A week trek from Bishkek to Song-Kul Lake

Tour Type: trekking

Total Duration: 9 days

Best Season:  mid-June – end of September

Level of Difficulty:  medium to difficult

Maximum Altitude on the Trip:  3 400 meters ASL

Start and End Point:  Bishkek and Kochkor

Best group size:  3- 8 persons

TRIP HIGHLIGHTS

Burana Tower – Balasagun was a city in the Chuy region during the Karakhanid Khanate.  Excavations have revealed that the double walls of the settlement enclosed 30 sq km, including a fortress, many workshops, bazaars, a bathhouse, and a plot of arable land.  Water brought by a large pipe from a neighboring canyon.  As the Karakhanid rule was shaken by Mongol invasions, Balasagun began a slow decline, eventually becoming a ghost town in the 15th century.

Burana Tower is the most visible remnant of the old city.  Built in the 11th century, the tower is thought to have been a minaret.  It was originally double it’s current height of 24.6 meters.  Historian’s believe the top half to have been destroyed in a 15th century earthquake.

Lake Song-Kul – in Kyrgyz “the final lake”.  Son Kul gleams like a brilliant sapphire on it’s lush green mountain plateau.  At 3016 m it is inaccessible during winter months, and even in summer weather conditions can change rapidly. “The Last Lake” is considered one of the most beautiful areas for summer pasturing with an area of 270 km sq.  In winter the lake freezes over with ice more than a meter thick.

Nomads have been making the upland trek to this 3016 m asl lake since ancient times with their livestock.  Some left mysterious “standing stone” arrangements.

Lake Son-Kul is a beautiful place to experience life on a jailoo – summer pasture.  Ride horses in the surrounding mountains, or stay in a yurt and experience an old-fashioned Kyrgyz summer.

ITINERARY:

Meeting day:  This day meeting with all participants over coffee. Meeting and instruction.

 Trek day 1: After early breakfast leave Bishkek for Shamshy Gorge, 3-hour drive. On the way visit the Burana Tower architectural complex (the 10-11^th centuries, the Great Silk Road). Meet guides’ team in Shamshy gorge. Picnic lunch. Start trekking towards Shamshy pass (3 570 meters). Dinner. Stay overnight in tents before the pass. Trekking time: 4 hours.

Trek day 2: After breakfast continue tour and cross the Shamshy pass (3 570 meters). Descend to Sarala-Saz jailoo, which offers beautiful views of the Kara Moinok and Sandyk mountains to the south. After welcome tea in the yurt, eat dinner and stay overnight in the yurt of local shepherd.   Trekking time: 6 hours.

Trek day 3: This day you spend crossing wide-open pastures till Iri Suu area.  Eat dinner in Iri-Suu jailoo, and then take an evening walk over the hill into the beautiful Kashka-Suu River valley, where you can eat wild rhubarb and watch the alpenglow on the southern mountains.  Overnight stay in tents. Trekking time: 4 hours

Trek day 4: After breakfast at Iri-Suu, gear up for a long day through nearly-empty country.  Begin by traversing the western end of the Kochkor Valley through scrubby dry terrain.  After crossing the fast Karakol River, climb 1000 meters over the Buchuk Pass (3400 m).  On the other side, after a brief break for lunch on the trail, descend into the beautiful Sook Valley. Wild onions cover the high cold ridges, while lower down whole hillsides of wildflowers bloom.  Eagles soar and marmots cry and scurry about.  At day’s end, ford the Sook River and climb the green Kichi Saryk Valley Overnight stay in tent. Trekking time: 6-7 hours

Trek day 5: After breakfast at Sook, detour to the next valley west, the Kum Bel, for the best approach to the 3 600 m Kum Bel Pass.  From the pass, follow a ridge eastward and upward to the peak, 3656 m above sea level, with breathtaking 360 views and sheer drops to the north.  Continue east, testing your walking skills down scree-covered hillsides, and eat lunch in a sheltered notch.  Descend at last into the Kolduu Suu valley, and follow it down between dandelion-covered mountains to your yurt, in Kolduu Suu jailoo.  Trekking time: 5-6 hours

 Trek day 6: After breakfast in Kolduu Suu, head south to the Kochkor – Jumgal road.  Follow the road a short ways east to the Kyzart Pass, then strike south again.  Within sight of the road, cross Kyzyl-Kiya jailoo, an enormous, relatively flat sea of grass.  Continue over the Chaar-Archa Pass (3 061 m) into the Chaar-Archa Valley and eat a tasty lunch by the racing river, with views of holy 4400 m Baba-Ata Mountain.  Sated, ford the river and follow the trail over verdant hills to Kilemche Jailoo.  The name means “like a carpet,” and this swathe of grass covers whole mountain ranges, with shadings as subtle as any shyrdak (shyrdak is a Kyrgyz felt carpet).  Dine and sleep in a yurt, naturally.  Trekking time: 5 hours

Trek day 7: After breakfast at Kilemche, spend the morning climbing to Jalgyz Karagai pass (3400 m), over the Song-Kol Mountains and into the lake’s basin. The morning climb affords wonderful views of Kilemche jailoo, and the pass itself is rocky and exciting.  From the pass, Song-Kol is still distant, but as you traipse down the slopes, it gets larger and larger; the mountains on the other side get higher and higher, until finally the lake fills most of your field of view and the southern mountains tower above it.  After lunch at Jaman Echki, meet transport and transfer to the lakeshore east to the yurt at Batai Aral.  Upon arrival meet your host family of Kyrgyz shepherds. Meals and overnight are in a yurt of shepherds. Trek time: 5 hours.

Day 8: Day free at the lakeside.  Time for swimming, horse riding, having rest in at Song-Kol Lake. Watch and/or participate in the everyday life of the shepherds: milking mares; making traditional Kyrgyz milk products like kymyz (fermented mare’s milk) or airan (a sour, dense milk product); tending cattle.  Meals and B&B at yurt camps.

Day 9:  Morning transfer to Kochkor  or Bishkek via Kalmak-Ashuu pass. Upon arrival to Kochkor or Bishkek, end of the tour.