Pamir Trail

The full Pamir Trail runs for 1,313 km through Tajikistan. We walked the first section through the Fann Mountains.

It is still one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done. We met almost no other tourists along the way, and the local people we met were incredibly kind.

The route is not marked, but we found it quite easy to navigate using the GPX route.

The Pamir Trail website is fantastic. We used it for planning, and you can find descriptions of the route and download the GPX files there.

We flew to Samarkand in Uzbekistan and took a marshrutka from there towards the Tajik border.

Crossing the border was easy. On the Tajik side, we took a shared taxi to Panjakent.

Camping gas was actually one of the things I was worried about before the trip. I found it surprisingly difficult to figure out from home where we would be able to buy it.

We found camping gas at Salom Hostel in Panjakent. That was in July 2024, so I can’t promise they still sell it. I would give them a call before relying on it.

You need to plan your food properly. It was almost impossible to buy food along the section we walked, so we carried what we needed.

Water was much easier. There were plenty of streams and water sources along the route. We used a water filter just in case.

This is a remote hike. We had long stretches without mobile reception, so I would bring a satellite communicator such as a Garmin inReach in case something goes wrong.

The weather can change very quickly in the mountains. We had thunderstorms appear seemingly out of nowhere. I would not do this hike without being comfortable in the mountains and knowing how to react when the weather changes.