Spring has announced itself resoundingly with a 25 degree jump in temperature and our first rain since arriving in December. Our garden emerged from its grubby crust of snow and the first crocus burst forth within days.

But before all that, in February, we travelled East in our Big Red Truck for a few days of snowboarding and walking in Karakol, at the far end of Lake Issyk-Köl. Karakol hosts Kyrgyzstan’s best ski resort, with a 2nd hand 3-seater chairlift (complete with original Les Menuires branding – funny to be riding a lift here that I’ve probably ridden before in France!) and a button lift. Lots of snow and excellent snowboarding through the trees, but more of that later…

Karakol also boasts a renowned Sunday animal market where the whole region comes to buy and sell horses, cattle and sheep. It was great: hundreds of steaming horses kicking each other or being test-cantered up and down the car park, shaggy fat-tailed sheep tied together in bundles (any more than about 4 sheep when tied together are evidently considered unable to coordinate a run for freedom); and bored young men in thick felt boots and with a cow on a piece of string chatted into mobiles and waited for a buyer.

In the car park a solitary sheep stood tied to the tow bar of a Lada: we watched as the occupants got out, opened the boot, and shoved the struggling animal in with 2 or 3 others already inside.

We didn’t see any horses in cars, but did spot a calf on the back seat of another Lada. We were actually on the look-out for a Siamese cat but couldn’t seem to find the pet section…

Back to Bishkek and the warm weather, but even with winter on the run here I managed another excellent day of snowboarding up at a high pass (3500m) on the road to Osh. We’d made friends with Brad and Brian, an entertaining pair of visiting ski-bums from Montana who were checking out the ski-touring potential in Kyrgyzstan; and when Brad headed back to the States, Brian persuaded me to drive up to the Tör-Ashuu pass to ski some lines they’d spotted from the car on their travels.

We parked at the exit of the tunnel through the main ridge and headed up the south-facing slopes above to see what we could find, with Brian skinning up easily on his skis and me, with my snowboard on my back, frequently sinking to my knees as I broke through the crusty snow. A tedious hour and a half was rewarded with the enticing sight of a series of pristine white couloirs and slopes forming the north face below. Having confirmed the snow pack was relatively stable (via a clever trick of Brian’s involving collapsing the cornice onto the slope using 10 metres of knotted cord) we ripped down on after another.

It was superb! – firm snow with a few inches of powder on top – and the idea that we might be the first people ever to ride these lines made it even sweeter!

So we climbed straight back up to the ridge…

…and found some steeper couloirs further along for a second run.

This took us all the way down to the road, where a couple of local guys looked pretty surprised to see us carving down the slope right to the tunnel entrance. Thanks for a great day Brian! Check out the rest of the photos here.

The Siamese cat-hunt was also a success – we’re picking up 2 kittens (6-week old brother and sister) tomorrow!