Kunlun 2004 on track for success

As last minute packing and preparations are underway in London, Tokyo, Anchorage, California, Colorado, and Connecticut, team members are getting ready to fly to Kashgar, arriving on 25 and 26 July.

Last minute information is trickling in from Kashgar...

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A Japanese expedition just came back after an unsuccessful attempt on Aksai Chin I, which had an unconfirmed summit by the Japanese in 1997. They report that the military road we hope to follow does indeed exist, and though in rough shape, should get us within 10km of base camp. Our 5-ton 4x4 truck has been switched for a more rugged 6x6 military vehicle, which should help with river crossings and quicksand.

While exploring the unknown peaks of the Aksai Chin West, the team will have limited contact with the outside world. A decision was made to leave the laptop behind, so while there will be no live coverage with photos and video, we will be sending text messages from our Iridium satellite phone for coverage on Everestnews.

Kunlun 2004

The Chang Tang area of the Kunlun Range was recently described in National Geographic Magazine:

"A vast alpine steppe so... desolate and high - the average altitude is over 16,000 feet - that even the dropka, the leather skinned nomads of western Tibet, don't venture here. The animals are so unaccustomed to people that on the second day of the trek a wolf came within 50 feet an stared at us for 20 minutes.

"The Chang Tang team had reached its goal... and was trudging out through the Kunlun Mountains when an inviting 21,000 foot peak loomed ahead. 'We just couldn't pass it up, so we climbed it' says author Rick Ridgeway.

Once upon a time this serendipitous style of adventure could have happened anywhere, the Himalayas, the Alps, the Rockies... Now with a bit of luck, it might happen in Greenland, Alaska, or the Kunlun. It is with this intrepid spirit of adventure and respect that the Kunlun 2004 expedition is being planned. What started out as a harebrained idea discussed over breakfast in the English Lakes will become a reality when we drive across the edge of the Taklimakan Desert to be dropped off for almost a month's worth of unsupported exploration.