The Kyrgyz Yo-Yo (part 2): February 7th - February 20th, 2024
Karakol is a cute little town at the head of Issyk-Kul Lake. In the summer it is a bustling tourist spot, and in the winter it hosts a ski resort. Most of the tourists that we ran into were internal tourists mostly coming from Bishkek. The downside to Karakol is the smog. For such a small town it had worse air quality than Almaty and every evening it seemed to get really bad as many people seemed to heat their homes with coal or wood burning stoves. We also never did figure out the industry there but there were a few very short smoke stacks in town that would send some noxious fumes into neighboring apartment complexes in the evenings. Ah fresh mountain air!
We were looking forward to skiing, but weren't expecting too much as this resort hadn't seen much fresh snow in a while. We found a place to rent some skis and they seemed solid and managed to order a taxi to take us up to the resort.
These slopes were ICY! I have never skied so much ice in my life. The skis we had were good enough. Meaning, I don't think they were sharpened or waxed that season, but they were new enough skis that they could mostly grip the firm snow. Ben managed to have a good time, I mostly questioned my life choices. At one point picking my way down an icy chute with patches of dirt I greatly amused a snowboarder who was taking a smoke break on the slope by talking to myself in frustration "What am I even doing here, skiing is dumb I don't like this"
Right after we made our way down from the top of the mountain, we noticed the lift we had just taken was smoking. This lift had quite a few people on it going up and coming down as plenty of tourists use the ski lifts here to get to the top of the mountain just for looksies. We spent the rest of the day on the other lifts (which was fine by me), but there seemed to be people still sitting on the broken lift when we called it a day. Ben also noticed some lookie-loos we had seen at the top sliding their way down the mountain. So glad we didn't get stuck on that lift!
We took a rest day, but the following day we were back at the ski hill. We went with a different rental place, hoping for sharper skis. I ended up on some really sharp racing skis and Ben ended up with a pair of trash. We went down one run and I was feeling pretty confident on the icy slopes with my sharp racing skis, and then I hit a bump in the snow at a weird angle and at too high of a speed and my back went "NOPE". I made it to the bottom of the run and told Ben I should stretch for a bit so he went and did another run on his terrible skis while I stretched in the snow. The conditions were worse than the other day and I was not having a good time, so I decided to just call it. Ben wasn't done yet though so he took my skis and adjusted them to his boots so he could get a few more runs in while I enjoyed some hot chocolate and a good book.
The following days we spent going to the tourist highlights of the town and relaxing. The two main sites to visit are the orthodox church and a mosque. The Holy Trinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral is an ornately decorated wooden building. Under soviet control it was used for coal storage. The Dungan Mosque story goes that the Dungan people of China fled persecution and set up a community in Karakol. Then during the time the Soviets were persecuting religious folks their mosque looked like a Chinese pagoda so the Soviets just didn't destroy it or use it for coal storage.
Karakol is not a huge town so after a few days of nonphenomenal skiing and seeing all the sights we decided it was time for some silly traveling. We decided to go back to Pavel's to spend a few more days ice climbing and if the forecast held and Karakol got some snow then we would come back to ski.
We took the correct marshrutka to Tamga. When Pavel picked us up the marshrutka driver asked Pavel "what's up with all the bags these guys have" and Pavel responded "alpinism". Awwwww Pavel calling our pathetic ice climbs alpinism is so kind. Makes us sound like we are on way more dangerous and cool expeditions than we are. I tried to stand up straighter to show how tough I am, but my back still hurt from skiing so I doubt the effect worked as I wanted it to in my head.
After breakfast and getting dropped off by Sasha we headed back to the difficult upper climb. We started up the long ice creek approach, I was a little ahead of Ben and Ben was taking the more "sporty" way. When he starts cursing. I looked back and his other crampon had broken! In the exact same way as the other had broken the last time we climbed! He was in a terrible position as he didn't have any screws accessible, no personal anchor system set up and he wasn't stable enough to access his backpack. Slight panic. I start down climbing to him. Set up a marginal anchor with my ice tools and get to him and take his backpack which held all of the ice screws. In the meantime Ben was attached to the ice with his two tools and one foot. I set up a better anchor and then we got him to that anchor. Lesson learned. If you are soloing up low angle stuff ALWAYS have the ability to set up an anchor. No matter how chill it appears or how confident you are.
Ben was spooked and ready to just head down. I was stubborn and said we should get some climbing in. So I went up first and belayed while he awkwardly hopped and sometimes crawled through the rest of the low-angle stream. At the base of the climb we set up a single pitch route by swapping crampons. As soon as I took off a crampon and started walking around the completely flat base of the climb I fell dramatically on my butt. How in the world Ben made it up the last of that approach with only one crampon I do not understand. Maybe I shouldn't have bullied him into continuing.
With our nerves totally shot after that near serious accident, Ben and I swap leads attempting to set up a single pitch. Our leads are ugly, our legs are shaky, our form terrible, and I only finished the lead because I have zero shame about the amount of screws I am willing to use.
We each did a top rope lap on some fun stuff and then Ben cleaned up and we started our long rappelling descent down (since we couldn't both down-climb). I felt bad about him having to climb up with one crampon so I offered to rappel down with only one. I spent a lot of that rappel just kind of sliding down the ice on my butt. It was not graceful, it was not pretty, and I got some more bruises. We made it down, but it took us a very long time. We were very late for our rendezvous with Sasha. We turned on our headlamps hoping he would see us as we rushed down the trail. He was there waiting for us anxiously as we got down. We used the broken crampon as an excuse...not being very detailed about when it occurred, but he was just happy we were ok and not injured.
