7 Virgin Ascents in Tien Shan
In July 2026 four experienced members of the Pinnacle Club and three young early career mountaineers headed out on an exploratory expedition of unclimbed peaks of Ak-Shyrak region of Kyrgyzstan.
The Climbers Shop staff team member Paul was lucky enough to be one of them, climbed 7 peaks and even got to name one with his Mum!
With their planned basecamp at 3,690m so remote it was 80k to lower altitudes, the team knew acclimatisation was key so headed to Ala-Archa National Park climbing Uchitel Peak (4535m) before returning low and heading into the Tien Shan proper.
Unexpectedly high river levels meant tricky access into their planned location so basecamp was shifted 5km to west. This also meant the team had to shift objectives from their planned 4 peaks.
In total, the team climbed 21 × 4000+m peaks of which they believe 15 to be first ascents.
This trip was funded in part by the Mount Everest Foundation and comprised 4 experienced members of the Pinnacle Climbing Club.
Paul’s top kit picks:
Mountain Equipment Oreus Jacket - “This is an incredible piece of kit I used almost everyday. The warmth to weight ration is amazing. I took two of these with me; 1 x large and 1 x extra large which meant I had a spare to loan out a couple of times when it was needed. I also took a medium sized Oreus Gilet which really was used every single day.”
Scarpa Phantom 6000 HD - “Because of the weather, these ended up being a little warmer than I needed, but I was very grateful for them after a 4am river crossing. I still couldn’t feel my feet an hour after so it was probably a good decision to take them.”
Petzl Sumtec Ice Axe - “This worked brilliantly - I partnered it with a Grivel technical tool but I should have brought another to use as a pair.”
MSR Guardian Gravity Water Purifier - “One of my roles was to look after water purification and we ended up having to belay the purifier off some nuts and use carefully propped shovels to keep it from abrading on rock. It wasn’t easy carrying a 10l bag of water up a steep slope and hoisting up! The glacial sediment was so fine it kept clogging the filter so I was very happy I’d learnt how to backwash it before we left!”
“Our repair kit included plenty of cable ties and jubilee clips of varying sizes - these were really important as our gas stoves didn’t have any when they arrived. One other really helpful item was a roll of paracord. We had some luminescent pink stuff which we ended up using as guy lines around rocks when we couldn’t get pegs in the ground. By the time we left the cord was white but still bright pink where we’d untied the knots!”
“I found a discarded rucsack cover and an old rope left in a hut so I made a water bottle pocket by adding a thread to the cover and taking some sheath off the rope for webbing. It worked a treat until it was on the wrong side of a pack being hauled. RIP.”