Central Tien Shan, Kyrgyzstan, 6-7 August 2025.
What our local colleague Joki didn’t know, as he steered his Soviet-era pickup truck through the knee-deep river towards our remote campsite, was that we were just dog-tired. As he picked us up, we thought that in two short hours we would be heading for a warm shower, cozy bed and a long night’s sleep after lots of successful fieldwork up and down the Suek Glacier, not to mention the toughness of the freezing cold nights in the tent. Joki fired up his fridge-sized portable music speaker to full volume and stomped on the gas pedal. While admiring the breathtaking beauty of these glacier-framed mountains while steadily working on our 2000-m descent via dozens of tight switchbacks, it was impossible not to notice the countless heavy fuel trucks coming our way.
Their destination was a place we got to know well recently: The Kumtor Gold Mine and its gigantic open pit located at the north-western face of the Ak-Shyiirak massif at an altitude of 3900 metres above sea level. For five days we – Magali, Lander and Vali – had been guests at their mine to survey directly adjacent and more distant glaciers, measuring their extent by drone, benchmarking their surface reflectivity and taking dust samples. For more details on our investigation whether dust from the mine deposits on the glaciers and darkens their surface, potentially altering radiation absorption and glacier melt, we invite you to check our project page.
Continuing east, along the shores of the giant Lake Issyk-Kul at sunset, we reached the village of Kyzyl-Suu, where we planned to stay the night. Or at least we thought so. While bonding over music recommendations on a long drive is a universal means of communication, it did not make up for our lack of proficiency in local languages. And so, it took us by surprise that instead of unloading the pickup for the night, we hit the road again, this time uphill through a narrow valley. Including a not-so-quick lap of honour due to a forgotten item, it then edged midnight when the narrow forest road opened up to reveal the valley research station of Chong (Kyrgyz for ‘high’) Kyzyl-Suu. The local Tien Shan High Mountain Research Center annually hosts a UNESCO summer school with water professionals from all over Central Asia joining to learn about glaciology. It is where we were intended to demonstrate our work in the field the next day. The twenty summer school participants plus a dozen Central Asian glaciologists had apparently already arrived and they welcomed us warmly with a big campfire and heart-warming guitar songs that everyone but us knew.
The next morning an entire caravan set out to Kara-Batkak Glacier, a Soviet-originated reference glacier and one of those distant high-up objects the summer school participants had studied for days but never set foot on, for most of them. Up roughly 1000 m of altitude, the institute’s horses steadily worked their way up while carrying food for twenty people and their senior riders who crampingly held on to the saddle for this hours-long rodeo ride in very steep terrain. Last but not least, the simple hikers among us, each carrying winter camping gear, had no less challenges with distance and altitude while traversing rivers and eventually reaching the foot of the glacier in a genuine group effort.
Hiking up to Kara-Batkak Glacier with the summer school participants and glaciologists from all over Central Asia. © 2025 Valentin Künzler, all rights reserved
At this point, it became obvious that our journey took us deep into a veritable piece of glaciological heritage: next to the lake below Kara-Batkak Glacier, a small hut was still standing strong, erected by scientists during the Soviet era as a base for early glacier explorations (dating back to 1950 and earlier!). Being furnished with an antiquated iron furnace, wooden snowshoes and plank beds for eight people, this place breathed Kyrgyz glaciology.
Fellow glaciologists, rightfully tired horses and the Soviet-era glaciological research hut at the foot of Kara-Batkak Glacier. © 2025 Valentin Künzler, all rights reserved
Quickly recharged with coffee and snacks, we recalled our mission here – demonstrating glaciological field surveys – and set out for measuring the tongue of Kara-Batkak Glacier. As we stepped on the ice, despite a few people turning around exhausted and freezing, this unique landscape did its magic. Smiles reappeared and countless proud photos and videos were created. After all, standing on ice that flows down a mountain, hearing the creaking sounds of footsteps, and also seeing oneself standing on those fissured faces through the drone camera used during our fieldwork demonstration, it was and will forever remain a special, highly rewarding experience, even for the versed glaciologists among us.
Demonstrating drone use in our glacier surveys and many first steps on glacier ice. © 2025 Valentin Künzler / Lander Van Tricht, all rights reserved
With rain showering down on us, we retreated to the hut where our dear Kyrgyz colleague Adilet had already prepared another fire and warm soup. The following morning, we set out early to climb a somewhat tricky moraine to survey the upper part of the glacier. Fast forward a day and another successful survey in the books, we descended back down to the valley research station where the formerly so calm forest house now hosted scores of policymakers from all over Central Asia, who had gathered there to network and discuss water resource management. After making ourselves presentable again thanks to their small riverside sauna, we joined the feast of “Plov”, a mouthwateringly delicious rice dish served with the ubiquitous watermelons, another delicacy of Kyrgyz glaciology!
Glaciologists at fieldwork, during and after. © Valentin Künzler, all rights reserved
I would like to thank our fellow glaciologists and colleagues whose help on site was invaluable, the Kumtor Gold Company, and last but not least, the horses for carrying us to the top!
Lander Van Tricht is a Postdoctoral Scientist in glaciology and Valentin Künzler is a Master’s student in Environmental Science at ETH Zurich. Their fieldtrip took place in summer 2025 with financial support from the Polar Access Fund.