The following day we wanted to do one more day of ice climbing. We went to an ice flow called Kurgak Say or Dry Deep which we hadn't been to before, but it should be single pitch with no ice approach so we could just swap crampons once we were at the base of the climb. We made good time at the start of the trail and then we got to the "there is a boulder you have to climb over. There is a log to help you" part of the approach description. The log is leaned up against a cliff and thankfully there is a fixed line to help. Ben goes for it. While I waited for Ben and witnessed him struggling I went ahead and put on my harness and my third hand. He made it up the first bit and I followed up and was immediately grateful I could capture my progress on the fixed line as I went. The scramble was awkward, there were no good hands and the feet were just slippery moss on slab. We started up the next part and Ben got himself stuck. He sat down for a panic attack and it was my turn to help him get his breathing under control. He questioned our choices in life, and his particular choice to go the way he did. I used my third hand to go a much easier way than he ended up going and I talked him through getting his harness on and his third hand on and working his way over to me. Another lesson - if there is a fixed line seriously consider putting on your harness and a prusik to help you up.
We made it up the last section of the approach no problem and the ice is great. Ben was in no mood to lead. So I took the first lead and I had a good time, but my brain was still spooked so I placed too many screws and had to come down before I planned as I ran out of screws. Ben went up on toprope and picked up my screws with the plan to either just toprope or commit to a no shame lead. With a screw every two moves he managed to move the anchor a little higher and with potential for some really fun top ropes. We spent the rest of the day taking top rope laps and having a great time despite the rough start.
The following day we enjoyed another sauna. Pavel must have realized our exhausted "dobra" and "Horosho" response to “how was the sauna” last time meant he had turned it up too high for us weak Americans and this time it was only 80 degrees celsius. This time we were able to sit on the proper bench!
The weather forecast was still promising a powder day in Karakol so Sasha again dropped us off on the east side of the lake. We did some reconnaissance on where to get some good skis for our upcoming pow day. We managed to get some new Scotts. Mine had a sticker on the bottom "sigh" I just want a waxed ski once this season! But they were sharp and they did well in the snow! We had an absolute blast. There was fresh snow everywhere! We got a little powder greedy and got sucked into a treacherous gully that ended up working out to our surprise.
The second day of powder, many of the runs we had skied the day before were getting very tracked out. That lift that caught fire the last time we were here was still not running so we paid for some snowmobilers and a guide to take us to the top of the mountain. The snowmobile ride up the mountain was fun. Unbeknownst to me I was with the better driver so even though Ben and his driver had left first while my guy organized a guide for us to go down with, we quickly caught up to Ben and passed them. At the top it was white out conditions and he had me hop off and he drove away. Okeedokkeee I'll just wait right here then and hopefully Ben shows up. I twiddle my thumbs and reassure myself that the snowmobilers can find me as long as I stay right here by the snowmobile tracks. I peer into the whiteness trying to catch a glimpse of anything. Finally, Ben and my driver appeared. Ben hopped off and the driver drove away again and Ben explained that the other driver told him he can't make it up that last steep slope. We waited and said thank god we hired a guide as we had no idea where we were.
Finally, the guide showed up with my driver. We handed them our cash and the driver zoomed away. Our guide is on skinny race skis so we joke "oh good our skis should be able to handle this then" he waves off our trying to show him we have avy beacons and avy gear and away he goes. Very quickly we orient ourselves and figure out that the snowmobile had only taken us to the top of the broken lift. We thought they were going further than that but that is ok. We were first tracks on this and so we shrugged and realized...we maybe didn't need a guide. We followed our guide down the fun powder and our poor guide fell twice in the heavy snow on his skinny skis.
After that fun powder run, we headed back to the operating lift and got to the base of where people had set a boot pack. We get ready to suffer up this hill. We figured we paid for the snowmobile once, we can hoof it up this slope once for some fresh turns! A group of Spanish speakers was getting ready to go up with touring setups the same time we set out in our boots carrying our skis in our hands. I was very jealous of their touring set up, but we made surprisingly good time up the hill. We mostly had a boot pack to follow, well I had a boot pack to follow the entire time thanks to Ben.
We made it to the top and Ben had a blast heading down. I followed a little slower than him and enjoyed my time making turns in deep powder. The entire time I was thinking to myself "skiing is the best, I love skiing. I am so happy I am here right now."
With these two days of great skiing it was time to say goodbye to the East side of Issyk-Kul. We took a mashrutka to get back to Bishkek. There is no way to get on the wrong one this time. But we still kinda picked the wrong one because it had a flat tire during the drive. We were a little concerned when the mashrutka pulled over in the middle of nowhere and everybody started getting off... but that driver did the fastest tire change we've ever seen! In Bishkek we got a cab to our hotel which is more hidden then we expected. Thankfully, our taxi driver is also suspicious and took the time to call the hotel and confirmed that he should drop us off at the unmarked door. Seriously, the drivers here really took care of us in Kyrgyzstan.
Broooooos !!!
ReplyDeleteU guys r still my heros. 😍
Ok but surely warranty should be notified of the pons. 🤔
I think everyone could use a few more unemployed heroes ;)
DeleteAnd apparently this is just a thing that happens with crampons?? That's what the internet told us. I think Mark Twight would tell us to file down our toe bails to increase chance of failure, just to keep things spicy :P
That is some beautiful architecture!!
ReplyDeleteIt was pretty neat! Also I just realized Susan never talked about the ashlan fu - a spicy noodle dish served cold. Those Chinese immigrants always have the best food ;)
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