Afghanistan’s Highest Mountain Reopened to Climbers

The trail to summit of Noshaq now open to mountaineers as the Wildlife Conservation Society and others anticipate return of tourism to the mountain. Photograph by Anthony Simms/WCS Afghanistan Program

Closed off from the outside world for decades due to regional insecurity, Afghanistan’s highest mountain, Mount Noshaq, is once again accessible to the mountaineering community, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society, Australian Geographic Outdoor, and other groups.

Located in the Hindu Kush Mountains of the Wakhan Corridor, an isolated panhandle of land connecting Afghanistan with China, Mount Noshaq stands at 7,492 meters (24,580 feet) in height. The region is home to many species of wildlife, including Marco Polo sheep, urial, ibex, and snow leopards.

The reopening of Mount Noshaq was commemorated by a recent mountain climbing expedition involving Anthony Simms, the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Afghanistan Program Technical Advisor, and supported by The North Face/AG Outdoor Adventure Grant for 2011. Launched on July 25th, the expedition reached the summit of Noshaq on August 4th. The other members included: Tim Wood, who became the first Australian ever to reach the summit; Aziz Beg, who became only the third Afghan national to reach the summit; Abdul Hakim, a local ranger trained by WCS; and Malang Daria.

Restrepo: Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington Receive an Oscar Nomination For Best Documentary

Editor's Note: Congratulations to Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington for the Academy Award nomination for their documentary Restrepo. We spoke to Junger this summer about his deployment in Afghanistan's Korenga Valley, known as the deadliest place in Afghanistan at the time. Here is a look at the interview, again.


Filmmakers Sebastian Junger (left) and Tim Hetherington in 2007 at Outpost Restrepo—Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Photograph by Tim Hetherington

Bestselling author Sebastian Junger and photojournalist Tim Hetherington, both seasoned war reporters, have just released a powerful new documentary, Restrepo. In order to show the true experience of an American solider, the pair joined the men of Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade for a full deployment. It just so happened that the platoon got assigned to the Korengal Valley, a six-mile slit in the foothills of the Hindu Kush known as the deadliest place in Afghanistan. During their 14-month project, Hetherington broke his leg and Junger tore his Achilles and survived an IED attack. Both men could have easily been taken out during the almost daily firefights. But this isn't their story. The journalists remained far out of the frame to show the soldiers' experience. And unlike The Hurt Locker, this is real. At times devastating, at times playful, this story is very real. We spoke to Junger about making the film, dodging death, the McChrystal question, and what's needed next in Afghanistan. —Mary Anne Potts

You've been reporting from Afghanistan since 1996. Why do you keep going back?

In 2001, it was an easy win. The Afghan people were, for he most part, incredibly grateful to be rid of the Taliban. And it looked like the story was over. And then, I think, we didn’t leave enough troops there, and we moved on to Iraq, and the war got worse and worse. By 2005 I thought, O.K., since we are going to be there for so long, I want to know what it’s like to be a solider in the U.S. military. I was with Battle Company of the 173rd in Zabol province in 2005, and I was really amazed by those guys. It was my first experience with the U.S. military. I decided that if they went back to Afghanistan, I wanted to do a project that shows what it is like to be a soldier in combat in the U.S. military. I wanted to be with a platoon for a full deployment—a platoon is about 35 men. So they went back to Afghanistan in 2007, and I followed them there about a week or two later.

What made you decide to shoot your first documentary in the Korengal Valley, which was known as the deadliest place in Afghanistan for the intense, frequent fighting that occurred there?

I didn’t know it would be. I was going over there because Battle Company was there. I had never heard of the Korengal Valley before. They hadn’t either. It just happened to be a very violent place.

Sebastian Junger on Making Restrepo, Your 90-Minute Deployment in Afghanistan's Deadliest Valley

Filmmakers Sebastian Junger (left) and Tim Hetherington in 2007 at Outpost Restrepo—Korengal Valley, Kunar Province, Afghanistan. Photograph by Tim Hetherington

Bestselling author Sebastian Junger and photojournalist Tim Hetherington, both seasoned war reporters, have just released a powerful new documentary, Restrepo. In order to show the true experience of an American solider, the pair joined the men of Battle Company of the 173rd Airborne Brigade for a full deployment. It just so happened that the platoon got assigned to the Korengal Valley, a six-mile slit in the foothills of the Hindu Kush known as the deadliest place in Afghanistan. During their 14-month project, Hetherington broke his leg and Junger tore his Achilles and survived an IED attack. Both men could have easily been taken out during the almost daily firefights. But this isn't their story. The journalists remained far out of the frame to show the soldiers' experience. And unlike The Hurt Locker, this is real. At times devastating, at times playful, this story is very real. We spoke to Junger about making the film, dodging death, the McChrystal question, and what's needed next in Afghanistan. —Mary Anne Potts

You've been reporting from Afghanistan since 1996. Why do you keep going back?

In 2001, it was an easy win. The Afghan people were, for he most part, incredibly grateful to be rid of the Taliban. And it looked like the story was over. And then, I think, we didn’t leave enough troops there, and we moved on to Iraq, and the war got worse and worse. By 2005 I thought, O.K., since we are going to be there for so long, I want to know what it’s like to be a solider in the U.S. military. I was with Battle Company of the 173rd in Zabol province in 2005, and I was really amazed by those guys. It was my first experience with the U.S. military. I decided that if they went back to Afghanistan, I wanted to do a project that shows what it is like to be a soldier in combat in the U.S. military. I wanted to be with a platoon for a full deployment—a platoon is about 35 men. So they went back to Afghanistan in 2007, and I followed them there about a week or two later.

