Hiking Guide: Ak Suu Traverse: Days 9 - 11

Day 9: Karakol Valley to Ala Kul Lake

Distance: 10km

Ascent: approx. 1,200m

Time to hike: 5 hours

Finally, the day was upon us that I got to experience the highlight of the trail - Ala Kul Lake! This was the lake that Tim had gone to the day I left the trail during the first attempt, and this time I was ready and excited to experience it for myself.

Tim decided he wanted to try a different, more challenging route to get there, and I was more than happy to stick to the main tourist-y trail. We agreed on a meeting point at the top, and went our separate ways.

I had expected this part of the trail to be quite challenging, as it’s long and steep, but I only really found it hard in the last quarter when it was hard to see the trail and I somehow managed to veer off in the wrong direction. After climbing up some slippery rocks for a few hundred metres, I decided to check my AllTrails, and realised I had gone totally off track.

Walking back down those rocks was even worse, but somehow I managed to do it all in one piece without falling over. Back on the actual trail the last part was still hard, but I wasn’t fearing for my life.

I reached the top by 3pm, which was 5 hours after I left Tim. I was a little ahead of schedule as we both thought it would take me about an hour longer, so I walked around and took some photos. Once I became too cold for that, I huddled up at our meeting point, eyes glued to the mountain across the other side of the lake that Tim was due to pop over any minute. To be honest, I was surprised I had bet him - he thought he would have arrived before me.

After what seemed like an enternity of staring at the top of the mountain, I finally saw a little black blob appear and I knew it was him. I stared at this black blob as he ran around the top, went for a drone, then zig-zagged his way down and around the lake.

He took so long to come around the lake, I was starting to get worried he had managed to fall in it or something. When he finally appeared, we ran up and embraced in relief (and cold!). He had been really worried because he couldn’t see me at the meeting point, despite me waving my arms out and calling out to him when he was making his way down the mountain. He thought maybe I hadn’t made it to the top, and he would have to run back down and find me!

But alas, we had both made it and it was starting to get FREEZING! We pitched our tent and somehow managed to sleep through the -15 degree night (lots of handwarmers helped).

Day 10: Ala Kul Lake to Ala Kul Pass, back down to Karakol Valley

Distance: 12km

Ascent: approx. 400m

Descent: approx. 1200m

Time to hike: 5.5 hours

After a chilly start to the morning, we left our tent and packs at our campsite and made the side trek up to the Ala-Kul Pass lookout. It was a steep path up, but hiking without my pack on felt like a dream so I made it up there twice as fast as I normally would! It took about an hour from the campsite.

The views were incredible, and there were a few small groups of other hikers up there as well - ones that were doing the three-day Ala-Kul Lake hike. You can also climb up to the pass from the other side (the side Tim climbed after I left the trek in the first half) and it looked a lot steeper and harder to climb, so I am glad we did it the way we did!

After getting back to the campsite and cooking up some lunch, we packed up our gear to head back down to Karakol Valley. I guess technically I didn’t complete ALL of the Ak-Suu Traverse as I missed the part of the trail from the Ala-Kul Pass to Altyn Arashan Valley, but after seeing how steep it was I had no qualms about that!

We made it back down to the valley at about 5:00pm, and found a spot on a grassy plot of land next to the river about 1km down the dirt road that leads back to Karakol. If we had left the top of Ala Kul Lake a couple of hours earlier we could have made the full walk back in one day, which would have been 24 kilometres, but that would have meant getting up early - which never an option for us!

Day 11: Karakol Valley to Ala-Kol Etno Hostel, taxi to Karakol

Distance: 12km

Descent: approx. 550m

Time to hike: 3.5 hours

Taxi cost to Karakol: KGS565/AUD$10/USD$6.55

The final morning we took slow, enjoying our final moments in nature, before walking the final 12km to where a taxi could pick us up from.

It was an easy and flat walk back down the valley, and cutting in and out of cell phone service which was exciting after a few days offline!

We reached a tiny ski village (well, a few ski guesthouses) that connected us back to a gravel road and ordered a Yandex rideshare to take us back to Karakol - well, to the Shawarma take-out shop, to be precise!