Tian Shan - Ile-Alatau Mountaneering
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 111.07 mi
- Elevation gain
- 22,142 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Very difficult
- Elevation loss
- 27,254 ft
- Max elevation
- 13,945 ft
- TrailRank
- 40
- Min elevation
- 6,175 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 11 minutes
- Coordinates
- 49743
- Uploaded
- August 2, 2017
- Recorded
- August 2017
near Ozërnyy, Almaty Oblysy (Kazakhstan)
Viewed 1760 times, downloaded 28 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
9-day mountain trip in northern Kazakhstan.
Equipment required (minimum):
- standard hiking kit (good camping tents, air sleeping pads, ~ -5 C sleeping bags);
- warm clothes (down jacket, fleece, good thick softshell pants);
- ice axe;
- individual ropes (10-15 m paracord);
- crampons;
- sunglasses; and
- altitude sickness medicine.
It's better to buy tickets to the National park in advance (otherwise you'll have to pay the 'fines'). A permit to enter the border zone can be obtained in the Observatory near (~2 km) the Big Almaty Lake.
Basic glacier walking and advanced river crossing skills are required.
Equipment required (minimum):
- standard hiking kit (good camping tents, air sleeping pads, ~ -5 C sleeping bags);
- warm clothes (down jacket, fleece, good thick softshell pants);
- ice axe;
- individual ropes (10-15 m paracord);
- crampons;
- sunglasses; and
- altitude sickness medicine.
It's better to buy tickets to the National park in advance (otherwise you'll have to pay the 'fines'). A permit to enter the border zone can be obtained in the Observatory near (~2 km) the Big Almaty Lake.
Basic glacier walking and advanced river crossing skills are required.
Comments (8)
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Hi!
Very intersting route and I would like to do the same this summer. I have a question...How did you got from the finish point to Almaty? Have you used a car or there is any public transport? Thank you!
hi!
the finish point is somewhat tricky, because technically you finish at a different national reserve from where you were entering. there's a forestry at the 'exit point' (the mudflow prevention dam on the outskirts of the lake Issyk) - and the gamekeeper is well-known to be strict enough to fine the ticketless tourists. we were fined, but maybe we were also somewhat lucky, because the fellow arranged a free vehicle for us down into the village Esyk (which saved us some time and effort). once there, it is easy to find a taxi to Almaty, but just in case a bus route also exists. the prices are pleasantly cheap (it was 4000 tenge for the taxi to the best of my memory).
Thank you very much for the information, very useful! How bad were the river crossing? Was it deep and strong current? Do you have to use ropes to cross? I'm planing to go roughly the same time of the year (end of July)
River crossings were a pain. General advice is to cross in the early morning. Ropes are definitely needed. We had most trouble with crossing Yugo-Vostochnyi Tangar (South-East Talgar) - here
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0016659,77.3938246,14.84z
We approached it at 17:00 and didn't manage to tackle it before morning: the stream was enormous + many rapids + depth over 1m in the middle.
Suppose this might help as well
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10214116590011717&type=1&l=ebd8918444
Thank you very much! Yes, the link helps a lot...great pictures! Thank you once again for all the details.
One more question if you can help me with. How do you get the permits in Almaty and how long does it takes to obtain one?
Hi again
for the border guard control permit we had to go up here, apart for the walking time on the place it was very quick (just need to have the list of tourists, passports, and the expected route): https://www.google.com/maps/place/43%C2%B002'27.3%22N+76%C2%B056'39.9%22E/
Ile-Alatau national park is entrance-free.
Almaty reserve - I read that entrance admissions are given in the town of Talgar (address: 041600 Talgar, Akku district, tel. 8 (727) 74-3-02-41, e-mail: zapoved.68_68@mail.ru), but we didn't bother going there, and nobody answered our emails as well.