Only a short bus ride from Almaty lays the beautiful ski resort Chimbulak. It is both fancy and posh and you find a lot of expensive cars of people wearing equal expensive sunglasses on the Chimbulak parking space.
From Almaty you can take a bus every hour for 80 Tenge (0,50 EUR) and you reach a place in the mountains called Medeo. From Medeo you have three options to go to Chimbulak: The quite expensive cable car, hitchhiking (as what I did) or hiking, around three hours uphill.
The ski ticket for four hours in Chimbolok costs 2500 Tenge (13 EUR), the obligational membership of Chimbulak another 1500 Tenge (7,50EUR) and the rental for equipment 5000 Tenge (27 EUR). When I started to bargain or get a student discount, the staff members became even more unfriendly than they were before. Better to just accept thatChimbulak has fixed prices.
If all lifts are open, you can choose between five ones and go up to 3200 meter.
The snow there is just perfect and if you come on a week day, you have to share the ski run with only very few other people. In the ski lift I´ve met a guy from the Netherlands, who regularly comes for a day to Chimbulak, as he works in Kazakhstan. He has a very matching description of Chimbulak: “These are not the Alps, but it is fair enough for one day ski adventure.”
Kommentar schreiben