Kosh-Moinok Pass

A 3,800-metre pass in the Alai mountains — gateway between the Sary-Mogol pasturelands and the southern Kojo-Kelen valley.

Kosh-Moinok (‘Two Necks’ in Kyrgyz) is a 3,800-metre pass on the southern Alai range, traversed during EcoNomad’s Heights of Alay trek between the Sary-Mogol summer pastures and the village of Kojo-Kelen. The pass itself is a wide grassy saddle between two low summits, easier than the steeper Jiptik Pass to the east, but offers equally dramatic panoramas — south toward the snow wall of the Pamir, east toward the Tulpar-Kol valley and Lenin Peak, north back toward the Alai range proper. The trail is well-trodden by shepherds moving their flocks and has been used for centuries as a transhumance route. The Sary-Mogol-side descent passes through wide pastureland with several yurt camps (mostly Kyrgyz, some Tajik) where trekkers often spend the night before crossing.