Skiing Arslanbob

Spring was in the air as I returning to the Uzbek village of Arslanbob in Southern Kyrgyzstan to do some more skiing with children and the local CBT (Community based tourism) guides. Green pastures and grazing animals dotted the landscape on the drive down. I befriended my taxi driver and upon arriving in Arslanbob, tea with his family turned into a four hour dinner, finished only when his wife wrapped me up in her finest headscarf.

My first days rainy weather deterred skiing, but better weather finally got us out with local children. I was joined by several of the guides, as well as Kjartan, a Norwegian telemark skier who spent over a month in Arslanbob this winter working with CBT. With the kids, we headed up into the agricultural fields and walnut forests to work on basic ski skills. The enthusiasm and pride of the children is contagious. Despite their old equipment and having to walk uphill for every turn, they skied the entire day.

Kjartan and I, along with our friend Toby organized a three day winter camping trip for the rest of the week. Local Uzbek guides, Hayat and Mischa, joined us for their first winter camping trip. Several local guides accompanied us as carrying some extra gear. Using horses, with skis strapped on the sides, we rode up through the village of Arslanbob. Passing a game of ulack (like polo but with a dead sheep) dark skies turned into rain. We stopped to drink tea in a manger and let the rain pour down around us. Clearing skies encouraged us to continue up out of Arslanbob into the mountains and to Jaz-Jarym. Here we set up camp in a Shepard’s hut as the rain turned to snow.

Socked in the following morning, Mishca set off for home with his umbrella protecting him from the continuing snowfall. With no visibility we drank tea until lunch time when parting clouds urged us to go explore. Despite the flat light we managed to ascend and ski off one of the main ridges. We then sought out terrain with more features, including a beautiful chute that we skied twice and marked Hayat’s first couloiur descent. Temperatures dropped as the snow continued…

The next morning clear skies beckoned us from our sleeping bags at first light. We managed to eek out enough fuel for tea, water and breakfast during the most incredible sunrise. Completely enclosed by the mountains of Babash Ata and Jaz-Jarym, the ski potential was almost hard to fully grasp. We first headed south, north aspects were holding 30-50 cm of new snow. Stability tests reconfirmed my confidence in the snowpack. We skied two beautiful ridges off the southern ridge of Jaz-Jaryn, working higher each time before crossing the valley and heading up a beautiful unnamed peak. Toby and Hayat skied off a north slope, while Kjartan and I ascended the summit of the peak and skied an aesthetic line of powdery bliss. From our descent, we traversed and boot packed to follow the tracks of our group down into the gorge and back to camp.

The descent to the village took just over an hour, before we gorged ourselves on plov (rice and mutton) and bread. The following day, we said our goodbyes and headed south to Osh where trees were budding, flowers blooming and birds singing. Nestled into the agriculturally rich Fernanga valley, Osh is the heart of southern Kyrgyzstan. Over three thousand years old and it has a distinctively less soviet feeling than the northern part of the country. From Osh, Kjartan flew home to Norway and Toby reunited with his family. I spent two days exploring the city before flying back to Bishkek on a rickety old plane. En-route back north, we flew directly over Arslanbob and Jaz-Jaryn. Once again, but this time from the air, I was overwhelmed by the unbelievable ski terrain which bodes well for fledgling ski guide program in Arslanbob.

At Bashy Map

A newly produced map of the At-Bashy Range, where I will be spending May-August working on my main research project. Click to enlarge...

Uchitel peak

This past weekend with a truly international team (British, German and American) four of six of us made an incredible winter ascent of Uchitel peak (4526m) in Ala-Archa Park south of Bishkek. Although not a technical peak, the snow and elevation gain amounted to two longs days. Mammut has done a wonderful job helping to restore the Ak-Sai or Raztek climbing hut we used enroute. Wow! The mountains here are amazing!

Adygine research station

Spent a day out with local researchers breaking trail up towards Adygine research station in Ala-Archa National Park. We dug some full snowpits, they certainly have some different techniques here. Last year, two of the field assistant were caught in an avalanche and partially buried. Now they walk with long strings attached in the event they are caught, they can be found via the string. The mentality of avalanche safety here is still developing and has a long way to go.

Snowpack Synopsis

From my touring and digging in the snow around the country,
here is a discussion I wrote of this season's snowpack in Kyrgyzstan.

Kaindy

Photographs and a summary from a week of exploratory ski touring in the Chong Kemin Valley above the village of Kaindy. The trip started with a marshutka off the road and cold temperatures. With Ryan and Abre of The Kyrgyzstan Plan, we left the village of Kaindy and climbed over 1000m to set up base camp overlooking the KungeyAla-Too Range. Despite the ranging winds at the beginning of our 5 days out, we toured through incredible terrain and managed to find many protected pockets of powder. We remotely triggered a small hard slab avalanche bootpacking a ridge our last day (click here to read my discussion of this season's snowpack).

