Day 68 to Sary Tash, Kyrgyzstan, 81km, 5969 to date.  1935m up, 3150m end

A long hard climb, peaking at Taldyk Pass, elev 3,621m (11,880 ft.).  From the top of the climb we got our first views of the Pamir mountains and what I believe is Mt. Lenin, the highest peak in the former Soviet Union.

We are now in Sary Tash, at an elevation of 3,150m or 10,335ft.  Tomorrow we are doing a short day of some 23km both to help with the acclimatization and to set us up for the border crossing into Tajikistan.  Then onto the Pamir highway where we will continuously be over 4,000 meters.

Some pics:

Kids often seem to just appear at lunch:

The climb:

Some views:

Yaks:

Sary Tash is a very small town, essentially a one intersection town.  At this intersection, I needed a couple things, so this was the local store I chose, it was run by 3 kids not more than 10 or 11 years old, but very sharp