Team Eastern Mountain Sports
presented by Eastern Mountain Sports

Team Captain, Jennifer Shultis, took a diversion from her packed adventure race schedule for a once (?) in a lifetime experience in September when she traveled to the northwest territory of Pakistan. No, she wasn't really there to scour the mountain caves looking for the world's most accomplished camper. Rather she was invited to compete on Team America (everyone sing along now) at the 2007 Tour of the Himalayas, a 3-day mountain bike stage race at elevations ranging from 7,000 to 14,000 feet. The race consisted of a 60km cross country marathon on Day One as racers climbed from 10,000 to 14,000 feet at the height of the Babusar Pass, where the converging Himalayan, Karakorum and Hindu Kush ranges can all be seen on a clear day, a 24 km, 4-loop circuit around the glacial Lake Saifal Malook on Day Two, followed on Day Three by a "short" 20k hill climb that gained 3,500 feet in the first 16km. Catching a bad respiratory infection didn't help Jennifer's altitude race performance, but the cultural experience was incredible. Laughing nomadic children ran along side of her, escorting her along the goat paths as she cruised through the fields descending off the Babusar Pass before coming around a corner and face to face with 6 water buffalo(!) covering the road (she passed through without any mishaps!). Day two was a race against the clock while trying to avoid both goats and flats on the rocky, technical single track that circled the beautiful Saifal Mallok turquoise waters surrounded on all sides by snow peaked mountains. Day three started in the valley village of Kawai at the site of the new school construction site with temps close to 100 degrees and ended with a hail storm on the peak at almost the exact epicenter of the October 2005 earthquake that devastated the region.

In fact, the mission of the race, in its second year, was to help promote and support the Khagan Memorial Trust(KMT), an organization dedicated to building and operating a free school for both boys and girls of the remote Khagan Valley.


These children currently have no school. Over 35,000 people were killed in the region, many children who were in schools that collapsed when the earthquake hit. Anyone who is interested in either in participating in the race next year in the shadows of this dramatic landscape or in supporting this very worthwhile organization, is encouraged to visit http://www.kmt.org.pk/ The race was organized by The Kaghan Memorial Trust in partnership with the Federal Ministry of Tourism of Pakistan, and through generous support by Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC), Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC), Pakistan State Oil (PSO), ABN AMRO Bank, LMKR Resources, Lucky Cement, Standard Chartered Bank, Pepsi, Coke International, Telenor and the Pakistan Red Crescent Society.