Grant 'Axe' Rawlinson

Tien Shan, Kyrgystan – First Ascents

From August 2–19, 2009, David Lim, Mohd Rozani bin Maarof, and myself, formed the “Spirit of Singapore Climbing Expedition,” and traveled to an area loosely known as the Adyrtor Mountains, just north of the famous Inylchek glaciers. We drove from Almaty in Kazakhstan to Karakara Base Camp (2,000m) and were then helicoptered 90km by a Kyrgyz Army MI-8 to the Mushketova Glacier, where we established our own base camp at 3,950m.

We summited three virgin peaks and named them:

Kongsberg (4,468m)

Resilience (4,447m)

Majulah (5,152m)

The expedition was written up in the American Alpine Club journal – click here to see the article

Expedition dispatches can be read by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Taking a swim in a glacial lake at basecamp
David Lim on a snowy 2AM start on Resilience Peak
David Lim doing tremendously well (he suffers from Guillain-Barre syndrome), struggling up steeper mixed ground on the 1st ascent of Resilience Peak
David Lim following up the snow ladder on the 1st ascent of Majulah Peak, 13 August 2009
Battling deep snow and fierce winds whilst making the 1st ascent of Majulah peak
Together with Mohd Rozani, on the summit of Majulah peak after making the 1st ascent, 13 August 2009
Basecamp on the Mushketova Glacier, 3950m