Snow Horses

Loaded horses wallowed with snow upto their bellies. We dragged ourselves up ,the horses staggered. We had got up at 5.30 am hoping the snow would be firmer...wrong. What about the descent? Amazingly the path was clear and we were able to ski down. We were now high on a ledge with the River Oxus hundreds of metres below us. This was an amazing motivation for a novice horse rider as my self to cling on as I stared at 1000 metre drop below. As we head further east towards lake Chacmartin everything from bombs to burkhas seems a world away .Our only encounters so far have been with a handful of Kirgish nomads and their yaks. We are mostly spellbound as we walk ride and ski towards the Pamirs the roof of the world.