8 Days in Kyrgyzstan: A Ski Touring Adventure.

After several freerando sessions with Gilles and Wolfgang, the idea of a slightly more exotic trip eventually took hold within the group. For the occasion, Gilles recruited a Swiss trio that was up to the task!

Fall is a time for daydreaming: the Kaçkar Mountains in Turkey? The Georgian Caucasus? The forests of Kazakhstan? The yurt camps in eastern Kyrgyzstan?

It takes a while to narrow down our destination—there are so many possibilities, each one more enticing than the last! Central Asia ultimately wins out, and we find ourselves drawn to the far reaches of Kyrgyzstan.

The idea behind the trip is simple: to go skiing from two yurt camps tucked away in high-altitude valleys. The first is in the Aksuu Valley, and the second is above Jyrgalan, the country’s easternmost village, just a stone’s throw from China.

Located more than 15 km from the nearest road access points, the camps are reached by snowmobile. They offer all the comforts needed to survive the harsh Kyrgyz nights: a yurt for cooking, a yurt for sleeping, a hot bath, and even a sauna... And above all, two kind souls who ensure our comfort and keep an eye on our comings and goings in the mountains.

We'll also spend two days in Jyrgalan, a former mining village of 200 people not far from the Chinese border. That will be about as close to civilization as we'll get during the trip.

Suffice it to say, we didn't run into many people during our days on the slopes, especially in the high valleys!

The feeling of isolation is very real. In the midst of this vast expanse, our yurts look like tiny islands lost in an ocean of mountains.

In summary:

• What made this trip especially memorable was that strange feeling of suddenly discovering the true meaning of the word “immensity,” somewhere on the far reaches of Central Asia!
• The quality of the snow will delight us more than once, while teaching us to be wary of cold, loose snow.
• Hot baths and saunas will become part of our daily hygiene routine!
• Life in a yurt—with its dramatic temperature fluctuations—holds no more secrets for us!
• Neither the local beer nor the local vodka. We'll bravely survive a few Kyrgyz pitfalls!

In the end, we came back from those ten days feeling as if we’d been gone for six months!