Uzbekistan (August 2023):

Boysun to Dibola and Ascent of Mt. Chulboy (3812m)

Return to my mountaineering/trekking/travel website | Return to main Uzbekistan 2023 page

Boris and I took a night train from Tashkent to Boysun, where we were met by Lutfulo. After buying a few things in the street bazaar of Boysun, we drove to the mountain village of Dibola, a 50km drive that took us 5 hours due to the poor conditions of the road, especially as we were getting closer to Dibola.

Boysun:

Early arrival at the modern railway station of Boysun. From left to right: Lutfilo, me, and Boris.

Scenes along the street bazaar of Boysun.

Drive to Dibola:

Successive landscapes along the way.

View of the Chulboy ridge along which we will soo start to hike. Mt. Chulboy is in the far background.

Houses in the last village before reaching Dibola.

Upper canyon of the Kurganchasai river before reaching Dibola. I was told that the spring in the right photo flows from the Boybuloq cave (see further down).

View of the previous canyon from Dibola.

Cliff above the Kurganchasai river opposite to Dibola.

In Dibola:

View over a portion of Dibola and the valley of the Kurganchasai river south of Dibola. The village has around 1200 inhabitants, of Tajik origin, who speak a language close to Farsi (Persian).

Lutfilo in discussion with a member of the family that will provide us with donkeys to carry our loads to the camp that we will set at GPS waypoint 03. This camp is occasionally used by speleologists to explore the Boybuloq cave, the deepest cave in Central Asia (1,430m deep and 15,212m long), located in the Chulboy ridge.

The head of the family (Mr. Ismatullo Khoji Bobo) loading donkeys with our bags and food (GPS waypoint 01).

Ascent to camp (waypoint 03):

Some approximate elevations:

- Boysun: 1217m.

- Waypoint 01 (Dibola): 1708m.

- Waypoint 02: 2257m.

- Waypoint 03: 2700m.

- Waypoint 06: 3812m.

Leaving Dibola.

Below of the huge cliff of the long Chulboy escarpment.

View over the upper farmlands of the Dibola people, where they grow apple trees.

Ascent of the Chulboy escarpment. The trail was small, but quite good.

Reaching the ridge of the escarpment at a small breach (GPS waypoint 02).

Valley of the Kurganchasai river south of Dibola, seen from the ridge of the escarpment near the breach.

From there we hiked up the Chilboy ridge to GPS waypoint 03. We stayed at a safe distance north of the escarpment, mostly on gently sloped, slighly wooded terrain. (The aerial view from Google Earth, shown below, shows snow on the ridge, but of course there was none in August.)

View toward the north, with a 4000+m peak in the far background.

We reached the camp at waypoint 03 at night. A Russian speleologist expedition was already there to explore the Boybuloq cave. They friendly helped us in the dark to find good spots for our two tents.

Camp to Mt. Chulboy and back:

On that day Boris and I climbed Mt. Chulboy and returned to camp. From the camp, we first headed southeast toward the ridge of the Chulboy escarpment. We then more or less followed this ridge up to Mt. Chulboy, moving through successive spectacular viewpoints.

View from the camp in the early morning. A portion of the 60km-long Boysun ridge is visible in the photo.

Boris and Lutfilo enjoying breakfast in the sun.

Leaving the camp, where our two tents mixed with the speleologist tents.

Ubiquitous plants along the way.

We first hiked toward the southeast along a small canyon on our right, in the direction of the ridge of the Chulboy escarpment. (This canyon is visible in the above Google Earth aerial image between waypoints 03 and 04.)

Looking back toward our camp (barely visible on the right).

High peaks north of the Chulboy ridge.

Reaching the Chulboy escarpment.

Some of the viewpoints along the escarpment on our way to Mt. Chulboy.

[Photo taken by Boris Karpov.]

[Photo taken by Boris Karpov.]

Boris standing next to the signpost marking Mt. Chulboy (3812m). (It seemed that there was a slightly higher summit further east along the ridge. But it was relatively late in the afternoon, so we decided to return to our camp from here.)

Return to Dibola:

Boris and Lutfilo at the main entrance of the Boybuloq cave, a short distance below our camp. From this unassuming entrance, it is hard to imagine that the cave is the deepest in Central Asia.

Dibola and the valley of the Kurganchasai river south of the village.

Men in Dibola.

Last photo in Dibola, with Mr. Ismatullo Khoji Bobo and his two sons who provided us with donkeys. Luffilo is first on the left and Boris is at the center.

In the afternoon, we drove to Khodja-Ipak, where we spent a night and, on the next morning, did a hike into the gorge of the Kurganchasai river. See here.

Return to my mountaineering/trekking/travel website | Return to main Uzbekistan 2023 page