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travelguy
Apr 8, 2009, 3:39 PM
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I am planning a trip to those and several other former USSR countries. Any info about climbing sites, clubs or schools would be appreciated
thanks
(This post was edited by travelguy on Apr 8, 2009, 4:00 PM)
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kennoyce
Apr 8, 2009, 3:44 PM
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In reply to: Any info about paragliding sites, clubs or schools would be appreciated
you might try a website that has something to do with paragliding. Just a thought.
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travelguy
Apr 8, 2009, 4:00 PM
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thanks. I corrected it. it was a typo
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Rudmin
Apr 8, 2009, 4:12 PM
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travelguy wrote: thanks. I corrected it. it was a typo
That's a pretty easy mistake to make. Sometimes I want to go paragliding, but I bring all my climbing rack by accident. Boy do I feel silly when all the other guys fly off the mountain and I have to rappel.
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travelguy
Apr 8, 2009, 4:29 PM
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the worst is when all of my cams pull me down as I fall through the air. But if I spread out my slings, I do get some drag
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olympicmtnboy
Apr 8, 2009, 4:30 PM
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Step 1. Learn Russian if you don't speak it already
Step 2. Check out www.mountain.ru or www.risk.ru, I am sure there are others too.
I also just found a site in english: http://mountains.tos.ru/clmb.htm which is actually partially taken from the somewhat hard to find book Forbidden Mountains: The most beautiful mountains in Russia and Central Asia by Vladimir Kopylov and Paola Pozzolini Sincouri.
Good luck! It's beautiful over there!
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atg200
Apr 8, 2009, 10:21 PM
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I've only been to Uzbekistan over there. Its a very difficult country to gain entry to or travel in. I haven't been there since 2004, but back then you needed a letter of invitation from someone with political connections in the country and a recent negative AIDS test. Expect to be severely hassled by the police if you go anywhere aside from Tashkent, Bukhara, and Samarkhand. Most of the good mountains in Uzbekistan are close to Andijan, which is a tense place and had a very nasty government lead massacre of local muslims back in 2004. Speaking at least basic Russian is definitely a necessity, and the ability to at least sound out words written in cyrillic script.
Aside from all the hassle, it is a beautiful country and worth going to if you can manage it. Tashkent is a fun town with some excellent nightlife(though you have to watch out when the mob guys come into a bar - after seeing a few bad scenes i would just leave when they would come in). The Registan in Samarkhand is gorgeous if a bit antiseptically restored, and Bukhara is lovely with some excellent bazaars that can have excellent deals on rugs from Turkmenistan.
Don't forget to try the Caspian Sea caviar and local pistachios. Best pistachios in the world.
Bazaar in Tashkent:
Bazaar in Zarafshan:
Typical apartment building in Zarafshan:
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marde
Apr 9, 2009, 10:14 AM
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There's plenty of rock, mixed and ice climbing
in the ala archa range ~40km south of Bishkek
(capital of Kyrgistan)
You can reach it with buses (hard to find out) or a taxi.
From there it's a 3hours hike up to the ratsek hut
which is now completely renewed.
[url]http://www.alpinefund.org/Kyrgyz%20Climbing%20Overview.html[/url]
not shown here, there are also south facing rock routes
edit to add:
If you do not speak russian I'd highly recommend looking for a travel agency in these countries (more expensive though)
we used [url]http://www.ak-sai.com/[/url] and they proved to be absolutely reliable.
(This post was edited by marde on Apr 9, 2009, 10:32 AM)
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bmapple
Apr 9, 2009, 12:19 PM
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You may have already done this, but if not check out what resources the American Alipne Club has to offer.
In the past decade of American Alpine Club Journals there are a fair number of expeditions to that region and most of the trip reports feature some vignettes about travel, the local scene, getting around, etc. It was maybe two years ago that they even included a nice full size map of Kyrgyzstan in the mail when I got the ANAM and Journal. If I remember right, the map was even published with the assistance of the Kyrgyzstan dept of tourism (or something like that).
The AAC Library is a great resource for trip planning. Going to Golden, CO in person for a visit in person is best, but their awesome staff may also help you out via mail, email, and phone to get what you need.
And, if you aren't already an AAC member I'd suggest looking into that as well, they have decent insurance coverage for trips like this.
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rangerrob
Apr 9, 2009, 4:02 PM
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Don't forget to visit Climbikstan while you are there. The legendary Alpinst Slopur Lokov is from there. It's a difficult country to find as it doesn't appear on any maps. It has quite a large surface area, but because the entire country is vertical it appers very small. It is even more diffuclt to gain entry as you not only have to find it, but need permission from the ministry of tourism, and that doesn't get granted unless you can solo M10 and onsight 5.13. Don't miss the capital, Dihedral. Wonderful architecture, although everything is either a corner or an arete. The people are friendly, but if you use the word Noob they will take out out back and fill you full of AK47 bullet holes.
