Ala-Archa excursion

Posted on 23. Sep, 2009 by yoyo in Kyrgyzstan

As always, we make plans- and God laughs. in this case, he laughs so hard he’s crying.

Wanting to trek in Ala-Archa canyon we, as always, planned the craziest trek possible in the region. well, almost the craziest. we were going to trek up Ala-Archa, cross Ala-Archa pass, down the stream and up to Alamudin pass, and down Alamudin valley.

We set out Sunday afternoon with a taxi (we just could bot find the marshutka or buses the Lonely Planet talks about) from Osh bazar (Bishkek) to the Alplager (base camp in Russian). paying the driver 400Som and the ranger 300Som for us and the car. spending the night two hours up from the Alplager. the next day we woke up early (11:30AM) and continued the climb up, planning to spend the next night under the pass. bot too far above the little meteorologic station it started to rain. bad. understanding that the passes would probably be nearly impossible and very dangerous because of the rain and snow we decided to skip the big plan and just enjoy Ala-Archa and Ak-Say canyon. we also have flights (Nadav) and bus (Yoyo) to catch soon, so we need to plan our time.

We started the climb back down, meeting a group of Czechks and Slovacks (couincidence hah?) on the way, deciding to camp by them. and than the rain caught up with us. it rained all night. and all morning. and all afternoon, with only short intervals.

Finally, after a few hours of listening to the rain drop on the tent (finished my reading-book the previous night) we decided to just pack up and get the hell out. 3 hours later, and 500Som of a taxi ride from the Alplager we hung our clothes to dry back at the Guesthouse.

A few things I’ve learned: I did check with accuweather.com before seting out. it said rain was expected on Wednesday night. it started on Monday. a group of tourist we met at the Alplager told us 2 other tourist came up with a taxi, left their luggage in the car and went for a short stroll, planning with the driver he would take them directly to the airport from there. well, he left. without them. so they had to order a taxi to the airport, and fly. withoout their luggage….