A grunt to make it up the 3 metre sandy verge from the parallel road (with fewer corrigations) to the main road. At 4200m I fail, slide off my bike, and stand there heaving in the thin air.
The view looking back from the pass
Today was a 4655m pass, bone shaking corrigations, and hurricane headwinds that made the descent on good road surface a crawl to the town that never drew nearer. Exhausted, I collapsed to sleep with the dinner still in front of me.
We were saved from the first snow flurry ascending the pass by a kind family just after the sign for the pass summit (5km from the top).
At the base of the pass
Father and kids
Little boy
The steep ascent to the pass was a 3 km/h affair with amazing views.
View northwards from the Akbaital Pass
Towards Karakul
The next threatening weather descended as we were pummelled by the corrugations and the headwind.
Cold wind
Corrugations
We decided to push on to the only town in the area – Karakul. Little did we know the wind would get stronger, and the town, always visible in the distance, seemed to stay the same distance away for 20 km. The sun set over the beautiful Karakul lake as we pushed on to the town.
The road to Karakul
The road to Karakul
arctic-cycler.com 
Zware tocht maar schitterende foto’s!
🙂