Our plan had been to go to Afghanistan and continue to Pakistan, India and then Nepal. But after the only border crossing between Pakistan and India had closed after some military fights, we had been stuck in central asia. After waiting for more than a month we gave up on the border to open again. We researched other options and came to the conclusion that we did not want to go through China with a guide and travel group. It would have cost at least 2000€ for going to Nepal and if the border between Pakistan and India would not have opened in spring 2026 and we won’t find a travel group back, we would have to pay about 7000€ to go back through China. What is more the visa and customs situation was not comfortable in India and Nepal without a third country to do proper border runs. We thought about southeast asia as well, but the visa and customs regulations in Laos, Thailand etc. sounded complicated and in some countries even impossible. So we made the plan to go back to Kyrgyzstan, then Kazakhstan, park Rosinante in Almaty for the winter and fly to Southeast Asia by plane until spring 2026 and see if the border between Pakistan and India would be open again. On our way from Tajikistan to Kyrgyzstan, we found another rock climbing sector at a pretty remote location. The scenery was amazing!

The crag was awesome as well. Although there were only about four routes bolted. We did one not too hard one. The next day we went for the multi pitch we were looking forward to. To me, it was ridiculous! The route was very dirty and slippery. But still we were lucky, because someone did his best to clean it. There were freshly cut plants and bushes all over the place. But I did not enjoy this route. It felt just stupid to me and I thought about aborting it. Racki enjoyed it and so I continued. But honestly, the best moment on this route was when we had reached the top/ exit after four pitches.

Happy to have survived.

At our camp spot next to a bumpy dirt road, we got quite some visitors. Among them was one nice elderly guy. We invited him for dinner, talked via Google Translate and one day he danced to my playing of the cajon. It was pretty funny.

We drove further and did a very beautiful hike.

The hike went all around a very famous white crag.

From there a lot of routes were going deeper inside the mountains.

It got pretty steep.

And the glaciers were as impressive as always.

On the way down, we had some fun sliding down the snow fields.

And we met a head attached to the inner remainder of his body.

This white mountain looked very nice. Here is our tour on komoot.

We went on and after driving a long time on bumpy off road tracks, we found a nice camp spot next to a river. From our camp spot, we started our next hike and met some locals at their summer camp.

The men were herding etc and the women and girls did everything else.

The hike brought us to a very beautiful waterfall!

It looked really nice. Here is our tour in komoot.

After some days, we continued our way back to Kyrgyzstan and took one of the more remote and lonely mountain passes.

And we made it close to the border to a big lake we’ve only been to once before. And like most of the times when we arrive at a lake, we helped a group of locals to recover their car from the muddiness.

After the visa days disaster in Kyrgyzstan, we checked again how the visa days in Kazakhstan were calculated. And it was the same as in Kyrgyzstan. The amount of days was different, which we of course already knew, but the calculation of the periods was the same. On one website of government there was the exact and right description: “in every period of 180 days you are allowed to stay 90 days”. The most important seems to be the “every” which describes what in German is called a “rolierend” way to calculate the visa days. We applied for a mountain tourism visa in Kyrgyzstan and luckily we got it. Without it, it would have become pretty expensive and complicated to stay in central Asia for the winter for us.

Back in Kyrgyzstan, we did our first ski/ snowboard tours. Racki had a split board and I went up with snowshoes and my snowboard on my back.

We had good fun and the scenery was super beautiful.

On the hunt for more snow we went up to the highest mountain areas of Kyrgyzstan south west of Bishkek on 2200 to 3200 meters. We got stuck in the snow while looking for a nice camp spot near snow covered hills that would allow ski touring.

We found a camp spot but did not check the weather forecast until it was dark only to find out that the forecast was -25 degrees Celsius. With what we had learned the last time, it went all pretty good. We did a nice ski tour but the snow was barely deep enough.

After the ski tour, we drove down a bit to have a warmer camp spot while new snow was about to come. After a few days we went up again and found a lot of snow.

We did another ski tour and this one was very exhausting because the snow was so light that I sunk in it even with my snowshoes. Sometimes waist deep.

But still it was a nice tour with the most snow we’ve had so far.

The main road was in very good condition. Even now in winter.

After the ski touring we went further south west to the Toktogul Reservoir. We had been there before in summer and it was very beautiful in winter as well. We took one of my favorite photos of all time at our beautiful camp spot.

And did some laundry and cleaning of Rosinante’s interior and tent fabric.

We went further south in the region west of Osh because the snow was still barely enough for ski touring and we preferred warmer conditions when ski touring would not be possible. Racki found nice hiking tours. On one we encountered this cute bridge.

Racki’s Slide broke on one of the slopes.

And we found more nice views.

This is the way most locals deal with the snow and wet. They have inner and outer shoes which can be easily separated.

This stuff, which friends gifted us in Almaty, helped a lot curing my throat pain.

We built a nice little website, one which Racki is offering talks and messaging with people who are feeling lonely: https://nicht-alleine.org

And of course we were playing our favorite board games. This round of Spirit Island was crazy but still we won!

We went again up a bit further. When preparing for ski touring with all the equipment it was pretty packed in Rosinante.

Here we had a ski in and ski out. It was a funny tour and we did snowboard down narrow hiking paths.

Our next camp spot already felt like spring.

Slipky (our water kefir) and our plant (called sibling) enjoyed the sun and warmth as much as we did.

And the snow seemed to already be vanishing.