DESTINATION GUIDE
A turquoise glacial lake at 3,560 m reached over a steep pass, and the hot-spring valley of Altyn-Arashan below it.
Altyn-Arashan is a narrow valley of hot springs and spruce forest above Karakol, and the track to it is famous in its own right: fourteen kilometres so broken that it is driven in ex-military trucks, an hour and a half of being thrown around for a valley that feels sealed off from the rest of the country.
Ala-Kul sits above it at 3,560 metres, a long turquoise lake held in against a wall of scree and ice. The last kilometre to the pass is the steepest ground on any of our routes, loose rock at around forty degrees, and the lake appears in one piece the moment you top out.
Most people combine the two, because hot springs in the evening after the descent are the reason Altyn-Arashan is a stop at all. Both are free of snow only from July, and by late September the pass can close again overnight.
Every itinerary below spends at least one full day in this region.
Son-Kol, Kel-Suu, Issyk-Kul and Ala-Kul in one week — the most action-packed route we run, with hiking, horses and two nights in yurt camps.
From
€1,190
per person