ASU biologist went on an expedition to the Pamir-Alay

Having been to a number of expeditions before, Polina D. Gudkova noted that this trip had been one of the most difficult ones. Thus, the team arrived at the airport of Osh (Kyrgyzstan) at 4 a.m. and managed to reach the highest point of Ak-Baital Pass (4,655 meters above sea level) in the afternoon.

“The organism responded to the elevation difference badly. At first we were adjusting to it and moving around slower than usual. At that, we had to carry out research, work at our base camp and gather materials,” said the Assistant Professor.

The first part of the expedition took place at the biological station in Chechekty Village of Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region. The station was built in 1936. It is a solid construction, which used to be a border post that was disbanded and destroyed by the mudslides. The biological station itself remained unshattered, although some rooms were flooded with mudflows. Thanks to the efforts of Tajik geologists, who still work at the station, the facility had been reconstructed.

“We started off from this biological station every day. Our most interesting route ran across the valley, along the border with China. We managed to climb up to 5,000 m above sea level. We had to dig the plants out of the snow in order to collect them. We found some unique samples that were very rare, so the pleasure of finding such materials compensated the fatigue!” shared her impressions Polina D. Gudkova. "The second part of the expedition involved working on herbarium in Khorugh and surrounding areas. This period was different from the beginning of the expedition – we had no more emergency situations, the weather conditions were favourable. We acclimatized within two days. There were no Russian people except for us, but we met a lot of Germans, French and Poles. Probably Russians still consider Badakhshan to be a dangerous place due to the civil war, proximity to Afghanistan border, absence of comfortable conditions for recreation and traveling. But this is a unique location! You can see all four times of the year in just a few days while traveling around Badakhshan. We departed from Dushanbe and were surprised at its modernity and active development. This city is gorgeous; it has a lot of magnolias and banana trees growing right on the streets.”