Our thoughts go out to the friends and family of Kyle Dempster, who went missing on August 22nd from Pakistan’s Ogre II along with climbing partner, Scott Adamson. The search was called off yesterday. As a tribute, here is Kyle’s contribution to the bikepacking community, perhaps the most personal and inspiring bikepacking film ever made…

compose Logan Watts

time Sep 6, 2016

comment 13

From The Alpinist: “Since August 28, a search has been ongoing for Kyle Dempster (33) and Scott Adamson (34), two American alpinists missing on the Ogre II in Pakistan, last spotted partway up the North Face on August 22. A storm arrived on August 23. This morning, after continuous days of cloud and snow, the weather finally cleared, and two Pakistani military helicopters, with climber Thomas Huber, were able to make an extensive aerial search, without finding any trace of the climbers.”

We didn’t know Kyle personally, but contributors and sponsors of this site did. We are sorry for the loss that his friends and family will be feeling. As Kyle is in our thoughts we highlight one of most (if not the most) inspiring bikepacking films ever created — Kyle’s self-made The Road From Karakol. It documents Kyle’s attempt to set out by bike across Kyrgyzstan’s unforgiving back roads. His goal – ride across the country via old Soviet roads while climbing as many of the region’s impressive peaks as possible. He was alone. He carried only a minimalist’s ration of climbing gear. Ten Kyrgyz words rounded out his vocabulary. He’d purchased his bike just weeks before and had never bike toured. Part meditation on the true spirit of adventure and part epic travelogue, The Road from Karakol is the story of a unique spirit who pedaled to the road’s end and decided to keep going…

Remember there is just one question in this life: When the road comes to an end… will you keep pedaling?” -Kyle Dempster