Four days on the Ala-Kul circuit, a pass that closes for eight months of the year, and the shepherd families who are only up there while the grass holds.
Choosing Your Route
There are two ways onto the Ala-Kul pass and the choice matters more than the map suggests. The Karakol side is longer and gentler, six hours of spruce forest before the first camp. The Altyn Arashan side is shorter and steeper, and it puts a guesthouse night at 2,600m between you and the altitude.
Most people walk it west to east without thinking about it, because that is the direction the guidebooks describe. Walking it the other way is quieter and, for anyone who has not camped high before, kinder.
The River Crossing
Above Sirota the trail crosses the Karakol river, and the crossing changes character through the day. In the afternoon, with the melt running, it is knee deep and fast enough to be worth roping. By six the next morning it is ankle deep and unremarkable.
Guides who have walked this since childhood simply camp short and cross at dawn. Everybody else arrives at four in the afternoon and stands on the bank working out how brave they are.
The mountain does not care what time your flight is. Camp short, cross early, and you will never have to find out how cold that water is.
The Jailoo
Below the pass the valley opens into summer pasture, and from June the shepherd families are up there with their herds. The yurts are not for visitors; they are where a family lives for four months of the year.
The River Crossing
A deliberate duplicate title, to prove the anchor deduping works: this one should be river-crossing-2 while the first stays river-crossing.
