There is a wide variety of thoughts that come to mind when people say “Family Vacation”. Some think of Vacationthe 1983 classic film staring Chevy Chase. I was around the age of nine when it debuted, quickly becoming a cult film that led to many sequels poking fun at what has been a part of almost everyone’s life growing up. Fast forward to 2024, half of a century has passed and my wife Cloe and our teenage daughter are deciding where to go on our family vacation. Noor is 15, the age of adolescence associated with rebellious behavior, lack of desire to be with parents and a drive to gain independence. A family vacation in remote mountains of the world with no internet connection would normally be challenging to sell to a teenage girl. However, lucky for us, Noor needed no convincing when we mentioned a family adventure to the Pamir Mountains of Tajikistan. When I was 15, the USSR was just starting to fall apart. By 1991, the USSR was in a state of collapse and the Tajikistan Soviet Socialist Republic the last republic to declare its independence. Since gaining their independence, Tajikistan has had the same president, spent five years in civil war, and in general, suffers from wide spread poverty and instability. It is not exactly the first place that comes to mind for a “Family Vacation” but when Cloe suggested the Pamir mountains I was instantly hooked on the idea. We wanted a mountain range with good weather in August, interesting history and culture, plus remote and wild mountains thatdidn’t have internet and cell service. Tajikistan, is mostly a dry and very mountainous country bordered by Afghanistan to the south, China to the east, and Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to the north. We wanted an adventure and Tajikistan was sure to deliver!Arriving the first week of August we had three weeks of time to explore the Shughnon region of the of the Western Pamir Mountains. Accessing the area involves three days of rough driving on the Silk Road bordering Afghanistan. The travel is worth it, as it has hundreds of glaciated peaks under 6000 meters with grassy valleys below. Each of the valleys is connected by dozens of turquoise lakes making it an ideal corner of the range to trek and explore. We had three goals with our expedition; have fun,connect as a family, and take advantage of a few of the summits along the way. We hired the local tour operator, Pamir Tours to help us with logistics and put together a team to support our trekking and basecamp needs. In addition to our family we took on four more. Firuz, our local fixer of all things. Gosha, our cook and donkey wrangler, his assistant Shogun and a third helper Nasser, a true Pamir legend of the mountains. Together with six donkeys and everything we needed for several weeks of trekking and climbing we quested into the range to see what adventure was waiting for us. Unlike Nepal, no peak permits are required and there is very little to no information available on the mountains. I wasn’t certain what we would find. I had a rough group of peaks selected that I had pin pointed on Google Earth and through some crumbs left in the cybersphere. The climbing objectives had to be decided once we were there and could see what the current conditions provided. An inspirational way to push off into the mountains in search of adventure. We trekked daily, summited two 5000 meter peaks, and enjoyed the remoteness of the Pamir Mountain life along the way.