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A Kyrgyzstan Snowboarding Adventure

By ldmountaincentre / March 17th, 2015 / There are currently 0 comments

I’ve been involved with LD mountain centre for a number of years now and they’re a great bunch of guys and girls who genuinely know about and use the kit they sell. After returning from an epic (last minute) trip to the Tien Shan mountains in Kyrgyzstan with the 40 tribes crew a little over a week ago, we thought you may appreciate some kit info on touring in Central Asia so here goes.

It’s one of the best experiences I’ve had and involved meeting some great people and shredding some awesome terrain. This trip involved flying to Bishkek and then a 6 hour journey traveling up a steady ascent via road to a delightful small village near Karakol.

40 Tribes Yurts, Home for the week

From there on, we trekked 3 hours into the Tien Shan Mountains where we stayed in yurts set up by 40 tribes. The yurts were awesome fun, very homely and great protection from the environment. Each day involved touring into different mountains and riding terrain dependent on the conditions and snowpack. As we had just had a huge dump of snow before we arrived, the snowpack was more unstable than usual. The terrain we rode varied from some really fun trees to long couloirs and faces. Plenty of smile and face shots all round.

http://40tribesbackcountry.com/guided-ski-and-splitboard-tours/

Here is the kit list that I choose and a couple of tips from my trip, which may benefit anyone undertaking a similar trip.

Touring Kit
Splitboard 159 GNU Billy Goat with spark magneto’s bindings. For this trip longer and fatter is important, especially for the skiers (108 minimum underfoot). If you are thinking of this trip going fat with your skis is essential due to the snow pack which is very unique. Despite a wide surface area with my board a 163 would have been better for me (I’m 5-8 and 75kg)
Snowboard boots – vibram soles help with billy goating and you can attach a crampon if needed.
G3 skins – I was quite happy with these.
Snowboard socks x 3 pairs of merino, I pretty much live in merino while touring and with socks the re-use to crusty ratio is much better.
Burton AK jacket and pants. (In the future I will upgrade to a hard shell. It’s a better investment if you can afford the extra cost initially and can help to keep your weight down when the softer shells start to retain a bit of moisture.
Base layers – I layered up with thinner 150 weight merino wool then a 240 weight. Most of the time the first layer stayed in my bag as I was more comfortable touring in the 240 weight.
Mid layers – included a Norona micro fleece hoody which I’ve had for years (great quality) and then a Berghaus hydrodown. The fleece only got used on the super cold days; while hydrodown was great to throw it on over your jacket if you get cold really quickly and it takes up no room in your pack. Great piece of kit.
Smith IOS goggles. I like Smiths, but that’s just my preference as they fit my face well. I tend to carry a spare lense rather than 2 x goggles.
2 x 1 liter water bottles + carabina to link onto your body while touring.
Sunglasses and buff for touring.
Burton AK guide mits.
Black Diamond touring gloves.
Uberwarm OR back up mits – I hate cold hands and keep a spare dry pair as back up just in case.
2 x hats. Nothing worse than a wet head if you eat it on a landing so I carry a spare.
Touring hat (brimmed or cap is good) to keep the sun out when your temperatures up from skinning.
Split board crampons.
All temp rub on wax – useful when the traverses get mellow.
Skin wax
Factor 30+ sun cream and lip balm
Spare socks
High carb to weight bars. I love a nice flapjack

This is Andy’s Touring kit list form his trip, we will post a further blog over the next few days looking at the backcountry safety kit used by Andy on the amazing trip.