Mount Noshaq, which rises a dizzying 24,580 feet in the Wakhan Corridor of northeastern Afghanistan, is one of the world’s most challenging summits – not necessarily because of treacherous crevasses, fractured ice faces, sub-zero temperatures or ferocious winds, but because the approach takes climbers through war-torn regions riddled with land mines, where outsiders regarded as spies face kidnapping, assault or worse.

   Earlier this month, a team led by two Australians, two Afghan climbers and two Afghan support personnel scaled this highest mountain in Afghanistan straddling the Pakistani border.

   The expedition embraced a mission beyond reaching the summit, climber Anthony Simms of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society told the Associated Press: Help re-establish mountaineering to Afghanistan as a means of boosting the impoverished nation’s economy.

    There’s no question adventure tourism can be financially rewarding to Third World countries that are blessed with extraordinary natural features.

    I’m all for these countries capitalizing on such attractions, and contributed to the cause some years ago by being part of expeditions that hired Sherpas during a trek in Nepal’s Himalayas and mule-porters during a climb on the Chilean-Argentinean border.

    But such visits can be a double-edged sword, particularly during periods of political instability. Our expedition to the Andes departed from Santiago just as then-Chilean dictator Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte was being driven from power.

   Soldiers with bandoliers roamed through the capital while we made our way through the streets – not a reassuring sight. After nearly a month of trekking, during which we were totally incommunicado, we weren’t sure what we would be returning to (happily, the former strongman departed peacefully, and we encountered no difficulties.)

    In Nepal, I remember joining a crowd that smiled and waved happily to the king, queen and several other members of the royal family outside Narayanhity Palace in Katmandu just before we headed into the Khumbu. Not too many years later all of them had been shot to death by a crazed relative; a few years after that massacre a Maoist revolt terrorized Nepal.

    The world can be a scary place, and I can’t think of too many countries less stable now than Afghanistan or Pakistan.

    So while part of me celebrates the idea of opening up that region to exploration, another has serious reservations about sending foreign climbers up Mount Noshaq. They risk becoming political pawns that potentially compromise, and certainly complicate, their national interests.

    Such is the case of Joshua Fattal and Shane Bauer, two American hikers detained in Iran since their arrest during a 2009 hiking trip near the Iraqi border. A third hiker, Sarah Shourd, was released in September 2010 for medical reasons and returned to the United States after 410 days of solitary confinement, but there’s no telling what will become of her two companions who insist they inadvertently crossed the border.

   The U.S. State Department has been trying to secure their release, and who knows what really happened during that ill-fated outing. I sincerely hope Iran lets the misguided hikers go, but I also fervently encourage all adventurers to reconsider plans to hike anywhere near Iran or Iraq.

   As for Mount Noshaq, I wish climber Simms luck in his goal to attract more adventurers to Afghanistan, but I can’t say I share his optimism.

    Before an invasion by Soviet troops in 1979, Afghanistan had been a popular mountaineering Mecca, but since then the country has known nothing but war. In addition, there are land mines left over from a civil war in the 1990s.

   All things considered, I think I’ll stick to friendlier climes and climbs.