POST23: Siyoma to Khoja Obi Garm via Igizak Mountain Pass

While my upcoming post about Backyard Ultra got stuck somewhere in my head😅, here is the quick one about the trail I did with my brother Firuz yesterday, June 12, 2025.

In the past several years, I have been spending countless of hours looking and panning at maps to find the places people rarely go. My bucket list has grown to dozens of trails that I want to explore. Not many people know that before becoming a runner I was a hiker. Back in 2010 after returning from the US, I tried to find every opportunity to get out. Back then availability of information on trails was very limited let alone apps and technology. Only some guides knew the trails and you had to pay high fees (expensive by my standards) because people who offered these services they catered to foreigners living in Tajikistan, a.k.a. expats.

The point is not that, it is rather my bucket list of growing and I had one in my mind couple years ago that I wanted to do with my brother - Firuz. The route Siyoma gorge ascending to Igizak mountain pass and descending to Khoja Obi Garm. That track along with the others that I want to explore this year has been cooking in my head.

Last week, when I returned from family vacation, I was giving kudos to my fellow Strava runners from DAV.TJ that I noticed very familiar track from one of our runners - akai Rustam. I started to compare his route with the one I had and in some sections of it diverted from mine. While I was researching, my brother Firuz messaged me photo of Rustam’s hike saying “should we try in coming days? Should take 10-12 hours for both of us?”. I replied to him that we can easily do it and run in the downhill. He got super excited and I started to make list of things we need to take.

This is not our first ascend with Firuz. We had done many similar ascends - Tajik Mountain Traverse (165 km over 6 days), Iskandarkul, Shahriston, Mushteppa, Surkhnu to name a few (they are all on my Strava). So, we knew what we were up to. I am very happy and grateful at the same time that I have my brother alongside with me as I know his abilities and endurance that I can plan ahead. For many years, I thought it was better to do solo adventures as I can plan independently and move fast but later I gave up on this idea for the safety reasons. That’s why I always invite my brother.

In couple days, I did all the necessary research and shared list with my brother along the technical details (.gpx file) that looked like this:

I wrote him it should take us 6-8 hours depending on our conditions. Over the days, I will go to various websites to check the weather in the mountains to see precipitation level and wind speed. My concern wasn’t getting wet but getting hypothermia when your body temperature falls below 35 degrees Celsius and it cannot keep you warm enough. I can cope with rain alone or wind alone but when they are together that’s a real struggle. I have been there and know it firsthand.

When I received snow shoes from Wayne, I sent photo to Firuz asking if we should take it because we fast hike and run at times and carrying bigger item would mean we will have to extend the time our journey.

We decided to replace it with Micro-spikes because they are lighter and fit our purpose.

Sent Firuz our activity details informing him it would be similar to what we did in Surkhnu.

Plan was like this. We get up at 4 AM and order taxi and leave Dushanbe at 4:30 AM. Reach Siyoma at 5:30 and start at 6 AM. If it took us 8 hours that would mean we will finish by 2 PM. We were in the same page and I told Firuz if we can’t find taxi, I will ask Isfandiyor to drive us there. We were all set.

We started at 5:35 AM. Weather was cloudy and at times sun would shine. We started from the right side of the river as we didn’t want to use old bridge Ivan (дядя Иван) had near his home up in the valley. We passed first smaller rivers by jumping and then in the shallow ones just soaked our feet into water and put our socks again and moved on. Siyoma is beautiful at this time of the year.

By 6:53 AM we were already 5 km into our adventure.

We stopped for a quick butter-bread Firuz grabbed and refueled ourselves before ascend. The weather was clear and gorgeous. We started to move as we knew the weather up in the summit will be cold, wet and windy.

Within 20 minutes of moving the weather started to change quickly. It was foggy, already raining and slightly windy.

Before the real ascend where huge incline was awaiting for us, we had to pass the river. We kept moving upwards toward the stream trying to find shallow spot to pass. But the more we climbed the places to pass got even more difficult. At one point, I thought I had found relatively shallow spot and was okay to pass if water was up my knees. But as I started to get into the river, it got deeper and deeper. Water reached almost my waist height that I decided to get out of the water. Half of my body was all under water and it was cold but I knew for as long as I keep moving I shall be fine. In my Strava activity you can see this spot where I tried to pass the river.

We started to climb even higher. Firuz found one spot where he jumped from one big stone into the other side of the river and asked me to cross it too. I spent almost 2 minutes doubting. I wasn’t concerned about getting wet again but danger of having rocks under water where I will be jumping from the height of 1.5 meters and landing with all my body weight to have that weight on my ankles. That would be make things worse. I inspected the location with shallow spot and eventually jumped.

Learning: Never underestimate small stream of waters. If you doubt you can take all the time to examine and inspect the spot before making decision.

Now it was around 8:50 AM we are little over 8 km into our journey. Now the weather got colder, thick fog and it was raining all the way. We put on our micro-spikes and gaiters because we were approaching the glacier.

