Kyrgyzstan
Ala-Kul
Turquoise water at 3,500 metres, earned on foot through a pass that steals your breath.
The pass crests at 3,860 metres and your lungs burn from the climb; then the lake appears below, turquoise so intense it reads as unreal, cupped in a bowl of grey moraine and rock. The wind at the rim is constant and cold. The water is glacier-fed and stays cold all summer.
Ala-Kul means 'Motley Lake' in Kyrgyz, named for water that swings between emerald and deep turquoise as cloud and sun move over it. It lies at 3,532 metres above Karakol, small and improbably deep: less than one and a half square kilometres of water reaching down more than 70 metres. The classic trek climbs the Karakol gorge to an alpine camp, crosses the Ala-Kul pass at 3,860 metres beside the lake, then drops to the hot springs of Altyn-Arashan on the far side. The lake night is spent under canvas on the shore, with yurt camps at the approach and the finish, and snow can hold the pass early and late in the season. The route rewards in the right order: the hardest day ends with the colour, and the next one ends in hot water.
Solo
Kyrgyzstan's signature solo trek: physically demanding, with the pass crossing a genuine test of altitude fitness. A tent on the moraine shore is earned solitude.
Friends
A shared challenge with a dramatic payoff. The pass is hard enough to feel like an achievement, the descent to turquoise water in a grey amphitheatre delivers the collective 'we made it', and the hot springs wait one valley over.
- Its Kyrgyz name translates as 'Motley Lake', for colour that shifts between emerald and turquoise with the light.
- The lake covers less than 1.5 square kilometres yet reaches more than 70 metres deep.
- The classic circuit crosses the 3,860-metre Ala-Kul pass and finishes at the Altyn-Arashan hot springs.
- The lake night is under canvas on the shore, with yurt camps at the alpine approach and the finish.
Pack the trail from Karakol's bazaar: dried apricots, nuts and a pocketful of kurut that survives any pannier.
A bowl of ashlan-fu at Karakol's Bugu Bazaar when the circuit closes; after days of camp cooking, the cold, sharp noodles taste like a celebration.
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