Greenland is melting, the Alps are melting and the Himalayas are melting -- yet in one vast mountain region, huge glaciers have remained stable, or even gained mass, in recent decades. Can it last?

To find out, a dozen scientists, accompanied exclusively by an AFP photographer, trekked high over one glacier in eastern Tajikistan to drill for ice cores -- ancient, deep samples that can shed precious light on climate change.

In September and October, they first spent four days crossing the country from west to east in four-wheel drives, then climbed on foot to over 5,800 metres altitude on the Kon-Chukurbashi ice cap, near the Chinese border.

Camping for a week at the summit, in freezing temperatures and despite a day-long blizzard, the scientists from Switzerland, Japan, the United State

See Full Page