After a fairly straightforward 7 hour flight from London via Riga, in Latvia, we arrived at silly o’clock in the Uzbekistan capital, Tashkent. Our flight was met by our Direct Adventures Rep, an enthusiastic young Uzbeki called Nikolai, who whisked us off to our recently refurbished, rather grand ex-soviet Hotel. Complete with huge water feature and flagpoles out front!
There was time for a few hours kip before breakfast and then we were whisked off on a tourist tour of the sights and delights of Tashkent. After Lunch we load our Minibus and cars for our 2 hour transfer to the awesome yet slightly misplaced Pyramid Hotel, which nestles alongside the Charvak Reservoir and beneath the Charvak Ormgohi Ski Station. (This is a two lift resort that is hugely popular w/e destination for the dudes and dudesses of Tashkent!)
The first afternoon was spent getting ourselves sorted with all our gear, meeting guides. After a run through of all the health and safety aspects of Heliskiing, we checked our gear and made ready for the week to come and generally got settled into our ‘home’ for the next week. The Hotel itself is pretty awesome, with its bars, disco, pool and saunas. It was built 12 years ago, in the ‘new, independent’ Uzbekistan by the Presidents daughter, to encourage tourism into the area.
Our next morning started with breakfast in the dinning room and then, all geared up we got into the awesome MI8 Helicopter. All aboard, we soar off for the short flight to a superb area of the Maidantal Range. The terrain was varied and sympathetic to our needs and expectations, easing us into the great snow. (It was classic Frog Pow!) We flew four flights today. The terrain was rolling and varied which meant we could explore freely and never cross another track all day. Awesome.
That evening we settled into dinner and the bar! Eagerly talking about the day and things to come...
We head for a new destination and different range, where there were more treats in store. We had quality skiing again today, with blue skies and great snow again. There were some challenges out there today, much to amusement of some of the group! Then again into our trusty stead and back to the hotel for a rest before our supper and frivolities (Vodka!)
Over the next few days we flew to various peaks and into different ranges. We searched out and rode awesome north facing slopes of the Chimgan Mountain (3309 m). We flew through and out into the Chatcal Range that sported some truly epic open, rolling ski fields and then into huge weaving half-pipe gullies. Our guides found us the glades in Pskem valley which satisfied the whole group with its trees and drops and classic fun skiing. We skied from the 3500 m peaks of the Padir and Kaptarkumish through awesome and varied terrain that was both challenging, exhilerating and truly memorable. Incredible skiing.
We were lucky with the weather as we had mostly clear weather and good visibility and in the 7 days of skiing we had three fresh snowfalls that thankfully didn’t impede our skiing days. Each day we skied with our local Russian guide and our English speaking fully qualified ski Guide.
The skiing in the ex soviet Uzbekistan is not necessarily the highest nor on the whole the steepest but it rivals any of the best skiing I’ve ever done; with great terrain and descent altitude gain; accommodation that doesn’t scream of opulence but the rooms are clean and not to ‘cosy’ with ensuite bathrooms; the food was good, tasty and filling; our Russian guides were excellent, and our qualified high mountain guide and Direct Adventures Rep couldn’t have worked harder at making this trip as good as anything, if not better than anything we have experienced in some of the more well known Heliski destinations around the world.
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