This is why climbers have it so easy. Irrespective of where, how hard or with whom we climb, our lifeblood flows readily and our dreams come on tap. And the moment a dream is born can be as exciting and rewarding as living the dream itself.

This summer, on a small expedition to a remote part of the Tien Shan mountains we unearthed a dream. Hidden amongst the rich climbing treasures of the western Kokshal Too, with an unspoilt view over the vast wilderness that forms the western fringes of China, lies the awesome south east face of Kyzyl Asker. I desperately want to climb that face and so does my friend Es Tressider. It’s become our dream.

>> Guy's dream - the South East Face of Kyzyl Asker See larger pic

The 2002 Scottish Kyzyl Asker Expedition was originally put together to attempt the impressive 1300m north west face, alpine style. Climbed once before (on the only recorded ascent of the mountain to date) by a stubborn Russian competition outfit, it used much aid and was rated highly - a worthy objective for our small free-climbing team. However, heavy rain during the early part of the year put paid to these plans as our truck driver steadfastly refused to attempt the last few miles off-road, pointing at large puddles and gesticulating in a decidedly unenthusiastic manner. His wisdom ultimately proved laudable however, as during the subsequent weeks two neighbouring expeditions lost their trucks to the dreaded swamp monster.


We were four in number - myself, Es Tressider, Neal Crampton and Blair Fyffe. I was the alleged "granddaddy" of the expedition, being the only thirty-something in a team of otherwise young tigers. As well as youth there was talent amongst us, with past exploits on E6 rock, A4 aid and Scottish winter VIII to our credit. The only thing we lacked was high altitude experience but then that was why we were there.

Base Camp was soon established at the snout of the Komorova Glaciers amid a myriad of world-class bouldering delights. (This is particularly important on a small expedition, to mitigate the undesirable effects of Base Camp boredom). To our immediate south, three huge glaciers sprawled leisurely down from an impressive array of dazzling peaks, most of which sat between the 5-5500m level. At over 5800m, Kyzyl Asker dominated the vista, looking more than its meagre height, the north face itself a huge glacial spill falling over 2000m directly from the summit. Left of this, each glacier - east, central and west in turn - presented impressive retaining walls and peaks, all of which we knew sported only a handful of routes.

The impression was one of big sky and much space, a bit like an outsized version of the northern Cairngorms. This feeling was exaggerated by a huge open ‘delta’ that rolled off northwards from the snout of the glaciers next to camp. Our approaches were going to be lengthy affairs, a day at least it seemed, unless we confined ourselves to the smaller routes on the glacier walls. But why doodle in the margins when a vast blank canvas awaits?

>> Blair Fyffe and Es Tressider walking south up the Western Komorova glacier See larger pic

We decided to divide into pairs as it was soon apparent we had very different ambitions. Es and I were into something long, hard and free in alpine style, with the emphasis on the hard, whereas Blair and Neal were more relaxed, simply looking to bag some peaks, gain high altitude experience and hopefully get some decent climbing into the bargain (they succeeded in that, but their’s is another story). Having seen a quite literally eye-popping photo in the American Alpine Journal, Es and I were intent on having a crack at Kyzyl’s SE Face.