstacles aside from the steepness.
Negatives of the gorge: difficult hike laterally across a very steep and slippery slope, you may have to navigate obstacles, stinging yugan plant (but only in early summer), some thorny brush. If you fail to maintain your elevation (due to obstacles), you will need to descend to the bottom of the gorge, losing 400 meters in elevation.
Positives of the gorge: less elevation loss, places to pitch a tent, riverside, a small pond, a possibly interesting cemetery, a boulder with petroglyphs.

A.A. Alexeev, an expert on the Darvoz region, writes that going over the ridge will take longer that the lower gorge route. The Russian/Soviet groups that came through the gorge all wear cumbersome mountaineering boots and start with super-heavy backpacks (40kg). They are either beginning their trip and are not acclimatized, or they have just done 2-4 weeks of mountaineering and are exhausted. I think their complaints reflect this. Looking at the obstacles, it may be possible to — with a much lighter bag, more suitable footwear and being acclimatized or not exhausted — scramble over/through the obstacles without losing the elevation that some groups who came through the gorge did while spending time/elevation bypassing. However, one group said that they were going up and around around the sections of thorny brush as they were so unpleasant, not just the steep rocky sections. And another team took my planned strategy and stayed high to avoid losing elevation. They did, and in the end said that they probably should have gone down the slope to find easier terrain. So maybe decide when you get there.

Here’s a good view of the unpleasantness, via Solomonov 2013:

In the photos below you can see why it’s not possible to simply walk up the river from the confluence with the Vanj River. The bottom of the gorge is impassable. The photos below (Mansurov 2015) are from the lower route, not the route over the ridge.

The view from the opposite direction can be seen here. If you read Russian, you can also go through Alexey Alexeev’s description of this area.

Final advice for this section? The Russian and Soviet groups all agree: it is very hot here (due to the low elevation). I would suggest a very, very early morning start to get the steep sections out of the way while it’s not yet the midday heat.

Once you pass by the cemetery (marked as “Mazor“) you are free of the difficult section of the gorge. After this it is just rocky, with scree and small talus to hike through, and you stay on the same side of the river.

How about the petroglyphs? The location on the map is an estimate based on the photos and account below:

On the way, we stopped at a wonderful "Chinese garden" - the cleanest lake, great-tasting water, picturesque pebbles, herbs, flowers. Sun, good weather. Not far away (a little closer to the lake and 50 meters higher), which we discovered yesterday, is a boulder with petroglyphs, the drawings are like everywhere else: people with spears, and all sorts of goats.

The petroglyphs, via fed_zhimulev:

The next section of the gorge is relatively easy. You will just have to navigate your way through or around some talus/boulder fields. The photo below (Barinov 1982) is pointing southeast down the Mazordara Gorge.

Note: At about 3370 you will pass a tributary river on the opposite side of the gorge. This is the point at which the climbing teams turn north-east across the main river and up the tributary river. They are headed towards some glacier travel routes. You will continue upriver and in a direction that climbing teams have not gone since the 1980s. They have abandoned the area you are headed towards. So, from this point the information will be slimmer and the accounts very outdated (making glacier information nearly useless.)

My next destination is the twin lakes at 3630 meters. Their name is not on any map, but hopefully I can find out their name while in Poymazor. The larger of the two lakes (below) is over 300 meters across at its widest.

The lakes can be seen in this video, starting at 0:56. This is an early winter visit, and the water levels have dropped, leaving the lakes looking somewhat unimpressive. The narrater does not provide a names. He just calls them “big ponds.“

In 1987 the Leontovich group hiked up the gorge, camped at the lakes (photo below) and then climbed up to a pass (their route drawn onto the photo). I’ve added their camp location to the map, but it could be off by 50 meters or more.

A more recent photo (below) is from the 2023 Mukailov expedition.

The next destination after the lakes is what Soviet climbers called Pervoklassnik Pass (translation = [school] “First Grader“). This 4600 meter pass has a 1B rating. This pass is the easiest way to get from the Vanj Valley to the Garmo Valley, so likely locals have used it in the past and may have a local name for it.

The 2023 Mukailov expedition, coming from Pulkovsky Pass, walked by the bottom of the south side of Pervoklassnik Pass (Первоклассник) on 11 August 2023 and provided a helpful photo (below).

The Russian name does reflect its easiness for mountaineers. It should also be easy for hikers, but only very early in the summer. Later, the glacier opens up and you will have to worry about a bergschrund and crevasses. There are Soviet and Russian reports on this pass, but none of them say very much (as it’s a very easy pass for mountaineers). And what they do say is unhelpful from a hiker’s perspective. As for photos, the only decent photos are from 1990 (the Plyushkin team) who went through on July 24th, when the glacier was still covered with snow and the crevasses had not yet opened up. You will need to do a different route. The Plushkin photos below show the steep south side and the easy glacier descent on the north side.

How do I plan to avoid the glacier? You can see a good satellite/aerial view of the pass here. You can make your own plans based on the conditions when you get there.

Next? You’ll need to walk down or along the Takaist glacier and make your way to the West Takaist River (and do one or more river crossings) as you go back up in elevation towards the Sagdar-Takaist Pass. There’s probably a lot to say about this section in the Takaist Gorge once I actually visit there. For now, look at the map and take a guess. It will all depend on where you cross the river(s) and glacier(s).

The Sagdar-Takaist Pass (4720 meters) is part of one wide and gentle saddle that include the “Panoramic Pass“ - a Soviet-named pass for a place that likely had a local name (very likely forgotten as the villages on the other side were destroyed by the Soviets long ago). Panoramic Pass is the low point and where mountain climbers should head to, but for much of the year that will involve a cornice, and then a glacier route on the east side. Sagdar-Takaist Pass — a placeholder name reflecting the two gorges that the pass connects — is farther up the saddle in an area where you can avoid the snow, cornice and glacier. I’m not expecting this pass to be difficult once the snow is gone in the late season, but the elevation may slow you down quite a bit.

The photos below by the 1981 Renteev expedition show the eastern approach to Panoramic Pass. This is the mountaineering approach: on the glacier and then directly to the low point in the saddle through the cornice. The Sagdar-Takaist Pass will be up and to the right, avoiding the glacier route and the cornice at the bottom of the saddle.

The photo below by the 1978 Vorobyov expedition shows why the Soviet climbers named this “Panoramic Pass.“ This view to the east shows “Communism Peak” on the far left, previously known as “Stalin Peak,“ and now finally named “Ismoil Somoni Peak.” At 7495 meters it is the highest in the former Soviet Union.

Going down from Sagdar-Takaist Pass puts you in the upper Vakhyo region, and you will begin a long section of river crossings and (relatively) low passes. This view, also by the Vorobyov team, shows the view to the west. This photo is form July 15th, so you can expect less snow when you come through this area.

The panorama below by the Renteev team shows the snow conditions on August 16th, so you can still expect a decent amount of snow here in late summer.