How to not run with a rifle and other lessons from Tajikistan and Svalbard

I sadly left Khorog, Tajikistan on the 9th of July. The end of lots of wild high altitude runs, bike rides, and beds in friendly strangers' homes. But I was thrilled to get a plane ticket out instead of taking a 20 hour jeep ride. At times I was scared as we had less than 5 meters to spare on some passes and the old Russian twin prop plane was overfilled and not so sturdy, but it made it. Somehow the only time a plane on the route, which only flies with no wind and in the summer, went down was when the Afghans nailed it with a missile.

The few days before I left Khorog, there was folk music festival that I helped to organize a few logistics for. Not the most interesting music, and often quite repetitive because they decided to put bands from the same region all in a row, but still an interesting festival of song and dance. The 2nd and 3rd days had an interesting array of performers from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Tajikistan including several rock and pop bands from Dushanbe who were surprisingly good. The organizers were aiming for 15,000 people in attendance, which is a lot for a town of 25,000, but most people actually showed up for a day or two.

 In Dushanbe, I came to the painful realization that the cost to get my bike back to Europe and then the states was more than the bike was worth. So, knowing that anything vintage or less-than-new has almost no value in Tajikistan (i.e. people consider a less-than-walmart-quality Chinese bike to be worth more than a used mountain bike built specifically for the Pamirs), I set off the find a good home for the bike rather than make some $$ back. As there are expats and probably fewer cyclists in Dushanbe, I went through a number of contacts until I found this guy. He works for the Aga Khan, is from one of the villages I biked through, and is friends with a Canadian-Kenyan cyclist who is planning a trip from Dushanbe to Bishkek in August and convinced his co-worker to go along. So with a little haggling my trusty Schwinn- with a scattering of parts from home and the Purple Bike Coalition which Will Wicherski and I co-run- changed hands. I'm hoping it goes on to have a successful life in the Pamirs with a Pamiri.

The next stop on my semester-abroad-replacement-trip was Longyearbyen in the Svalbard Archipelago around 80 degrees N. My family has a long history in the arctic and the archipelago, so going back up feels a bit like going home. 60% of the land is covered by glaciers, like this one my little brother Kirk Bjorn is on. We had some fresh snow as well, and a few ski runs. 

The one thing that is somewhat fun but mostly annoying, at least for training, is the requirement to carry a rifle when outside of the settlements. Every year there are at least a few polar bear attacks or near-attacks, so I understand the issue, but carrying a large caliber rifle while running, with no harness, is not very fun and does bad wonders to the back. At least you tend to be dressed in multiple layers to deal with the cold and rain. For Europeans its a bit difficult to get a weapons permit, but with a state ID card and a printout showing no criminal records the process takes a few minutes and allows hire of weapons and flare guns and other such goodies.

The town of Longyearbyen is rather colorful, though most of the buildings are the same style, built on piers to deal with the permafrost shifts. The sysselmannen or local governor closely controls building, and everything is connected to the central coal plant, the last in Norway. Hot water used in the power plant is pumped all around town, so the post-workout and warmup showers are some of the best available.

For all the rock freaks out there, the western parts of some islands are sedimentary and lots of people look at the layers for years and years. This also means that climbing the sides is an exercise in going uphill faster than you slide down. Good practice for less than extra blue conditions.

The school even has a nice climbing wall outdoors, which unfortunately is only comfortably climbed in gloves and boots. Not the best design idea.

 

And everyone (for the most part) has a snowmobile. In winter and spring snow covers everything, and by driving out 100km, you can be at a new area that may never have been skied. And fuel is cheap because there are almost no taxes on the islands. 

Update from Switzerland

Hey everyone,

Will's blog post inspired me to write one and update you about what's happening in the more southern part of Europe.

I got some time off work in early July to go to my grandparents house in the Black Forest and do some biking around the Alps. It was nice to go to Germany to get a little change of scenery and some new running and biking routes. My grandpa often comes biking with us and he recently got an electric bike which makes it quite challenging to keep up with him. The first bike excursion we did in the Black Forest started with him speeding away from me and waiting for me at the top of the hill. It's a weird feeling to get dropped by an 84 year old man even if he does have a little motor on his bike!!
After spending a week in Germany my grandpa and I set off with the camping bus to go pick up my parents in Switzerland and start our week long biking tour.
We were on the road for 6 days and covered 455km (280 miles) and over 12'000 (40'000) meters in altitude. We went over passes that are often part of the Tour de France such as the Col d'Iseran, Alpe-d'Huez, Col de la Madeleine and others. We were incredibly lucky with the weather and always had sunny and clear skies.

First pass: Gr-St-Bernard 

There are still enormous quantities of snow in the mountains. It still snowed in June so everything is still frozen or covered in snow

The St-Bernard dog waiting to greet us at the top of the Petit-St-Bernard pass

The highest pass in Europe. Also my favorite one to ride up!

Grandpa waiting for breakfast in Val d'Isere. The mountain in the back is where the Alpine Skiing World Championship trails are 

These markers are along all the road so you know exactly how much further it is. A blessing and a curse

Col de la Croix de Fer was by far the hardest one of the tour!

Going up one of the many hairpin turns of the Alpe d'Huez 

Col de la Madeleine, a popular Tour de France pass

Grandpa and I going up towards Les Saisies, the mountains in the back are part of the Mont Blanc massif

But, the best part about biking Alp passes is that what goes up must come down, so every long uphill is followed by a long, windy downhill. It's fun to go down hairpin turns and be able to fly by cars!

looking down part of the Alpe d'Huez

All in all it was an amazing week with lots of training and sightseeing and if I can highly recommend biking in the Alps for volume training!

