The sun came out at that perfect moment, giving us an opportunity to thaw and enjoy the views for the next leg towards the high pass skirting the cliff along the valley. Clear skies, however, evolved into puffy clouds across the opposite end of the valley, which had some snow down to the lower reaches. Soon, chilling rain came back to haunt us, followed by prickling, painful hail as we took smaller and smaller steps with shallower breaths as the clouds descended onto our path and reduced visibility down to as little as 5m ahead.
Author and mountaineer Jon Krakauer’s bestseller Into Thin Air chronicles a 1996 Mount Everest disaster, where eight climbers died and several others were stranded after their push for the summit was hit by a sudden storm. In my recent expedition to Kyrgyzstan’s Ala Kol Alpine Lake, a 1.5 sq km body of water at an altitude of more than 3,500m in the Terskey Alatau mountain range, we experienced how mountain weather can indeed turn fast and violent.
After a gruelling morning steep trek up in rain with all hands on deck, we scrambled for the last 150m, and we emerged to see the magical beauty of the turquoise blue waters, nestled within peaks of snow even throughout summer.
