Safety

Having a safe climb is our primary focus. Mustagata is a high mountain and for many members this will be their first time at such a high altitude. We take our time acclimatizing, by spending a full day and two nights at beautiful Karakul Lake at the base of Mustagata before walking to base camp. During the expedition we encourage climbers to use our time-tested acclimatization routine that is flexible and tailored to meet individual member's needs.

We believe that an informed and knowledgeable team member is a safe member. At the beginning of the expedition we go over on-the-mountain safety protocols such as prevention of acute mountain sickness (AMS), basics of high-altitude medicine, how to use the two-way radios, rope-team travel, crevasse rescue, and more.

The route is put in and checked for crevasses before members go up and the camps are established ahead of time. On Mustagata there are few natural features to show the way. We mark the route using flagged poles, or wands. In addition, the staff and often many of the members carry GPS units.

We climb together in a group with the leader and staff. For faster members, those that wish to take more time, or if you want more freedom skiing or snow boarding, we will arrange our staff accordingly.

At base camp we have oxygen, a Portable Altitude Chamber (PAC unit - similar to Gamow bag), Satellite phone, and an extensive medical kit. Each of the three high camps also have medical kits and our staff all carry radios and emergency drugs.

In China there is no helicopter rescue. This is unfortunate and requires that evacuations be performed overland. If on the off-chance this is required, an evacuation is fortunately fairly straight forward. From base camp the climber is transported by camel or donkey a short distance to a four-wheel drive jeep which can come relatively close to our base camp. We have a well-established system in place to deal with evacuations.