During August my team traveled to the rarely visited Shugnan Range of the southern Pamir. We started our approach from the village of Varshedz, around 85km northeast of Khorog. In three days we reached base camp at 4,520m near the moraine of the Varshedz Glacier.

For our first climb, on August 8, we traveled along the glacier and past Varshedz Lake to Aisberg Pass (4,960m, first crossed in 2019 by Ilya Ovchinnikov’s team). From here we went west along the ridge toward a two-topped summit. This involved many short pitches of ice climbing, belaying off screws. The top was protected by a huge cornice. Due to lack of time, we only reached the lower, eastern peak (5,310m GPS, 37.6037143N, 72.2629182E). According to locals, the mountain is called Pik Rostovdara. We graded our climb Russian 2B.

We then ascended the length of the Varshedz Glacier to a broad pass between Pik Rostovdara and Pik Skalistyy (5,707m), the highest of the Shugnan Range. Here we found a perfect place for high camp at 5,050m. Our next summit was southwest across the Ayran Glacier.

The next day, August 10, we climbed this mountain by two routes. Jan Buchanec and Stanislav Faban reached the summit (5,621m, 37.5893129N, 72.2310950E) via the northern ridge (2A), and Antonin Borovka, Zdenek Skorepa, Josef Smrtka, and I climbed the eastern ridge (also 2A), negotiating some huge crevasses and very tiring penitentes. Descent was by the northern ridge, without serious obstacles. We propose the name Koh e Ayran, as this is the major peak in the Ayran Valley and above the Ayran Glacier.

— Michal Kleslo, Czech Republic