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.

Winter was coming and with it came the first snow. So we left the Tamgaly Tas climbing area and moved to the city of Almaty.

After months of climbing, we started the city life and went to a regulars’ table of German immigrants (no photo) in a Paulaner restaurant and drank a lot of wheat beer.

Had a bonfire with friends.

And made new animal friends.

Did some hiking with our good friend Maria and her Kund (“Kind” (which means child) + “Hund” (which means dog) in the early winter weather.

After some days, we went back to Kyrgyzstan where we did a lot of beautiful winter hikes.

The weather was cold but beautiful!

And sometimes pretty white.

Our diesel heater stopped working from time to time and that really pissed me off. I guess in about three years of living in a car, I learned a lot. How to do things and how to deal with things. But still a not working diesel heater when temperatures went down to about -10 degrees Celsius was not easy to cope with. At some point I talked to Racki if it made still sense to live in Rosinante in winter. My mood went down a lot. We cleaned the heater, which is necessary from time to time, but it didn’t help.

Still I had to crouch under the car mostly every morning and sometimes during the day to somehow get the fuel line working again. It was not nice to handle the metal clamps of the fuel line with these temperatures, rearranging the fuel line because that somehow helped get the heater running again. And then doing the same the next day because it did not help for a long time. We thought about staying in a hostel but did not want to spend the money. We tried a lot to optimize everything.

At some point we took a big water bottle, filled it up from Rosinante’s auxiliary tank and had the heater suck the diesel from that bottle. This somehow worked better than having it pumping the diesel from Rosinante’s main tank. The diesel seemed to be liquid and in a good condition but still in the end, the final solution was pretty easy and obvious: the diesel got too viscous in the cold. After we put some anti gel additive in the tank, the heater was working very reliably.

I felt much better once we had solved that issue after two weeks of unrewarding trying and failing but still I felt very exhausted and stressed. It was a hard time for Racki and me because I did not feel much like talking a lot and felt kind of depressed. It felt like there was always a heavy weight on me and us. But we never fought or accused each other and so we managed to let go of the weight.

In a shop for handmade stuff we bought an original Kyrgyz carpet for a friend and I found this little fellow: Boris.

The glint wine season started.

In Karakul we had the service on our snowboards done to have them ready for ski touring once there would be enough snow. Our transportation method for our snowboards turned out to be pretty stupid. Back in Gudauri, we had put them into a strong plastic bag and had put them on Rosinante’s roof. The result of the weather, changing temperatures and humidity caused a lot of rust on the edges of them. But the friendly guys from a ski service did their best and a very good job. We bought some slides in a supermarket and had a lot of fun sliding down the slopes.

We managed to find a fast and satisfying routine for living in the cold temperatures in Rosinante and it felt better and everything started to feel more easy for me again.

Drying of washed clothes still worked.

On our winter hikes there was a lot to see.

And we had wonderful views around the Issyk Kul. One of the biggest lakes in the world.

On the way to Bishkek, we found these.

And because most of our hiking trail was covered with ice, we tried to slide down the trail while sitting on stones. I did not work that much.