What made you decide to shoot your first documentary in the Korengal Valley, which was known as the deadliest place in Afghanistan for the intense, frequent fighting that occurred there?

I didn’t know it would be. I was going over there because Battle Company was there. I had never heard of the Korengal Valley before. They hadn’t either. It just happened to be a very violent place.

When you heard about its reputation, did you rethink your decision?

No, I trusted the soldiers’ ability to stay safe and protect themselves. If anything, I thought, at least I am in a place that is active and not dormant, which wouldn’t have been much of a documentary.

Adventure in 60 Seconds: This Week in Exploration

Text by Tetsuhiko Endo
 
Here at Adventure, we have the tendency to focus our climbing expedition coverage on the largest and most dangerous mountains. In doing so, it is easy to forget that, besides Everest and K2, there are 13 other 8,000-meter peaks that can often be just as challenging to climb.

The Polish team of Artur Hajzer and Robert Szymczack kicked off the summer Pakistan climbing season this week with the summit of just such a mountain, Nanga Parbat. At 8,126 meters, the ninth highest peak in the world, whose name translates to the "Naked Mountain" in Hindi/Urdu has one of the richest climbing histories of all the 8,000ers. 

Readers' Choice Adventurers of the Year: And the Winner Is...

Last November we introduced you to the 2009 Adventurers of the Year, recognized for their extraordinary achievements in exploration, conservation, actions sports, and humanitarian work. Their accomplishments ranged from the longest BASE jump ever to educating 10,000 women and girls in war-torn Afghanistan to rocketing 350 miles above the Earth to save a telescope. Then, for our first ever Readers’ Choice Adventurer of the Year Award, we asked you to vote for the person you felt best embodied the spirit of adventure. (See the entire Best of Adventure feature here.)

Today, with nearly 20,000 votes cast, we are thrilled to announce a tie. Both winners are equally impressive, but in entirely different ways. Explorer-engineer Albert Yu-Min Lin organized a high-risk expedition into Mongolia’s “Forbidden Zone” to search for the lost tomb of Genghis Khan using state-of-the-art mapping technology. Wounded Iraq war veteran Marc Hoffmeister led a team of soldiers, many missing limbs, up the dangerous West Buttress route on Denali. When we delivered the news to each winner, both assured us of one thing: They could not have done it alone—and their adventures continue.

Meet the Adventurers of the Year: Educator Khadija Bahram

Last week we announced the 2009 Adventurers of the Year, selected for their extraordinary achievements in exploration, conservation, action sports, and humanitarian work. Now, for the first time ever, you can vote for the Readers' Choice Adventurer of the Year. To help you get to know them, we are going to highlight a different adventurer daily. You can only vote once, so make sure to check out each adventurers' profile, video, and photo gallery, before firing up our voting machine.

Face of Hope

The gunmen came from the center of the village, each carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle. They looked at the vehicle, a dusty SUV with the battered logo of an aid organization: IRC (International Rescue Committee). Inside, three women sat with their driver. The group had just arrived from Gardez in eastern Afghanistan, where they were working to establish a project to aid disabled children. The gunmen knew this, and opened fire.

Khadija Bahram was in Kabul in August 2008 when she heard that four members of her team had been murdered... Continue reading this story >> 

Sebastian Junger, Scott Anderson, Chip Brown Read ADVENTURE

Some of our favorite writers will be reading from our new anthology, The New Age of Adventure, next Monday night at the Half King in New York City. Here's the lineup:

SEBASTIAN JUNGER, reading from “The Lion in Winter,” his profile of Ahmad Shah Massoud, an Afghan warrior who fought the Taliban in the years before September 11, 2001.

SCOTT ANDERSON, reading from “Coming of Age at Band-iAmir," a story about a year-long road trip he took across Asia with his father.

CHIP BROWN, reading from “The Last Cairn," a profile of Johnny Waterman, the mad genius of Alaskan mountaineering, and his mysterious disappearance.

Attendees will have the chance to win a Timex Expedition watch and other great prizes.

We'll post pictures after the event. Stay tuned!

GET IT NOW: Preorder your copy of The New Age of Adventure: Ten Years of Great Writing here.

Where Next: Iraq and AfghanistanTouring Mess-o-potamia

When Geoff Hann led the first tourists back into Iraq last March, people thought he was nuts. Until, that is, the trip became a headline-grabbing hit and Hann booked sold-out return excursions to Iraq—and Afghanistan—departing in October (hinterlandtravel.com). Could the British guide be onto something? 

—Brendan Spiegel

ADVENTURE: Let’s start with the obvious: Why guide trips in Iraq and not, say, sunny Costa Rica?

Geoff Hann: Thirty years ago, before Saddam was in power, I did a London-to-Kathmandu overland and fell in love with the region. There are thousands of archaeological sites left behind by the likes of Alexander the Great. This is where our civilization began. I’ve led tours here ever since.

A: What makes you think these places are safe? There’s still near-daily violence in both Iraq and Afghanistan. 

GH: If you listened to the media all the time, you’d never go anywhere. If anything happens to us in Iraq or Afghanistan it will be quite by chance, just as it would be anywhere else.