Back in Bishkek it feels like spring. As the Kyrgyzstan Plan prepares for the arrival of the rest of their group, I am back to making maps and excel spreadsheets for the time being.

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Winter Storm

Snow has come to Central Asia, but not without causing it's fair share of problems. Temperatures in Bishkek are barely above freezing after a large winter storm moved through last week. The slides we observed in Altyn-Arashan are nothing compared with other avalanche activity in the region. Parts of Afghanistan, northern Pakistan and India received between upwards of two meters (that is +6ft) in the past storm. Over 160 people were killed by avalanches on Salang Pass in Afghanistan on Monday February 8th (read BBC article).

Ichke Jergez

Crammed between huge backpacks in the backseat of stifly hot marshutka, I recently joined up with Ryan Koupal and Abre Brutsche of Colorado who are here as part of a project called The Kyrgyzstan Plan. Back for the second winter in a row, Ryan is leading the exploration of initiating a yurt based backcountry skiing operation that incorporates local families. They are also creating a film telling the story of winter tourism in Kyrgyzstan and highlighting their journey. The three of us left Bishkek and headed to east via marshutak to do some exploratory ski touring above the village of Ichke Jergez, located at the far eastern end of Kyrgyzstan.

We stayed in Karakol enroute, which is the base of the most developed ski area in Kyrgyzstan and also home to one of the larger mal baazars (animal fairs) in Kyrgyzstan, which happened to be the day after we arrived. Quite a site, as thousands of people and animals (and lots of vodka) flow through the bazaar every Sunday. It was certainly the first time I have ever seen a cow stuffed into a car.

From Karakol, we traveled further east to the tiny village of Ichke Jergez to stay with a local family before heading up into the Terskey Ala too and setting up a winter base camp from which we toured from for four days. Amazing terrain that has never been explored via skis in the winter is located just above village. Unfortunately, the snow conditions did not match the incredible potential of the terrain we found.

We were pleased there was snow at all, as this season has been particularly dry. But despite the shallow depths, breaking trail was incredible difficult as there was an unsupportive crust halfway through the snowpack. Conditions did not improve at higher elevations; huge facets were mixed in with multiple melt freeze crusts. We experienced widespread cracking and whoomping. Sticking to ridgelines, we were able to find some good powder turns on northern aspects. Each successive day we managed to get higher and explore more. After four days and with an impending storm, we headed back to stay in Ichke Jergez to eat mutton and warm up as it started to snow.

With snow falling, we headed up to the Altyn Arashan canyon outside Karakol for some rest and relaxation at the local hot spring. Our jeep ride there was ended just after it started by avalanches blocking the road. After a few shots of vodka and whiskey, the locals accompanying us headed up the road on foot. Let but with little choice we followed them traveling beneath multiple avalanche paths, most of which had just run full path in the past day. Local Kyrgyz men were already on scene chopping trees out of the debris for firewood. After skinning 16km through heavy snow, we arrived at Altyn Arashan (winter population: 2) just before dark. The next day brought more stormy weather and wicked winds at higher elevations. We managed a short tour up valley before soaking in the hot springs and imbibing in several breakneck scrabble games. After our "R&R" we skiied all 16 km back out, en route crossing an enormous slide that crossed the creek and covered our tracks in with over 3 meters of debris. The storm continued for the next two days as we returned to Bishkek to truly rest and relax.

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CLICK HERE TO READ RYAN AND ABRE'S REPORT ON ICHKE JERGEZ AND ALTYN ARASHAN

ARSLANBOB

I just returned from a week and half in Arslanbob, a tiny Uzbek village tucked in the world’s largest walnut forest in southwest Kyrgyzstan. The purpose of my trip to Arslanbob come as a guest instructor for a fledgling backcountry ski touring program initiated by Hayat Tarikov, the head of Arslanbob Community Based Tourism (CBT). Community Based Tourism originated out of a women’s cooperative that was started in Kochkor, Kyrgyzstan in 1999 in conjunction with the Swiss Development Company Helvetas. CBT came to Arslanbob in 2001 and Hayat became the head, with 18 homestays in the village and 25 guides working for him. The basis of CBT is to connect tourist with locals to provide services ranging from homestays to horseback riding. Kyrgyzstan has the most expansive networks of this type in Central Asia.

Hayat’s interest in ski touring is dual fold. He is most interested in promoting winter tourism as he would like to see a more steady influx of money through the year. Currently almost all tourists come in the summer. This past year, Hayat said over 1500 tourist came through Arslanbob, but only 36 of them came in winter. Beyond tourism development Hayat is also genuinely interested in teaching locals, especially children to ski. Although I had met Hayat about a month ago in Bishkek I was approaching this experience with a great deal of flexibility. I had planned a little curriculum but I was also keen to observe their current backcountry practices.

