Kyrgyzstan Winter-Wonderland

2 AM, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan: Stepping out of the airport in the middle of the night, fully loaded with ski bags, two heavy trolleys, backpacks and ski boots in our hands, we were cordially welcomed and immediately surrounded by a crowd of taxi drivers who offered their service.

- Dominik

They couldn’t believe us not being in need of a taxi- but this was the reality. Instead we were searching for a stranger, who would hand over the keys for the Toyota Hilux, we had rented from a friend’s mother for the next two weeks.

After 2h on the road, passing some smaller towns and villages, we made a last fuel stop (knowing that the next gas station is on the other side of the pass), before finally driving up into the mountains. There was no snow on the street of the M41, the Pamir highway, that is leading all the way from Kyrgyzstan via Tajikistan, Uzbekistan to Afghanistan and also the mountains were hardly covered in snow.

At the end of the pass there was a small hole in the mountain- the entry to the TooAshu tunnel and the main access to the South of the country. We were excited! What was going to wait for us on the other side of the tunnel? Were we going to find more snow than on the north side of the mountain?

The tunnel was quite narrow, but nothing compared to the tunnels we experienced in Albania and Montenegro two years ago.

Finally we made it through the 2500m long dark tunnel! Leaving the dark behind us, we had to get used to light again, but then we found ourselves in the most impressive Kyrgyz winter-wonderland. Having a car with four-wheel drive was definitely a good choice, as the road was finally properly snow covered.

While going down to the valley of Suusamyr, driving past more broken down trucks with snow chains, we spotted the small Too Ashuu ski resort, with its two chairlifts- but did not stop as we knew that the Suuslodge was near.