06 · The Central Tien Shan · Kyrgyzstan
The Ak-Shyirak Approach
Eighteen days into the Ak-Shyirak massif with horses to base camp and nothing but legs after it — a survey-style expedition onto glaciers that have been measured more often than they have been climbed.
- Duration
- 18 days
- Party
- 4 to 6
- Season
- Late July to early September
- From, per person
- €12,300
The route
- Bishkek
- Karakol
- Naryn valley
- Kaindy base camp
- Petrov glacier
- Karakol
Ak-Shyirak is a hundred-kilometre block of ice and rock between Issyk-Kul and the Chinese border, and it has been surveyed far more thoroughly than it has been climbed. There are glaciers here with eighty years of measurement and no recorded ascent on the peaks above them. That is the whole appeal.
Why we do not name the summit
Because on eighteen days at this altitude, in this range, the objective is a function of the party, the snow and the acclimatisation, and every one of those is unknown when you book. Naming a peak in the brochure makes it a target, and a target changes what a tired party will accept at four in the afternoon at 4,700 metres.
We name two possibilities on day nine, to the party, having watched them carry for three days. Six of eight departures have stood on something. Two have not, and those two were better-run trips than one of the six.
Altitude
Base camp is 3,650 metres and the high camp is 4,450. You will sleep at 3,000 on the road in, carry to 4,200 three times before you sleep above 4,000, and we will still send somebody down at some point — it has happened on five of eight departures and it has never once been the person who expected it.
If you have never been above 4,000 metres, this is not the trip to find out on. Go somewhere with a road at the bottom of it first, then come back.
The horses
Two days in and two days out with Aibek’s horsemen from the Naryn side. They carry the base camp and the food; they do not carry your personal kit past base camp, and after day six nothing is carried for you at all. Parties who have only done trips with porters throughout find days ten to fourteen a genuine shock.
What we will not do
We will not fly you to base camp. It is quotable in Karakol, it saves four days, and it removes the acclimatisation those four days are actually for. Every party that has asked has been told the same thing, usually twice.
Day by day
The shape of it
Days 1–2
Bishkek and Karakol
Permits, which take two days and which Aibek does not let us rush. Kit check on the second afternoon.
Days 3–4
The Naryn valley
Two days of road that is a road on the map and a riverbed in practice. We stop at 3,000 metres and sleep there on purpose.
Days 5–6
Horses in
Two days with the horsemen to base camp at 3,650. This is the last time anything carries anything for you.
Days 7–9
Acclimatisation
Three days of carries up to 4,200 and back down to sleep. Dull, essential, and the days on which we decide who goes higher.
Days 10–14
The Petrov glacier
Five days on the ice, moving camp twice, roped throughout. Two possible objectives near 4,800 and we will name neither in advance.
Days 15–16
Back to base
Down, one full rest day, and the survey notes written up — we log ice margins for the Central Asian Institute and have done since 2018.
Days 17–18
Karakol
Horses out, road out, one night at the lake, and a dinner that is mostly bread and lamb and is the best meal of the trip.
Before you book, and what to bring
Before you book
What this route asks of you
- Previous experience above 4,000 metres, and evidence of how you were at it
- Crevasse rescue and roped glacier travel, assessed by us or by an IFMGA guide
- Able to carry 20kg to 4,200 metres repeatedly over three days
- A medical from your own doctor on our form, dated within six months
- Evacuation insurance valid in Kyrgyzstan above 4,500 metres — read the exclusions
On the yard floor
Kit you supply, and we check
- Double boots, B3-rated, that have done a season
- A −20°C comfort bag and two mats
- Your own harness, helmet, axe and crampons, fitted to the boots you bring
- Sun protection that works at 4,800 metres on a glacier — factor 50 and a lip block
- A book. Days seven to nine are long.
What the price covers
Included
What €12,300 buys
- Seventeen nights: three in towns, two on the road, twelve under canvas
- Sindre Aune and a second IFMGA guide for eighteen days
- Aibek Sadyrov, his cook, and the horsemen and horses for both transfers
- All permits, including the border-zone permit that takes two days
- All group technical kit, tents, stoves and food from day three
- Satellite comms and a daily position report
Not included
And, pointedly, what it does not
- Flights to Bishkek
- Evacuation insurance, required, and we read the altitude exclusions
- Your own boots, axe, crampons, harness, helmet and sleeping kit
- A named summit. We do not sell one here and the reason is below.
- A helicopter to base camp, which exists in Karakol and which we will not book