I was accompanied to Arslanbob by my friends Ryan Willis and Toby Wheeler with Toby’s family. We took two days to drive there, crossing two 3000+ meter passes en route just before a huge winter storm moved across Kyrgyzstan. We managed to get a little skiing in the Susamyer Valley, but found the 40 cm snowpack to be unconsolidated and baseless. We arrived in Arslanbob late at night after a long second day of driving complete with a flat tire, which was repaired for about $1 in 30 minutes on the Uzbekistan border while we ate shashlyck (kebabs) and drank tea.

Arslanbob is a mostly Uzbek village of about 15,000 people nestled against the 4000m+ Babash-Ata Mountains. Considered quite conservative, there are almost 20 mosques in the village. Hayat arranged for us to stay with one of the his CBT homestays in a very nice house tucked amongst a fruit orchard.

We brought the cold weather with us and it dumped 35 cm of snow in Arslanbob our first day. The previous week had seen a lot of rain and the temperature had stayed above freezing. Hayat gave us a tour of town, his office and all his equipment. He has a few decent pairs of skis with ski touring bindings and skins but mostly a lot of old heavy equipment. Acquiring skis here, especially touring skis is not the easiest undertaking.

Our first tour we skied up into the agricultural fields and walnut forests above town with a group of eight. Lacking any visibility we traversed and skied several mellow slopes. There was a wide range of skills among the guides. Several of the guides have decent skiing and travel techniques but most of the guides are beginning skiers and several days we had first time skiers out with us. What I was most impressed by in Hayat and all of his guides was their enthusiasm! It became apparent that what I had to offer was just providing basic tips for winter travel and encouraging good ski skills. All of the guides speak Uzbek and Russian, but only a few speak English. However, Kyrgyz is similar to Uzbek and my basic Kyrgyz vocabulary was understood and very helpful.

The next day brought beautiful clear skies, which allowed us to venture to Toguz-Bulak Jailoo (Nine-Springs Summer Pasture) in more advanced terrain against the base of Babash-Ata Mountain. Again the group was large, twelve of us, as many of the guides were very eager to join the group. It made for lots of rotation breaking trail through the 40 cm of new snow the rapidly warmed through the day with the intense solar radiation. We spent lots of time talking about little things such as travel etiquette, picking routes and basic avalanche rescue. Picking a lunch spot seemed very important to all the guides, and we ended up shoveling a meter of snow off a huge boulder. In true Uzbek/Kyrgyz style we sat around a center cloth covered with breads, jams, cheeses and tea. In the afternoon I showed some very simple stability tests (jumping on small slopes and digging hand pits). We were able to find some great powder skiing on a mellow north slope which many of the guides were unable to appreciate with 190cm straight skis.

The following day it drizzled and again we only ventured to the walnut forests. Hayat and I shared several long discussions about the changing winters in Arslanbob. Rain is becoming more and more prevalent each year according to Hayat and it was interesting to listen to him and the guides discuss about their childhood winters and current winters.

The next week brought a repetitive weather pattern of rain, snow and sun. We stuck to the walnut forests in the rain and snow working on ski skills and just enjoying being out. A Norwegian skier who had worked as a ski instructor, Kjolton, joined us mid-week. With his help, we set up a ski skills obstacle course one afternoon and spent lots of time talking and working on skiing technique. Every day lunches were elaborate and laughter widespread. The enthusiasm of all the guides was contagious and admirable given their equipment and lack of resources.

Hayat hosted a large dinner party for us one evening, complete with plov and a few too many shots of vodka. I presented him his first avalanche probe and a new hat. As the week wore on it became apparent that many of the guides needed to rest more and take care of blisters and sore feet, so it was good that Friday the holy day arrived. Most guides took the day off to pray and Toby, Ryan, Kjoltan and I returned to the base of Babash-Ata. With a smaller group and good weather we were able to climb and ski Green Hill, a smaller peak that sits just above Arslanbob. Incredible terrain and fantastic skiing! The end of the week brought more rain and Toby and his family departed.

I prepared some material for Hayat to use for reference to continue his education in winter recreation. Topics I covered included basic rules of safe travel, recognizing avalanche danger, basic equipment lists and basic information about avalanches. Kjoltan will hopefully translate the documents into Russian, so that non-English speaking guides can utilize the handbooks as well. Also as a favor to a friend, I aided Hayat is writing up a description of his ski tours for advertisement. From what I observed ski touring in Arslanbob has great potential but any visitor that comes to Arslanbob to ski should be flexible in a multitude of ways. To only come for the snow and the mountains would be a disappointment, but to enjoy the company of the local skiers and the cultural makes for a unique experience. But it seems that rain is not uncommon, punctuality is not emphasized and the ski skills of the guides is still developing.

Ryan and I returned to Bishkek in one long day in a shared taxi. It was hard to leave Arslanbob, as there were many mountains and jailoos I wanted to explore further. I am certain I will return again to teach and enjoy the hilarious company of Hayat and his guides. In the future, I would really like to aid him in getting more ski equipment, especially cross-country ski equipment for kids in Arslanbob.

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