Heading to Kyrgyzstan!
Well this trip came out of the blue..... I'm heading to Kyrgyzstan in just over a week with my good friend Gary (@Big Salad) for a recon trip. I was invited out to Kyrgyzstan (that is a hard country to spell) for a week to check out their emerging ski industry and their resort, backcountry and cat skiing options. I was contacted a few weeks ago by the founder of Ryce Travel, a Dutch non-profit tour company that specializes in setting up guiding infrastructure in emerging ski destinations. They operate in several countries including Kazakhstan, Georgia, Serbia, Lebanon and a few others. How they found me, I do not know (will find out), but they invited me out to come and experience their services as they want to start offering Kyrgyzstan to the Western market next winter. We'll see how it goes!
I finalized my travel arrangements on Monday I'll be heading off on the 21st March. I'm flying to Istanbul and then onto Bishkek. I had enough miles that I could fly to Kyrgyzstan pretty cheaply and there were some good specials in business class if I was flexible with my dates. So I will fly to Istanbul first and stay there for a couple of nights> I have 1.5 days to check out some of the sights. I'm pretty excited to visit Istanbul as I've been wanting to go there for a long time. It will be a nice preview for a ski trip to Turkey I am planning in 2025. I have a connection in Istanbul who will be showing me around which should be awesome, then I head to Bishkek.
I'll have a full day of exploring in Bishkek (will try to find a local, English-speaking guide to show me around) and then Gary and I head to the mountains. We have a day in Karakol to explore the resort and sidecountry there, then a day of cat skiing in Jyrgalen, then 1 day of ski touring in the Jyrgalen pass staying in a yurt and then some vehicle-assisted ski touring in the Chon Assu pass area. We'll be staying in a mix of guesthouses and yurts, so it will be a fun and diverse adventure. Being late in the season, I don't expect to be skiing any deep powder, but if we can get some nice corn skiing in and even just some great views and an amazing cultural experience, then I will be more than happy.
I'll finish with a couple of nights back in Bishkek and then back to Colorado on the 3rd April, exactly 2 weeks away. As always, I'll be blogging here and let you know what it all looks like. Here's a little video from Kyrgyzstan to show you what it looks like.....
I still have plenty of video's that I'll be editing for the Japan blogs, I haven't forgotten about those, but I'm really excited for this new adventure Kyrgyzstan as it is another former-Soviet country that I have been keen on visiting for a while and it should be a great experience. We had such an amazing time in Uzbekistan last winter and I hope we can find more magic in Kyrgyzstan. Fingers crossed!
- Matt
Well this trip came out of the blue..... I'm heading to Kyrgyzstan in just over a week with my good friend Gary (@Big Salad) for a recon trip. I was invited out to Kyrgyzstan (that is a hard country to spell) for a week to check out their emerging ski industry and their resort, backcountry and cat skiing options. I was contacted a few weeks ago by the founder of Ryce Travel, a Dutch non-profit tour company that specializes in setting up guiding infrastructure in emerging ski destinations. They operate in several countries including Kazakhstan, Georgia, Serbia, Lebanon and a few others. How they found me, I do not know (will find out), but they invited me out to come and experience their services as they want to start offering Kyrgyzstan to the Western market next winter. We'll see how it goes!
I finalized my travel arrangements on Monday I'll be heading off on the 21st March. I'm flying to Istanbul and then onto Bishkek. I had enough miles that I could fly to Kyrgyzstan pretty cheaply and there were some good specials in business class if I was flexible with my dates. So I will fly to Istanbul first and stay there for a couple of nights> I have 1.5 days to check out some of the sights. I'm pretty excited to visit Istanbul as I've been wanting to go there for a long time. It will be a nice preview for a ski trip to Turkey I am planning in 2025. I have a connection in Istanbul who will be showing me around which should be awesome, then I head to Bishkek.
I'll have a full day of exploring in Bishkek (will try to find a local, English-speaking guide to show me around) and then Gary and I head to the mountains. We have a day in Karakol to explore the resort and sidecountry there, then a day of cat skiing in Jyrgalen, then 1 day of ski touring in the Jyrgalen pass staying in a yurt and then some vehicle-assisted ski touring in the Chon Assu pass area. We'll be staying in a mix of guesthouses and yurts, so it will be a fun and diverse adventure. Being late in the season, I don't expect to be skiing any deep powder, but if we can get some nice corn skiing in and even just some great views and an amazing cultural experience, then I will be more than happy.
I'll finish with a couple of nights back in Bishkek and then back to Colorado on the 3rd April, exactly 2 weeks away. As always, I'll be blogging here and let you know what it all looks like. Here's a little video from Kyrgyzstan to show you what it looks like.....
I still have plenty of video's that I'll be editing for the Japan blogs, I haven't forgotten about those, but I'm really excited for this new adventure Kyrgyzstan as it is another former-Soviet country that I have been keen on visiting for a while and it should be a great experience. We had such an amazing time in Uzbekistan last winter and I hope we can find more magic in Kyrgyzstan. Fingers crossed!
- Matt