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Kyrgyzstan's Ak Suu Traverse -- things I wish I knew
I won't cover the details of the hike itself -- that's well discussed elsewhere -- but will write on things I didn't see online before I started hiking, esp some new features.
1. It looks like Yandex is offering "City to City" taxis in KG now, with 40% off coupons to promote the new service. This is a super effective way to get from Bishkek to Karakol and back if you want the comfort of a decent car and not a minibus *without* getting scammed on price; expect to pay 5k to 7k soms for a private car. They also have carshare options (usually 900 - 1k soms per person), but often times the drivers would wait until the cars filled up before driving, which could be indefinite. Drivers usually don't speak English; my hostel helped me facilitate the calls, but you could also use ChatGPT voice mode to do it.
2. Elza Guest House has the newest (and nicest) guetshouse facilities in Altyn Arashan but Hotel Arashan aka Arashan Lodge has the hot springs. Either way, hot springs there are inferior to the ones in Ak Suu village.
3. Yurt to Yurt hiking is possible and they are adding more camps (Sirota, for example, is not listed on the Kyrgyz Life website). Lunch is standardized at all camps and is mediocre (one Snickers, one other kind of nut or chocolate bar, one apple, one orange, stale white bread with 2-3 salami slices, apple juice) -- for 1100 soms, I'd skip it and bring my own salami from the grocery store or Cliff Bars. Otherwise, breakfast/dinner at the camps are typically good although low in protein. Exception is Ala Kol camp, which sucked massively all around for breakfast/dinner.
4. Kyrgyz Life will ask you to pay 100 soms for Starlink at the office, but the WiFi is actually free at all the camps (they will just give you the password) except for Boz Uchuk where they tried to charge 500 soms for WiFi.
5. You can hitch a ride on the resupply vans back to Karakol, at Karakol Gorge for about 1000 soms per person. They'll take you to the Kyrgyz Life offices. There is usually only one a day around 1 PM.
6. You can get beer at Almaluu Camp (there's a herder across the stream from the yurt camp who sells some beer for 200 soms/can), Altyn Arashan (many shops sell it), and Karakol Gorge (several shops right by the Forest Gate bridge).
7. There's a now 300 som entrance fee (previously 250 som?) for crossing Forest Gate bridge, payable only in cash (!!!), supposed to be the entrance fee for the National Park. There aren't any other bridges to cross Karakol River upstream so you'll have to pay if you don't want to ford the river.
8. You don't need a guide, but AllTrails does lie a lot on this hike in the less trodden areas.
9. A lot of groups/guides don't hike Telety in June because it's very snowy (snowier than Ala Kol thanks to less foot traffic).
10. If you plan to stay a day in Bishkek, don't do it on Monday. Lots of popular attractions (Osh Bazaar, State Museum) are closed. Without them, Bishkek is pretty mediocre.
11. There are no helicopter rescues! At best you'll get a horseback rescue to the nearest road and then 4x4 from there, but horses have trouble making it up to Ala Kol lake.
12. I read this one Ak Suu traverse trip report that seemed to downplay the difficulty?? Maybe it was written by Sherpas. I found the hikes to be quite difficult, and others in the yurt camps who had hiked much more than I have at altitude agreed. The amount of loose scree makes already difficult passes quite difficult with the additional weight. Also, even on "easy sections", you'll find yourself mentally exhausted from dodging constant horse and cow dung or very muddy trails from horses.
13. Don't bother downloading the Kyrgyz language on offline Google Translate, it sucks and hurts more than it helps. Just stick to Russian.
14. For the most part Kyrgyz Life runs all the camps, but there are some one-off operators at the popular locations (Sirota, Ala Kol) and of course plenty of alternatives at Altyn Arashan.
15. The yurts are NOT warm at night! They're not heated and only have a thin layer of insulation. The sleeping bags they give aren't the warmest either. I had to wear layers at night.
#activity #nature
source
I won't cover the details of the hike itself -- that's well discussed elsewhere -- but will write on things I didn't see online before I started hiking, esp some new features.
1. It looks like Yandex is offering "City to City" taxis in KG now, with 40% off coupons to promote the new service. This is a super effective way to get from Bishkek to Karakol and back if you want the comfort of a decent car and not a minibus *without* getting scammed on price; expect to pay 5k to 7k soms for a private car. They also have carshare options (usually 900 - 1k soms per person), but often times the drivers would wait until the cars filled up before driving, which could be indefinite. Drivers usually don't speak English; my hostel helped me facilitate the calls, but you could also use ChatGPT voice mode to do it.
2. Elza Guest House has the newest (and nicest) guetshouse facilities in Altyn Arashan but Hotel Arashan aka Arashan Lodge has the hot springs. Either way, hot springs there are inferior to the ones in Ak Suu village.
3. Yurt to Yurt hiking is possible and they are adding more camps (Sirota, for example, is not listed on the Kyrgyz Life website). Lunch is standardized at all camps and is mediocre (one Snickers, one other kind of nut or chocolate bar, one apple, one orange, stale white bread with 2-3 salami slices, apple juice) -- for 1100 soms, I'd skip it and bring my own salami from the grocery store or Cliff Bars. Otherwise, breakfast/dinner at the camps are typically good although low in protein. Exception is Ala Kol camp, which sucked massively all around for breakfast/dinner.
4. Kyrgyz Life will ask you to pay 100 soms for Starlink at the office, but the WiFi is actually free at all the camps (they will just give you the password) except for Boz Uchuk where they tried to charge 500 soms for WiFi.
5. You can hitch a ride on the resupply vans back to Karakol, at Karakol Gorge for about 1000 soms per person. They'll take you to the Kyrgyz Life offices. There is usually only one a day around 1 PM.
6. You can get beer at Almaluu Camp (there's a herder across the stream from the yurt camp who sells some beer for 200 soms/can), Altyn Arashan (many shops sell it), and Karakol Gorge (several shops right by the Forest Gate bridge).
7. There's a now 300 som entrance fee (previously 250 som?) for crossing Forest Gate bridge, payable only in cash (!!!), supposed to be the entrance fee for the National Park. There aren't any other bridges to cross Karakol River upstream so you'll have to pay if you don't want to ford the river.
8. You don't need a guide, but AllTrails does lie a lot on this hike in the less trodden areas.
9. A lot of groups/guides don't hike Telety in June because it's very snowy (snowier than Ala Kol thanks to less foot traffic).
10. If you plan to stay a day in Bishkek, don't do it on Monday. Lots of popular attractions (Osh Bazaar, State Museum) are closed. Without them, Bishkek is pretty mediocre.
11. There are no helicopter rescues! At best you'll get a horseback rescue to the nearest road and then 4x4 from there, but horses have trouble making it up to Ala Kol lake.
12. I read this one Ak Suu traverse trip report that seemed to downplay the difficulty?? Maybe it was written by Sherpas. I found the hikes to be quite difficult, and others in the yurt camps who had hiked much more than I have at altitude agreed. The amount of loose scree makes already difficult passes quite difficult with the additional weight. Also, even on "easy sections", you'll find yourself mentally exhausted from dodging constant horse and cow dung or very muddy trails from horses.
13. Don't bother downloading the Kyrgyz language on offline Google Translate, it sucks and hurts more than it helps. Just stick to Russian.
14. For the most part Kyrgyz Life runs all the camps, but there are some one-off operators at the popular locations (Sirota, Ala Kol) and of course plenty of alternatives at Altyn Arashan.
15. The yurts are NOT warm at night! They're not heated and only have a thin layer of insulation. The sleeping bags they give aren't the warmest either. I had to wear layers at night.
#activity #nature
source