Ski holidays in Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan 

Kyrgyzstan is the fantastic, hospitable and alluring for its natural beauty republic. Two great mountain systems of the Earth — the Tien Shan and Pamir stretch through the whole territory of Kyrgyzstan with their highest peaks of our world — Victory Peak (7439 m), Lenin Peak (7134 m) and Khan Tengri Peak (6995 m).  But all these values you can see only arriving in the heart of Central Asia, in a small, but truly magnificent, surrounded by snow-capped peaks. Over 70% of the total land area are mountains.

Kyrgyzstan has a lot of opportunities for heliskiing in the mountains. 95% of the territory of the country is lying in the mountains of Tien-Shan. Hundreds of virgin slopes are waiting for the skiers who love wild nature and nice free runs on the fresh snow.

Due to Kyrgyzstan’s unique mountainous position it offers many opportunities for fans of winter sports — skiing and snowbording. Bishkek is surrounded by 10 skiing resorts of different levels. But all of them are rather primitive offering services of 1–2 lifts. A real pearl of Kyrgyz winter sport is in Karakol (400 km from Bishkek). Karakol skiing resort is probably the best one in Central Asia, offering services of several lifts, hotels, restaurants.

Mountain ski resort Karakol is located in Kyrgyzstan within 7 km form town Karakol and 400 km from Bishkek, on the Tien Shan mountain range. Surrounding it is a lush woodland area at the height of 2300m above sea level. At Karakol-Ski there is an activity for any season of the year.

The regional climate is relatively mild, due to the proximity to the world’s second highest mountain lake, the Issykk-Kul. The winters are warm allowing for an enjoyable ski or snow board experience with an average temperature of -5C and the ski season is from November until May. Snow depth can reach 1.5m to 2 m (5ft to 6.5ft). The region is abundant with sunshine all year round and, especially during the winter, a snowmobile trip to the mountain plateau will reveal breath raking scenery onto the valley below.

Kyrgyzstan is a mountainous country. That is why this small country of Central Asia is often compared to one of the ski centers of Europe, Switzerland, as Kyrgyzstan has big potential in ski sport development. Geographical location and altitude ovefall made the nature of Kyrgyzstan so special. The climate is good for ski sport: there is snow from November to March and in high areas it stays the whole year round. The weather in such regions is usually warm with big quantity of sunny days. That is why ski season lasts from the beginning of December to the beginning of March.

According to the facts mentioned above Kyrgyzstan is a perfect place for ski fans. Many of the ski resorts in Kyrgyzstan can be visited without going too far away from the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek. These are Nooruz ski base (altitude 1950, 30 km from Bishkek), “Orlovka” (100 km from Bishkek), Kashka-Suu (altitude 2000m, 35 km from Bishkek), Kashka-Suu (altitude 2000m, 35 km from Bishkek), Aspara, Djilamish, Kara-Balta, Kegety and Chon-Tash. One of the best ski bases can be found while driving around Issyk-Kul lake. The most famous among them is Karakol ski resort (altitude is 2300m, 7 km from Karakol city). All the ski resorts have rope ways and ski runs of different levels of complexity what is good as for the professionals as for the beginners.