The Central Tian Shan Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Bishkek trekking agencies organising climbs and treks in the central Tian Shan include Dostuck Trekking, Edelweiss, ITMC Tien-Shan, Ak-Sai and Tien-Shan Travel in Bishkek; Turkestan and Alp Tour Issyk-Kul in Karakol; and Kan Tengri and Tour Asia in Almaty.

Access to the region surrounding Khan Tengri is by road, air or on foot. It’s a four-hour (150km) trip on a roller-coaster, all-weather road from Karakol via Inylchek town, a mining centre at about 2500m and 50km west of the snout of the Inylchek Glacier. Do-it-yourselfers could hire a UAZ Jeep from CBT Karakol, for around 5000som or a 4WD 15-seater from Alp Tour Issyk-Kul for US$200. Even though maps show a road between Ak Shyrak and Inylchek, the last part of this road is no longer passable and access via this approach is by foot only. The new road to Ak-Jailoo has a US$10 toll for jeeps, or US$20 for trucks.

If you’ve got the cash, take a mind-boggling helicopter flight over the Tian Shan to Khan Tengri base camp with Kan Tengri from its Karkara Valley base camp, or with other agencies from Gribov Camp. It’s possible to hitch a lift on a helicopter from Maida Adyr to the base camps for US$100 (plus US$1 per kilo if you have more than 30kg of luggage). These run every two days in August.

You can trek to Khan Tengri’s north face from Narynkol (Kazakhstan), Jyrgalang (Kyrgyzstan) or, less interestingly, from the Ak-Jailoo road head.