Jyrgalan

Snow settles on abandoned mine tailings as a horse picks its way up the valley, its rider's skis strapped crosswise to the saddle. Jyrgalan in Kyrgyzstan's eastern Issyk-Kul province smells of woodsmoke and cold iron — a Soviet mining village where the ore ran out but the powder never did. The silence here is the kind that follows industry: total, expectant, and broken only by the creak of fresh snow underfoot.

Jyrgalan operated as a tin-mining settlement until the collapse of the Soviet Union left its tunnels empty and its population dwindling. Since 2015, local guides have mapped over 200 kilometres of backcountry ski-touring routes through the surrounding Terskey Alatau range — terrain that receives consistent dry powder from November through March. In summer, the same slopes open to mountain biking and trekking through valleys most Kyrgyz travellers have never visited. Guesthouses run by former mining families offer guide services, horse hire, and equipment rental, keeping the economy alive on a new kind of extraction. When heavy snowfall closes the valley road in winter, horses occasionally become the only way in.