Somewhere on the Karakorum Highway...

The Karakorum highway crosses the backbone of Asia, connecting Chinese Turkestan and Pakistan.  The Kunjerab Pass, at 15397ft, is probably the highest border crossing in the world.  This shows the highway as it leaves Kashgar headed for the Pamir Plateau.

As we got closer to the Pamirs, the true scale of these huge mountains became more apparent...

The plateau itself is over 12000ft above sea level.  From there, some of the peaks reach above 25000ft.  This one, Mustagh Ata, I climbed in 1987. Yes, there's a lot of snow on it.  Yes, we skied back down it. Fresh powder, oxygen not included.

More pictures of this trip are in my gallery, "World's Longest Train Ride"