Traverse of three peaks on the Zarkent-Sukok ridge, Tashkent region, Uzbekistan

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Hello, today I would like to tell you about my trip to the Zarkent-Shakhkurgan ridge, located in the Tashkent region. Frankly speaking, I'm confused about the names and topography of these places. One source writes that the peak is called Shakhkurgan and the ridge is the Zarkent ridge. In others, the entire ridge is called Shakhkurgan. Anyway! I will write as "Mysterious Uzbekistan" writes in its announcements!

The trip took place in the first week of March. By the way, it is necessary to resume the practice of posting a post right after the trip, otherwise a lot is erased in memory ... This location is located near a village called Sukok. There are several versions of the origin of this toponym. According to one version, Sukok is a transformed Uzbek phrase "suvi ok" - "white water". On the other - from the word "sukhmak" - "path". By the way, Sukok is located relatively close to the "Institute of the Sun" - I mentioned it in previous publications. Directly some elusive location this "Institute of the Sun" - I drove around it from all sides, but I still do not get a chance to get inside :).

Sukok is famous for its forest and its trademark "kuk-samsa" - "green samsa" (samsa is a national Uzbek pie mostly filled with meat and onions, sometimes with potato or pumpkin.), i.e. samsa, in which the filling is made from herbs and onions. The forest in Sukok is real forest - pines, spruces - everything is as it should be!

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We arrived early in the morning. Frankly, I expected the road to take 1.5-2 hours as usual and prepared to take a nap on the way. But literally after 40 or 50 minutes the car stopped and we had to unload. I didn't even have time to close my eyes!

We disembarked at Sukok at dawn. The sun began to rise, chasing the moon away and painting the sky at first in violet-blue shades ...

... which gradually turned orange-pink.

At the foot of the mountains, the spring has already declared itself.

But above, winter still continued to hold its positions.

By the way, according to Sharof, spring this year is a couple of weeks late. We walked around the famous "Sukok forest" and began to climb. The sun had not yet fully risen and this allowed me to take a couple of beautiful silhouette photos.

We gradually climbed up. Curiously, the mountain range in the photo below is sometimes called "Odamtash" ("stone man"). According to one version, the name was given for the resemblance to the head of a lying giant: forehead to the left, nose to the sky, lips and chin to the right ... In general, there really is some similarity.

We climbed the "nose" of the giant - the Begiztosh rock (in other sources the name Begizshokh is found). But I think that Begiztosh is still more correct. It is translated as "awl-stone" or "stone sharp horn". There it is, pictured below on the right side. True, from this angle, it looks more like a shark's fin.

To tell the truth from a different angle too :).

During the ascent, the group was divided into approximately two equal parts and the second was about half an hour or an hour behind the first. We (the first group) quite briskly climbed onto the "fin", made  photos  and took a breath.

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After waiting a little, we decided to move on to the top of Shakhkurgan. It can be seen in the photo below. It is behind us and it seems that she is close at hand. But no, we have to go down and then climb up again.

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When we got off Begiztosh (Begizshokh) and almost climbed Shakhkurgan, we saw the second group, which just climbed the first peak out of the planned three.

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It was easier to climb to the first peak. Yes, in some places we fell into the knee-deep snow, but in general it was not very difficult to walk on a strong crust. But then everything changed - there was much more snow - up to mid-thigh, and in some places even up to the waist. My trekking stick sank almost entirely into the snow. And its length was about 130-140 cm.

Nevertheless, we continued to climb up. The hardest thing was for the guys who "traced" the road for the rest.

A little effort and we are at the top.

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In general, this is where our planned program ended. But we climbed the summits so quickly that we had a lot of time left. Therefore, after consulting, we decided to climb to the next peak. While the question of an additional program was being discussed, I decided to take pictures of the surroundings.

Having decided on the direction, we began to descend from Shakhkurgan.

The sunny weather began to deteriorate and the sky turned gray from the oncoming clouds.

The ascent to the third peak (by the way, I didn’t remember its name) took place along the rocky area and, in some cases, I had to push myself into the rocks with all my might and cling to the wet stones.

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Finally, we climbed up. In anticipation of the second part of the group, we sat on the stones and proceeded to lunch. After about forty minutes or so, the rest of the hike approached. After taking a group photo, we went back.

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Sharof decided to change his plan and not to return along the path we had taken up, but to descend along a different route. There was more "powder", but less snow and the path was shorter.

We went down rather briskly and there was a slight hitch in only one gorge, where we had to walk along the "loose rocks". Feet slipped through the mud and stones from time to time flew out from under the boots. Time by time I had to shout to warn those walking below about falling stones. But everything was okay and we quickly passed the dangerous section.

After that, the gorges took a well-trodden path and very quickly descended to the village of Sukok. This place is very popular with the residents of Tashkent - as I mentioned at the beginning of the post - in the spring they prepare samsa with herbs as a filling. For this, crowds of Tashkent people come here - literally crowds! The road and roadside cafes are packed to capacity. Sometimes it is difficult to call them even cafes - a booth, a couple of tables and a tandoor in which this samsa is baked. Such samsa is called "kuk-samsa" - "green samsa" or "samsa with greens".

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The filling is usually spinach, sometimes sorrel. In addition to "kuk-samsa" they also make the so-called "mador-samsa" - here the herb called "mador" acts as a filling - a spring herb that looks like a leek. Usually appears in April-May. It is rich in all sorts of vitamins, antioxidants and other useful things. By the way, "mador" is translated as "strength" or "help". Samsa is quite tasty, but a little salty for my taste. In addition to samsa, they also prepare "the world's most delicious shashlik". But "Sukok’s shashlik" is more likely to belong to the category of legends than to reality. I ate this "Sukok’s shashlik" - nothing special, in Tashkent you can find even tastier. But once upon a time, a very tasty shashlik was really prepared here, for which it was worth coming and the place became very popular. Then other locals, seeing such popularity, also began to open cafes and the quality of the products dropped dramatically, however, according to old memory, people come here, so demand greatly exceeds supply. And in every cafe owners told that it was with them that the glory of "Sukok’s shashli " began and that they are the ones who still cook the best shashlik.

In Sukok, we washed off the adhering dirt, loaded into the car and drove home. On the way, of course, we bought "kuk-samsa". While driving, I did not notice how I ate three out of five. It will be necessary to somehow get out to this location again and buy more of them.

A couple of days later, exactly on International Women's Day, I went to the Aeolian city for the third time. But more on that in the next post.

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