There is a lot to love about Almaty. For a self-declared urban explorer, its city center alone is reason enough for me to fall in love with it. However, that is hardly the reason why it receives a ton of tourist. Almaty’s natural treasures is what keeps attracting so many adventurers to it every year, though admittedly most of them visit it over summer months, when the weather is better for hiking, or during winter, when they can ski. Speaking of skiing, let us now turn our attention to the finest skiing resort in Kazakhstan, the one atop Shymbulak. In this article of mine, I will go over the one and only “semi hiking” adventure I could do in Almaty during October of 2023.
You can take a bus or better yet order a Yandex taxi to get to the Medeu ice rink, which just happens to be the ice rink with the highest elevation in the world. October may be a weird time for many to visit here, as you cannot ski or skate around, and you also cannot enjoy the weather with your shirts and shorts. Trust me, hiking and walking up hundreds of stairs with trousers is not fun, but perhaps it is my mistake as I could have just worn some joggers. In any case, after getting here, start walking straight and you will eventually arrive at a set of stairs.
Now when I said a set of stairs, I meant a lot of them. Like truly a lot… It is hard to see here and there is much more to it than it meets the eye, but basically you can scale a few hundred stairs to a vantage point higher up in the mountains. It was an arduous journey, and no amount of joking around with my friend or humming Secunda (from Skyrim) made it feel any easier.
What makes the journey somewhat bearable is the gorgeous views you get to enjoy as you go higher. The Medeu ice rink looks ever so peaceful surrounded by those beautiful hills on both sides, which are themselves donning a wonderful fall “dress” in the form of yellow trees that are slowly letting go of their leaves in preparation for a harsh winter.
Ultimately, you reach an observation of deck of sorts where you can take photos like this. The highest peak seen here is Shymbulak itself, but in all honesty every single peak and hill around looks perfect on its own right. Now, sadly, you cannot really walk the rest of the way. I mean, practically you can but you would have to follow along a main road on which only electric vehicles are allowed, and it takes a long time, and there is not much fun to be had walking on asphalt. So now you have two options, both start by going down back the way you came. You can then either take the cable car to the base camp, or you can enjoy an electric minibus that also goes there, we opted for the latter.
After taking the said electric bus up, you will find yourself in a pretty active ski resort, this is the base camp on Shymbulak. Here, you can hike your way up to higher camps, which is quite easy to do in this weather, but I am sure in winter with all the snow and skiers around, it would have been quite tricky if not outright illegal.
I could not dare to hike all the way up, mostly because I was averaging 25 kilometres a day in walking for a few days now, so I could hardly feel my legs, but also because I simply was not wearing the right gear for the job. That did not stop me from walking around for half an hour to get some pretty shots of the surrounding nature. This one is particularly good if I may say so myself. Well as good as it gets with an old phone’s camera…
After going up a bit more and finally losing the sight of cable cars slightly, I took a final look at the peak and took this photo of it. I can easily say that this small “day trip” we made to the base camp at Shymbulak with all its ups and downs, literally, was the best part of my entire trip to Almaty in the October of 2023. It is, simply put, a must see. There are some nice cafes and restaurants to enjoy as you inhale the fresh air up on the mountains, and a ton of other activities for different types of clienteles. Coming here is quite uncomplicated, as we could find a Yandex taxi with a decent price in both ways, and the electric buses work until after the sun goes down. Put this on your bucket list if you ever visit Almaty, heck, you might as well just visit this part of the world if you care about seeing how well nature, history, and modernity can all mesh together!