Stephen Taylor, a lecturer in marketing, tourism and languages at Edinburgh Napier University, climbed a number of uncharted mountains while investigating mountaineering tourism.

They included the 15,750ft (4800m) peak that will now be included on maps as “Pik Max.”

The 47-year-old said he knows it is uncharted as the peak is in the largely unmapped Tien Shan, or Heavenly Mountains, in the country sometimes labelled the “Switzerland of Central Asia” for its geography and early commitment to democracy in the wake of the demise of the USSR.

Mr Taylor said naming the virgin peaks is like naming stars, and added his son, Max, 19, was honoured by the privilege.

He is currently studying the rise of commercial expeditions and the potential for more targeted organised trips in Scotland for climbers from abroad, including Russia.

He said: “During the Soviet era mountaineers from all over the Soviet Union visited the mountains in this region in their thousands with the direct funding of the authorities who viewed mountaineering as embodying many of the values conducive to the further of state socialism.

“Today, the focus [in Kyrgyzstan] is upon encouraging Western mountaineers to visit the mountains here which rise to 7439m.”

The highest peak in the European Alps, Mont Blanc, is 4810m.

He explained that he had joined commercial mountaineering trips to the region in 2008 and 2009. He says he needs to climb the mountains as part of his research -- but being an enthusiastic mountaineer outside his work helps.

“I get fully involved in the climbing part of the expedition.

“This year I climbed three previously unclimbed mountains, the highest being Pik Ak Sakal at 5020m.

“On this trip I had the privilege of naming one of the new summits after my son, Pik Max, 4800m. The third peak we climbed we named Pik Bakshi at 4434m.”

Mr Taylor is currently working on a research paper entitled “Mountaineering tourism in Kyrgyzstan: Progress and prospects”, which is based on the two trips to Kyrgyzstan and additional studies.

He explained how he knows the peak is unclimbed: “In the case of Kyrgyzstan, the indigenous population are nomadic and stay in the valleys. These are major peaks and not amenable to simply wandering up.

“The Soviets did mountaineer in the region but tended to stay in well-confined areas based upon state-built mountaineering camps. All their ascents were well documented. The country was mapped by Soviet geologists in the 1950s who did climb some of these more remote peaks in order to get spot heights and to map the region. We still use these maps today and they are not always accurate.

“Climbing in this country is a real adventure, you literally get to visit areas that probably no human has been to before. The virgin peaks we are climbing are shown on these old geology maps as simply estimated spot heights at best with no names.

“In Kyrgyzstan we tend to try to use Russian names or Kyrgyz names -- Pik Ak Sakal is ­Kyrgyz for white beard or elder; Pik Bakshi is Kyrgyz for he who knows or wise man, although there are exceptions such as Pik Max.

“The first peak I climbed in Kyrgyzstan in 2008 was called Pik Judith-Brian. Ours was then only the second-ever ascent: the first being by the two climbers named.

“All our ascents are officially recorded with the Kyrgyz Alpine Club and will be incorporated into any new maps produced in the region.”