Stairwells > Mountains

It's nearing midnight on Tuesday night. I push for one more lap up the hot, humid, sterile stairwell that leads up to my apartment. I feel the numbing burn kick in as I reach the 6th and final flight, but keep pushing knowing each step is one closer to...my front door. (Cue the cheesy music to the Discovery Channel Everest show.)

At least there were no strange looks from neighbors tonight.

In two weeks I'll be on a plane bound for Moscow and eventually Kyrgyzstan, but for now I'm stuck with the completely un-dramatic stairwell that I'm sure you were dying to hear about. In all seriousness, we're getting down to the nitty-gritty with equipment and logistics details. The bigger concern now is the political and social unrest that is destabilizing what was the most stable central Asian country when we started our planning.

Having read Over the Edge by Greg Child, I'm acutely aware of the possibilities for what can happen when visiting remote regions of this part of the world. It leaves nagging questions in my head, but for now that's all they'll remain. I can't count the number of news articles that have been forwarded to me over the last few days, but there were enough that I just started copying and pasting my response:

"Fortunately, Osh is in southern Kyrgyzstan and we will be in Bishkek (north) or climbing in the far northeastern part. We have definitely been monitoring the situation closely. I get regular updates from the US embassy and it seems like a good sign that Osh evacuees are being taken to Bishkek. A local source in Bishkek also says things are calm there. If there is even a small amount of concern regarding Bishkek we have the option to stay in a cabin in the mountains that are about 45-60 minutes from the city. If the violence spreads and we have major concerns, we'll have no choice but to cancel the trip. The makeup of the population in the south is different than in the north, so we are hopeful. Due to the borders drawn by Stalin, ethnic violence is nothing new in the south, but it had been calm until this spring. It is a bit ironic that we chose the most stable central Asian country and it has turned into the least stable."

Here's to hoping things all work out and in a few weeks we'll have something more interesting to report than running laps up a stairwell.

Mike