TAJIKISTAN - Conquering the Muksu River -
Standing atop 4500 meters (14,800 feet) should have felt like an achievement. We had just crossed the Takhtakorum Pass high in Tajikistan’s Pamir Mountains to finally reach the river. Instead, my lungs felt like they were about to burst and the kayak on my back felt like it weighed a million pounds. I was dehydrated from a battle with diarrhea, but I knew that most of our crew had it even worse.“Why, for God’s sake,” I wondered,“Are we doing this?”
But let’s start at the beginning. Our captain, Tomass Marnics, came up with the idea to paddle the Muksu River several years ago. After we successfully navigated the Bashkaus and put our names in the “Book of Legends” in Siberia back in 2010 and ticked off the Saryjaz River in Kyrgyzstan in 2015, it was the only river left to complete the “Whitewater Triple Crown” of the former UDSSR.The Muksu, like the Saryjaz and Bashkaus, is regarded as one of the most challenging rivers in the former Soviet Union. Its icy-cold waters cut through remote and formidable mountains, carving a series of deeply boxed-in canyons that had only been navigated successfully three times before.
While we felt relatively confident going in, our friends and family had doubts. We answered their questions with a little research, discovering that Tajikistan is a safe place to travel, and that much lies below its surface.
"Like Darth Vader Sitting On Your Chest"
Personally, I was more worried about the terrain we would have to deal with to get to the river. More than 50 percent of Tajikistan lies more than 3,000 meters (984 feet) above sea level,
