Report

On the traverse of the peaks of Kommunisticheskaya Akademiya — "6045 m" — Garmo, performed by the combined team of the Armed Forces in 1972 (North-West Pamir)

Historical and geographical overview and characteristics of the area

In 1928, participants of the Pamir expedition of the USSR Academy of Sciences, topographer I.G. Dorofeev, first crossed the Academy of Sciences range from east to west and discovered a large glacier flowing into the Vanch valley. The glacier was named after the Geographical Society. The length of the glacier was determined to be 18 km. The glacier is located in the upper reaches of the Vanch river valley. In the area of the Kasal-ayak pass, it seems to merge with the Fedchenko glacier. However, the main branches of the RGO glacier originate from:

• the southern slopes of Garmo peak, one of the largest centers of glaciation in the north-western Pamir;
• the south-western slopes of Kommunisticheskaya Akademiya peak. To the south, the RGO glacier receives a large tributary — the Krasnoarmeets glacier. A detailed study of the RGO glacier was conducted in 1948 by a comprehensive geographical expedition of Moscow University. The total length of the glacier from the slopes of Garmo and Komakademiya was determined to be 21 km. The width is about 1 km. The RGO glacier is dominated by two high peaks:
• Garmo peak;
• Kommunisticheskaya Akademiya peak.