Tag Archives: road from karakol

Kyle Dempster: A Climber’s Ride on the Backroads of Kyrgyzstan

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Kyle Dempster is one of the top alpine climbers in the world. The 29 year old has pioneered new routes on some of the tallest mountains including Baintha Brakk in Pakistan and K7 in the Karakoram. He has won two Piolet d’Ors and several Golden Pitons, awards that recognize mountaineering’s greatest accomplishments each year. In 2011, he spent two months on a solo expedition, bike touring the backroads of Kyrgyzstan and climbing in its many mountain ranges. The video footage he gathered on the trip was recently turned into a short documentary, The Road From Karakol. I had the opportunity to speak with Kyle about his Kyrgyzstan trip, combining biking and mountaineering, the highs and lows of solo touring in remote and rugged terrain, the future of bikes in the climbing world, and much more.

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Some Inspiration For Your Weekend Adventures

It’s Friday. It’s summertime. It’s time to plan some awesome bike adventures. These three videos showcase incredible trips that kickstart wanderlust and make me want to get out and explore.

The Road from Karakol is about professional alpine climber Kyle Dempster’s solo biking and climbing tour through Kyrgyzstan. He spent two months biking (and sometimes dragging, pushing or carrying his bike) 1200km on remote roads to climb Kyrgyzstan’s massive peaks. There were times when he didn’t see another human for a week straight.

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