A lone figure leans into the harness of a loaded sledge, a thin line of tracks behind him across a white plain. Malaysian filmmaker and photographer Zahariz Khuzaimah, who usually travels by bicycle, swapped wheels for skis and snowshoes to cross about 400 km of Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan in winter, camping in the snow along the way.
Kyrgyzstan and the Tien Shan mountains
Kyrgyzstan is a small country in Central Asia, and in Khuzaimah’s words almost 90 percent of it is mountains. Most of those belong to the Tien Shan, whose name means the “Celestial Mountains”.
His route took him through the east of the country, past the red rocks of Jety-Oguz, below the Arashan mountains and down to the shore of Issyk-Kul. He pulled his tent and gear behind him on a sledge, climbing to higher ground with the heavy load.
Camp life on a winter ski journey
Khuzaimah describes himself as a nomad who values experiences over possessions, and he shares his trips through writing, photography and film. On this one, the camera recorded the work as much as the scenery.
A long ski journey has a daily rhythm: break camp, haul the sledge, find shelter, cook, sleep. Khuzaimah’s photographs keep those ordinary moments in view. A breakfast stove in the first light, upright skis beside the tent and a glowing shelter under a sky full of stars show what living on the snow feels like between the big views.
Skis carry a sledge efficiently over open snow, while snowshoes help on steep or broken ground. Winter travel here rewards preparation: go with local knowledge of avalanche conditions, weather and route before heading into the high valleys.
Jety-Oguz and the red rocks
Near Jety-Oguz in eastern Kyrgyzstan the white ground meets red rock formations, one of the most striking colour contrasts of the journey. Lower down the snow was already melting, and patches of bare earth show between the drifts as the season turned.
Issyk-Kul, the lake at the end of the snow
The photo series closes beside Issyk-Kul, the second-largest mountain lake in the world after Lake Titicaca. It lies at about 1,607 m in the Tien Shan, runs roughly 178 km from end to end and reaches a depth of 668 m. Its water is slightly salty, about 0.6 percent, which is why it rarely freezes despite the cold winters. The town of Karakol, near its eastern tip, is the usual base for trips into the surrounding mountains.
For more winter journeys, see Dheera Venkatraman’s Mongolia photographs, Simon Trnka’s mountain nights and Freya’s Everest Base Camp photographs.
Related reading
- Dheera Venkatraman’s Mongolia photographs
- Simon Trnka’s mountain nights
- Freya’s Everest Base Camp photographs
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