Tien Shan: Ghosts revisited

Update from our snow leopard volunteer project to the Tien Shan mountains of Kyrgyzstan

Not long now until we return to the mountains where the ghost lives. I am Johnny Adams, your expedition leader this year for our seventh year of chasing the ghost. We have finished in one area of Kyrgyzstan and are now moving onto the next, Archaly valley, recceed by the some expedition teams in 2023 and now ready for a full on-site rotation this year.

We’ll be a week ahead of you to shop, set up and do the thousands of other things and little details that need to be done so that you can just get here and do your thing: citizen science. Please do your part too: Pack properly (see the dossier), get to Bishkek on time for your group, read up on the methodology and get familiar with the datasheets and the area. All this you can do via the pages here and here. Also make sure that you bring a copy (printed or on a tablet, best printed as electricity is hard to come by in the middle of nowhere) of the field guide with you to Bishkek. This will be your personal copy to take with you on your job every day. This, combined with the methodology, the datasheets and the map, will your tools to help us document the ghost.

I hope by now you have realised that you are not joining some cushy snow leopard safari with cocktails at your tent in the evening, but a serious undertaking. Below are some pictures of what awaits you.

Enough said. I’ll be back in touch from Bishkek in a few days with updates on the weather, preparation progress and other messages of disaster and chaos 😉

Happy packing and swotting up until then.

Johnny Adams
Expedition leader

Update from our Kyrgyzstan expedition to the Tien Shan mountains, volunteering in snow leopard conservation.