Rasht to Zarafshon Difficult Routes

This page describes the extremely difficult and/or dangerous routes between the Rasht Valley (Gharm) and the Kuhistoni Mastchoh District (the Upper Zarafshon Valley): The Khojai Muso Pass, Beob Pass, Zamburkhona Gorge and Vanjrud Gorge.

Khojai Muso Pass

The Khojai Muso Pass itself is easy, but the approach from the Zarafshon valley has two problems: high water river crossings in the hottest part of the summer, a very rough descent on the south side down a steep forested gorge with no trails, and the main problem: you would need to go through a restricted border zone on the Zarafshon side. There is a border post on the Zarafshon side above the village of Dehhisor. They will block you from going along the right bank of the river, and they will see you use the left bank of the river and intercept you (they have a cable car crossing).

The last account of a full passage of this route is from Vladimir Sazonov a Russian hiker who, in 1982, went over this pass from north to south, despite warnings from local shepherds. He reports a very difficult and unpleasant descent of the gorge to the south, losing his travel companion (?!) in the mountains, then fleeing from a bear and losing his backpack with all his gear, money (3 month’s salary) and passport when he accidentally dropped it in the river. Locals farther down the Sorbogh gorge rescued him and arranged free transportation to Dushanbe where he somehow got on a flight to Moscow without a ticket, money, or (internal Soviet) passport (he called for a money transfer and bribed his way onto a fully booked flight). His lost companion turned out to be alive, but had extreme difficulties finding a route on the descent down the gorge.

Four years later a friend of Vladimir’s named Sergei thought this sounded fun and attempted to repeat this journey. He brought a friend named Vitali whom he promptly fought with. They parted ways in the mountains where Vitali lost a week of time and turned back to the Zarafshon side. Sergei “went down (to) the Duburso (river) through the thickets. He lost his tent and some of his belongings while crossing one of the streams, and arrived in Dushanbe in a completely insane state.“

If you manage to sneak by the border guards you couldn’t do worse than these guys (unless you actually drown). In sum: this route is illegal, extremely unpleasant, very difficult, and might kill you.

Beob Pass

Beob Pass, a glacier-to-glacier pass, is used to go from Navobod in the Rasht valley to Ghorif and onward to the Zarafshon Valley. The route is obvious on the map, you can reach it from multiple points. Much of the southern approach will be over open terrain, but very steep and with an altitude gain of 2400 meters (from the Darai Mazor River to Beob Pass). After the pass (glacier-to-glacier) you will go down to the abandoned village of Sari Osiyo (2000 meter steep descent), over a ridge to Ghorif and then north over the easy Pakshif-Ghorif Pass.

I found information on this pass in July 2022 when I visited Langar, Padask and Valighond. The guesthouse owner in Langar showed me an article his friend wrote about going through Beob Pass many decades ago. The group was a school group, including teachers and students. As for difficulties/dangers, I assume (based on my trips in this region) that the glacier-to-glacier pass is safest in early summer when a thick layer of snow still covers the glaciers (crossing in the very early morning will allow you to walk on the frozen snow) and the crevasses have not yet opened up. Later in the summer it may be dangerous in terms of crevasses or the bergschrund (which can be seen in satellite imagery) or rockfall. Also, the group that passed through here did so in the Soviet period. The glaciers have shrunk since then, so what may have been an easy pass may now have a steep rock ridge causing some problems.

In sum: this pass should be considered an unknown and only attempted by someone with glacier mountaineering experience.

Update: I went through Beob Pass in 2023. Report here.

Zamburkhona Gorge

Shepherds travel from the Zarafshon side over a glacier pass and into the upper Zamburkhona gorge. The lower part of the gorge can be accessed from the Rasht side, as can been seen in this YouTube video. Can the lower and upper gorges be connected on foot? Maybe. It’s hard to tell from satellite imagery. The pass itself doesn’t seem too difficult, and in some satellite images a clear sheep trail can be seen on the glacier. The next challenge is on the north side: avoiding the restricted border zone. If you go down the Shakhisafed gorge to the Zarafshon river, you will put yourself in view of the border post. The solution to this is to look at the passes in the mountains to the south of the Zarafshon River. You can take a direct but high line to the village of Rogh in the Zarafshon valley. You need to go over multiple ridges to get to Rogh (bypassing the border zone along the main river). One option is over the Dihandang-Shakhisafed Pass (a placeholder name, there is no local name) and then down the Dihandang gorge to the Zarafshon river. This may put you outside of the border zone. I don’t know for sure. If you want to be safe, then don’t go down the Dihandang gorge, but rather over the Rogh-Dihandang Pass (again, placeholder names that are not in local use). This is all open terrain and very steep and rocky. There may be some scrambling involved. You would need to be very experienced in off-trail high route travel and scrambling/climbing to attempt this route.

In sum: unknown gorge passage, a glacier trip that should only be attempted when the shepherds are still using the route (and the grazing season is unknown here), and then extremely difficult scrambling over multiple ridges/ passes to avoid the border zone. This will be very many days of extremely difficult hiking/scrambling if the gorge and the glacier do not stop you. If you are going north to south (or west to east), there is a chance of failure at the very end in the gorge, and then a very long return journey.

Vanjrud Gorge

Going up the Vanjrud gorge is a way to get to Ghorif from Rasht (the Sorbogh River area) without going up the Ghorif gorge. The route starts on the south side at the abandoned village of Didikhi Poyon, and goes up and over very steep open terrain to the Gaznay Pass (a placeholder name - a reference to this hillside’s abandoned pastures being referred to in the past as Gaznay). Then you go down to the Vanjrud river and look for an avalanche bridge to cross the river. After the dangerous river crossing, you need to go up and over a saddle that may or may not be passable (a few hundred meters northwest of the climbers-only Banyak Pass). Then down to the village of Ghorif.

In sum: this is probably the most difficult and dangerous route. Only mountain climbers with river crossing experience should try this route. The pass to Ghorif is an unknown, and satellite imagery and topographic maps are not reassuring (could be ice, steep snow pitches and rockfall).

Why attempt this route? Because of this view at the top of the Vanjrud gorge, via this Russian climbing report.