Whatever you do, don't bring up the topic of Slopurs disgraced uncle, and the nations embarrassment, Boris Fallingkoff. The cold War ended with Boris's demise, and they are still bitter about it to this day.
RR
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lvpyne
Apr 9, 2009, 4:56 PM
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Holy cow! I think I bought a susani at that bazaar in Tashkent!!!! Is your picture from the bazaar near the center of Tashkent, near Tashkent University?
Wow, your photos brought to mind some great stories -- including How I Accidentally Bought A Donkey in Quarshi and How I Accidentally Almost Agreed to An Arranged Marriage in Temez.
To the OP: Atg200 hit everything right-on in his descriptions of traveling to Uzbekistan. And definitely, be sure to check on visa restrictions and issues if you're traveling with a US passport.
Edited to add: I only bouldered while I was there, but it looked like there was some great, long multi-pitch and alpine climbing. The folks I was working with said that there were alpine clubs that were semi-active, but I don't know any verifiable details about that.
(This post was edited by lvpyne on Apr 9, 2009, 4:58 PM)
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atg200
Apr 9, 2009, 8:16 PM
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Sounds like the same bazaar. Pedestrian mall a few blocks long? Not far from the big nice park with the Tamerlane statue(though I suppose that describes half of Tashkent)? I bought some really nice tea sets there, and a lot of other crap. I won 450,000 soms(all in 200 and 500 som bills) in a poker game the night before I left the country for the last time and had a hard time getting rid of it. The som is the most beautiful worthless currency in the world.
Don't tease lvpayne - I have got to hear those stories. What were you doing over there, and was the marriage near miss in the town down on the Afghan border? An Uzbek air flight crashed in Termiz while I was in Tashkent, and it wasn't comforting the next day when I got on the flight to Navoi and could see steel belt sticking out from the worn rubber in the landing gear tires.
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lvpyne
Apr 9, 2009, 11:08 PM
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Yep, sounds like the same bazaar. Very cool.
I was working there a couple of years ago on an archaeology project, near a small village in Kitob (which is relatively close to Temez.) Our project focused on paleolithic archaeology -- Neandertals & early Homo sapiens -- not historic, so we were pretty much out in the sticks, excavating cave sites and doing some pretty cool surveying.
How I Bought A Donkey: We were at this big Uzbek dinner, hosted by a couple of families around Quarshi. A couple of other grad students and I were getting a tour of the guy's farm, playing soccer with some kids, pantomiming through my atrocious (i.e. non-existent) Russian and really, really bad Uzbek. Anyway, the kids brought out this donkey and we thought they were just showing him off to us. Like, "Hey, check out our cool donkey!" We took turns riding him around the farm and agreed that, yes, this was in fact a fine donkey. Apparently, the kids (and their older siblings) were selling us the donkey and we had no idea. They were so psyched about selling us the equid, we were going to take him back the United States, etc. My friend and I paid them something like 250 som (their set price) and told them they could go ahead and keep the donkey for us for safekeeping. 
How I Accidentally Almost Agreed To An Arranged Marriage We had been working for a couple of weeks at the excavation and a team of US and Russian archaeologists came to see the site. A local television station came out to film us -- to film what kind of archaeology was going on, what the weird archaeologists were up to, etc. That night there was a mammoth party with the TV crew, the archaeology teams, folks coming in off the street, whatever. At some point, I was talking to the TV station producer and he was horrified to find out that I was unmarried. Like I must be some sort of social leper in the States to still be unmarried. So he took it upon himself to try and set up a marriage arrangement with a cousin's roommate's nephew (fill in totally random connection.) He was on his cell phone negotiating a price and asked me what I thought my father would say to a price of 500 camels. Apparently, blonde hair drives up the camel price. I thought the whole thing was a joke and that the guy was kidding. Not bad, I thought and I asked the guy how my father would get the camels. (I was picturing this drove of camels arriving to suburban Phoenix via DHL or something.) His immediate response was, "Oh, we sell the camels here and wire him the money. So, you agree?" At that point, I realized the guy was not joking and totally serious. I politely declined the offer and told the guy that I had a "fiance" at home.
Ahhh, Uzbekistan -- I really loved it there. Good times, good times.
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travelguy
Apr 12, 2009, 5:14 PM
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thanks for all of the info. It does not sound like those will be good destinations for me, at least not now. I only travel to countries where I can go on my own, safely and without government intereference. Mabye in a few years... I have traveled in most of the countries on earth and it was worth waiting for several of them to open up to independant tourism.
lvpyne, that is a great story about the marriage and a good donkey story (marriage stories are less common than donkey stories among travelers!). I used to be a travel writer and did slide shows and lectures and your stories are the type that periodicals love to buy. I don't know what the market is like now, but you might do some checking! Do you have any other stories of that ilk? I would love to read them (you could post them here or PM them to me).
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