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.
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