In September 2024, Helle and Peter did the 3-day hike from Alakol to Altyn Arashan in Kyrgyzstan as part of a one-week road trip. We used the description at Asia hikes for our planning.
Day 1 – Karakol to Sirota camp
Due to a series of delays we started later than planned. We had started the day in Fairytale canyon, and drove our rented car as far into the Karakol valley as we could. Helle had been ill, and we were not sure how far we would be able to go. At 14:30 we started hiking south into the majestic valley.
Helle didn’t have fever anymore and we both felt good, so soon we decided to continue up towards Sirota Yurt Camp in 3000 meters.
We reached Sirota camp just before sunset and found a nice spot for our tent a little away from the yurt camps. We had walked 13 km with 1000 metres ascend.
As soon as the sun set it got cold, and we put on warm clothes. It felt so good finally to be starting our adventure and even better to be in the beautiful mountains. We felt so lucky to be able to start the hike.
Day 2 – Sirota camp via Arakol to Altyn Arashan
We started the day at sunrise. The Sirota camp is the only somewhat level area in the steep mountains, and the trail continued upwards towards Alakol lake. We climbed 500 meters to Alakol lake in 3500 meters, which took us 2,5 hours – the thin air was noticeable and we had to stop often to catch our breaths.
It was an absolutely beautiful view of the turquoise lake, mountains with snow on the top on a blue sky background. We had breakfast at the lake and took in the views.
We continued the ascend to Alakol pass in 3920 meters. The last section was very steep with scree, and it must be difficult in wet weather. As we ascended, we had a view to Alakol lake all the way.
At the pass it was windy, so we only had a short break to enjoy the views of the lake surrounded by mountains.
Soon after we continued down into the Altyn Arashan Valley. The first descend was very steep and with scree, but soon we were on a nice trail.
In the valley we passed a number of yurt camps with lots of horses. They were packing down the camps as winter was on its way.
We had lunch in the valley by the stream. Helle had a severe headache due to the altitude, so we wanted to get down below 3000 meters.
We continued all the way down to Altyn Arashan in 2600 metres, where we set up camp at Arashan Guesthouse. We had walked a total of 17 km, with 1000 m ascend and 1300 m descend.
Before dinner we used the hot springs of the guesthouse to loosen up our sore muscles and were rewarded with a wonderfully relaxed feeling in the entire body.
We went early to sleep after a fantastic day in the mountains.
Day 3 – From Altyn Arashan to Ak-Suu
We woke up with the rain drumming on the tent. The weather forecast said rain the entire day. We packed up everything in the pouring rain and started our descend to the village Ak-Suu in 1900 meters.
We hired the first available taxi to drive us back to Karakol. It was a very old Lada and we had to push it to start. The driver didn’t speak any English and it was difficult to communicate. We had to get back to our car, which was parked 6 km into Karakol Valley. We tried to explain this to the taxi driver, but he didn’t understand why we wanted to go back into the mountains. Before getting back to our car, the taxi ran out of gasoline and the taxi driver gesticulated that he was returning to Karakol.
We were on a deserted street outside the town, far from other taxis and our car. We could see a kiosk, so we went in to ask for help. A guy was delivering goods and he offered to drive us to our car – but first he needed gasoline.
The road into the valley was rough, so 2 km from our car he gave up and for the second time we were dropped off – but now in a distance that was quickly walked.
The 3-day hike from Alakol to Altyn Arashan in Kyrgyzstan ended here for us, and we drove our car to downtown Karakol and saw the wooden Orthodox Church before hitting the road to Cholpon-Ata.