Skiing the Tien Shan

Welcome to Kyrgyzstan! Pick-up at the airport where you are greeted by a member of the team who will drive you to your hotel in the heart of the Kyrgyz capital, where you will have breakfast. After getting to know your guide and settling the last administrative formalities, we leave for the bucolic small freeride ski resort of Ak Tash located on the foothills of the Ala Too range, visible from Bishkek. The small family resort of Ak Tash which has 2 ski lifts and a small hotel restaurant is the haunt of the rare Kyrgyz freeriders who love nature and thrills.

During the day, after reviewing the equipment, briefing on the peculiarities of Kyrgyz snow and mountain safety rules, your guide will take you on a first short ski non-groomed slopes of the small station to warm up and take the temperature of the Kyrgyz snow. You will also have the chance to borrow a unique, homemade ski lift that is sure to amuse you! A little advice, raise your spatulas well! Dinner and overnight in the small family hotel.

Today, we are gaining altitude! Departure after breakfast for another small Kyrgyz resort, Too Ashuu, on the slopes of the upper valley of Suusamyr. To get there, we cross a pass at an altitude of 3200m. We then arrive in a vast white paradise, with immaculate mountains as far as the eye can see and a tiny resort with a few small houses where we will spend the night, the only refuge in the heart of winter in this region.

After lunch and the usual safety checks, your guide will take you a little higher up to a panoramic point over the entire region that will leave you speechless, if the weather is right of course. There is no ski lift here, so we're off to a real hike! In the heart of winter, the temperature can come close to -20 / -25 degrees at the top downwind, take warm layers!

Whatever the temperature up there, once back at the resort you will have the opportunity to appreciate one of the benefits of the culture common to all the countries of the former USSR, namely the "banya", the traditional sauna. Russian that is taken here with an aperitif! And in the sauna, no swimsuit, towels will be provided ... We then move on to dinner and spend the night in our cottages.