I'm now back in Switzerland working. I can't believe how fast time went by and it's less than a month until my departure for India so I am now busy with visa and other pre-departure formalities.

I hope everyone has had an amazing summer so far and will enjoy the end of it!!

Elena

Highest peak in Europe, the Mont Blanc 

Kalle & Will Do Shetland

Its been a while since I posted anything.  This summer has been awesome so far, and hopefully it will just get better.  I spent the first month of the summer doing some hardcore training, starting out in Bend where I put in a fair amount of time skiing in the rain and slush with Isaac, then moving on to the more hospitable climes of Idaho with a big college crew in Sun Valley.  The training was great, but I have been carrying some nagging injuries which meant mostly mountain biking training.  In terms of hardships though, having to go mountain biking for a few hours a day is pretty minimal.  After one of the more miserable experiences of my life, getting my wisdom teeth removed, I flew to the Shetland Islands, due north of Scotland.  On the way there I rendezvoused with Kalle in Dublin and we were inseparable from then on.  Turns out its not very sunny on Shetland in July.  We were mostly measuring rocks on a very windy cliff edge most of the time, but we made time for working out every day, doing some running, rollerskiing on single lane roads, and strength.   Haggis is also way better than expected by the way.  Confirmed over the course of three haggis dinners.

As the blistering summit of Rona's Hill, Shetland's highest point at 450 meters high.

Kalle on top of the world

 We had to be in the field by 8 every morning, so that meant an extremely early wakeup time of 5:30, eased by the long daylight hours this far north.  At least the few times the sun came out.  This trip is the first time since elementary school that I have had a bedtime before 9 for more than one day in a row.

Rollerskiing our last day, wanted to show off my new high-vis shorts

 Most of our time, however, was spent as follows.  Kalle and I getting candid photos taken of us striking dramatic geology poses along the coastline.

The only non-dramatic one.  Us measuring in Mt-Ste Anne-like cold temps.

Dramatic geology pose #1

Dramatic geology pose #2

Dramatic geology pose #3

Dramatic geology pose #4

Dramatic geology pose #5

And that's it!  I'm staying in a lovely B & B for the night, then off to Trondheim where I will be studying away for the fall.  I am going to see incoming freshman Hans in Trondheim and also the alpiners Victor and Sarah who are also studying abroad there.  Until next time...

Dramatic sea arch, geologists for scale

The Desert in Israel

Here is a little update and some pictures from my trip to Israel. After spending about a week site seeing, I hopped on a bus from Tel Aviv to the Arava Desert which is in the south of Israel. The desert is like no other place I have seen before. In the north, Israel is lush with rolling green hills, but in the south, the desert is dry and barren. For the next few weeks, I lived on a Kibbutz, which is a small agricultural community. Kibbutz Lotan has only one hundred residents and a few dozen volunteers so it is a very small community. I worked as an eco-volunteer, learning about the Kibbutz's environmental initiatives. With so little water (it only rains one day a year), people have to conserve water and resources. 

The mud huts we lived in. These huts were built by people on the kibbutz, using mud made from straw, clay, sand and water right from the ground.                        

The desert climate is quite different from Williamstown. There was no humidity, but during the day, temperatures would reach 115 F. But at night, it would cool down, so the best time to workout was early in the morning, when it was light out but just before the heat of the sun. I enjoyed many runs watching the sun rise over the mountains.

Sun rise over the Jordanian mountains on a run. The Kibbutz was on the border with Jordan so I had to be careful not to by accident cross the border.

I spent most of my time working with and living with other volunteers who were from around the world. They were really nice and interesting people, so despite the hot sun and often smelly mud we had to build with, volunteering was very fun! We also had plenty of time to explore.

Hiking in the Israeli mountains. There are no trails, which was really fun because we could choose any route to reach the ridge! 

Here's a picture of the Red Sea from Eilat, the southern most city of Israel. From the sea, you can see four countries--Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt which was super cool!

The Mahane Yehuda Market in Jerusalem. It was the largest market I have ever seen, and quite an experience with so many people yelling and bargaining. This market was filled with all sorts of Middle Eastern spices, nuts, fruits and olives...yum! 

Before my trip, I was nervous that the desert would be way too hot to handle. But after my time in Israel, I found what a magical place the desert can be. There was a feeling of calmness and beauty, with the large mountains, the starry nights, and an appreciation of every plant that grows!

An update from Ben in Tajikistan

Decided it was time for another update two days ago when I met another Williams kid. Nick worked for Roshan telecom with Erik Anderson ('12) and is now playing professional soccer for FC Kabul. Check out his blog. He is somewhere in the middle of nowhere in the Wakhan, where I was last week. Here is just a taste of where I've been along the Afghan border and in the Tajik Wakhan range.

Mountains on both side of the border and clouds that brought rain for the next week.

 

My altimeter showing the approximate elevation of the river corridor. When not cycling I went up to around 4500 meters where the snowline was in my riding shoes, then switched to ice axe and boots for another few hundred meters of fresh snow. Obviously, intervals are hard at 12,000-14,000 feet but a light job produces plenty of sweat and pain.

View of Town of Vrang from the 4th century Buddhist Stupa.

 

The lonely road. Some days I saw one car, others two or more. Going the other way, or not moving at all (auto maintenance consists of fixing things when they break, which often means an overnight in the nearest village and a trip to the regional center with a tire or two.