It’s not unusual to slide, fall and hit your legs in the mountains when you are hiking up fast. When we were in around 6 km, I hit my right shin into the rock and it was slightly bothering me. Knowing my brother and myself well that we are individuals who endure the pain and don’t complain, I told Firuz that if any of us feels pain or have injuries we should not hide from each other as our safety is number one. We should immediately tell each other so we can help each other quickly. We agreed on this rule and I felt much in peace knowing he will tell me if there is something I should be aware of.

9:20 AM and we are up on top of the glacier tackling first hill. We were glad we didn’t take snow shoes as they would be heavier and would taken more time. Fortunately, snow was hard enough, though in couple places my leg sinked into the snow but i managed to quickly get out of it.

Firuz seemed to get quieter and I was thinking perhaps he might have headaches but when I asked he said he felt good. We were happy we were taking our time to ascend safely.

This is the photo of the second hill. In my researching I somehow missed the number of hills before summit and was thinking we were about to finish but double checking with my Coros watch and map it showed couple more hills ahead.

As I was all soaked i wanted to keep moving so I can keep my body warm. I noticed Firuz was around 100-150 meters behind me. I slowed down and we took beautiful photos we will remember forever. Mountains are majestic in our beloved Tajikistan.

I was zig-zagging the path so we could more easily summit to the top. Firuz was following my tracks.

And here is the fun part of it and where my real concern was. The incline of 47 degrees. Yes, you might have missed it in the screenshot above.

I was always interested in slopes and the incline of the mountains. I would stare at various maps for many times to evaluate how much power and energy it takes me to summit steep inclines. It was taking just about the same amount of energy I was expecting, so I wasn’t feeling tired.

This spot is where the most fun part of the journey was for me. As I was probably 10 meters from the mountain pass, I slid down like in free fall from 47 degree incline. I tried to hit the snow with my legs to stop me from sliding further down. It wasn’t helping much because I had poncho on me, yes that blue plastic thing you saw in the photo to protect me from rain and wind. Since it’s plastic and I was sliding, well, pretty fast 😅i had one trekking pole in my hand and because before falling I was holding from the handle, I couldn’t stick it the ground to help me stop. I went down probably like 100 meters and kept my ground with my hands. Got up and waved Firuz up there letting him know I was okay. Started to ascend back to the top. Firuz was very careful in the spot where I fell and i was behind him slowly getting to the top. At 10:35 AM we eventually reached the Igizak (small) pass - 12 km into our journey.

We didn’t have breakfast yet, so we decided we will go down, where it’s warmer and sunnier and have breakfast there.

Once we started going down, the weather got much warmer. There was no glacier on the southern side of the mountain pass as sun comes up and melts the snow. It’s glacier’s incline and terrain is very similar to what I have done several years ago passing Mura mountain pass from Qarataq to Sarataq (Iskandarkul). I think it is much easier to pass Igizak if done from Khoja Obi Garm side and descend to Siyoma. If someone wants to do it, I would recommend doing it the other way around.

On the way done, beautiful waterfalls and lots of green area.

There are many nettles along the way and I was stung many times in my legs. Feels itchy but I love it because it’s part of the journey.

Descend has many rocky areas. Good we had our micro-spikes on most of the time. Though later Firuz took them off along with his gaiters and that didn’t end well.

11:46 AM and we stopped for a breakfast, probably the best part of it because you are tired and exhausted and a warm tea, cheese, sausage, dried fruits - is all you need for happiness.

As we were going up and down the hill following Rustam’s route because the day before, I decided we will not use my route as I haven’t done it before and didn’t want to put us in risk. Bummer, I was wrong🤦🏻‍♂️. Should have taken the other alternative route. But this route has one spot where the view is unbelievably beautiful. Just for this view, this part of route well worth it. Plus, Megafon’s cell coverage is there for all of those who love to upload your photos during your adventure😂

As we went down and as mentioned before Firuz had taken his gaiters and micro-spikes off. There were many places with high grass and plants. We were around 6 km into the finish, where he slid on the rock and fell. He shortly screamed and I knew there something serious happened to him. Quickly took his backpack off his shoulders and slowly took his shoe and socks off from his right leg. I was afraid what might have happened to him and he didn’t have broken bone or something. Fortunately, it wasn’t fracture, he sprained his ankle. We rested a little bit but he was in pain, it’s just Firuz never complains. There were shepherds around 200 meters away and I was thinking if he can’t walk, I will probably need to bring a donkey to transport him.

But after resting he was able to walk slowly.

I wish we used the alternative route going down to the flat area and taking longer but safer route.

After 26 km, we made it safe to the finish in 10 hours 34 minutes without rushing and any major injuries.

We got into Sarob’s radon bath and shower after we finished. Clean, relaxed and having had mint tea, we couldn’t be more happier than this. We were two little kids with a dream come true! 🤩

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- Night Runner

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