kayakstan.net :: ala archa
You are: home > river guides > ala archa
Waterlevels: Glacier Fed. Too low in late august, need to catch it earlier in the season.
Accessibility: The river runs through a National Park, which has a small entrance fee. A good quality dirt track runs alongside the river, easily scouted.
Above park border post
Low volume continuous Gd3 with some Gd 4's. Needs to be run early in the season?
Length: ?
Grade: III/IV
Put in/Get out: Find your own. The section we looked at (not paddled, it was too low) finishes at the national park border post.
Description: A ditch run that looks exciting due to its never ending speed but lacks river features to make the run interesting and unique. In higher levels though, the speed could make this a testing run more like riding a run-away train than your average alpine run.
Last Paddled: Scouted only.
Additional Info
From the inbox...
From: Tom Saffell
Sent: 12 April 2004 11:00
I went to Kyrgyzstan a few years back. It's an awesome country. I didn't get to boat unfortunately, but I did do some trekking,
its all very Alpine, and there looked to be massive potential. One particular river that I trekked up (the valley of) is I think
called the Ala Archa (Gnarly pic). Think Melach (AT), but steeper. It would be quite a mission
at the water level that I saw (early August). It's only 2 hours or so outside Bishkek. I didn't see much of the section up to the
road head (a military base) as I was in a taxi, but everything above there for a good 10km was steep and continuous. Below the
road head is probably also good. Take a look. (at the head of the valley there is a disused ski station).
Tom
