Khan Tengri

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Khan Tengri

Khan Tengri at sunset
Elevation 7,010 metres (22,999 ft)
Location Kyrgyzstan-Kazakhstan
Range Tian Shan
Coordinates 42°12′39″N 80°10′30″E / 42.21083, 80.175Coordinates: 42°12′39″N 80°10′30″E / 42.21083, 80.175
First ascent 1931 Mikhail Pogrebetsky
Easiest route glacier/snow/ice/rock climb

Khan Tengri (Uighur, translated as "Lord of the spirits", or "Lord of the sky"; or Turkic translated as "Ruler of Skies", "Ruler Tengri") is a mountain of the Tian Shan mountain range. It is located on the Kyrgyzstan—Kazakhstan border, east of lake Issyk Kul. Its geologic elevation is 6,995 m (22,949 ft) but its glacial cap rises to 7,010 m (22,999 ft). For this reason, in mountaineering circles, including for the Soviet Snow Leopard award criteria, it is considered a 7000-metre peak. It is also known as: Khan Tangiri Shyngy, Kan-Too Chokusu, Pik Khan-Tengry, Hantengri Feng.

Khan Tengri is the second-highest mountain in the Tian Shan, surpassed only by Jengish Chokusu (7439 m) a few miles to the south. Khan Tengri is the highest point in Kazakhstan and the third-highest peak in Kyrgyzstan, after Jengish Chokusu and the Pamir's Independence Peak (7,134 m).

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[edit] Features

Khan Tengri is a massive marble pyramid, covered in snow and ice. At sunset the marble glows red, giving it the Kazakh name "Kan Tau" (blood mountain). Located just across the South Ingelchek (or Inylchek) glacier, 16 km north of Jengish Chokusu, Khan Tengri was originally thought to be the highest peak in the Tien Shan because of its dramatic shape, compared to the massive bulk of Jengish Chokusu. Khan Tengri is the highest peak in the extreme Tengri Tag subrange, also known as the Mustag, that also contains peaks Chapaeva and Gorkova. Anatoli Boukreev considered Khan Tengri perhaps the world's most beautiful peak because of its geometric ridges and its symmetry.

[edit] History

South Inylchek Base Camp, at 4,000 m on the glacier's southern moraine, looking northwest to Pik Chapaeva and Khan Tengri in the distance
South Inylchek Base Camp, at 4,000 m on the glacier's southern moraine, looking northwest to Pik Chapaeva and Khan Tengri in the distance

Although it is 1,500 ft (439 m) lower than its near neighbor to the south, Khan Tengri was believed to be the highest peak in the range until Jengish Chokusu's discovery in 1946.

Semenov was the first European to see the scenic panorama of the Tengri Tag, and its most beautiful peak, the colossal Khan Tengri (in 1847).[1]

The first ascent of the peak was made in 1931 by Mikhail Pogrebetsky's Ukrainian team from the south, along the west ridge. M. Kuzmin's team made the first ascent from the north in 1964. Khan Tengri is one of five peaks that a Soviet mountaineer needed to scale to earn the prestigious Snow Leopard award. In 2004, it was the site of a terrible catastrophe as more than a dozen mountaineers were killed in a large avalanche on the mountain's most popular route.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Semenov, Petr Petrovitch. Travels in the Tian'-Shan' 1856-1857. Trans. by Liudmila Gilmour, Colin Thomas and Marcus Wheeler. Edited and annotated by Colin Thomas, pp. 180, 184-185. The Hakluyt Society, London. (1998). ISBN 0-904180-60-3.

[edit] External links