Kazakhstan expedition

I am Sole Díaz, I come from the Andes mountains of Chile. I am a Skier with 17 years of experience on ski freeride and backcountry skiing doing 9 years of Freeride competitions (FWT/FWQ) around the world and practicing ski backcountry as well.

Couple years ago I met Caro North in Patagonia, she is a TNF athlete from Switzerland but she also lives in Patagonia half a year. We connected very nice and we start to ski together between Chile and Argentina.

One day Caro asked me “would you like to go Kazakhstan? I’m planning an expedition to meet my friend Darya, the only one women ski guide of Kazakhstan for a ski expedition and I would love to have you enjoying us” in that moment I melt my self haha.

So it happened. We had an approve project from TNF Europe to do this “Ski expedition to Kazakhstan, Leading by Women” to embark on this mission of exploration and opening new ski lines. Being this country to unknown to many that it is also home to unexplored and remote mountain ranges, mainly in the west and south-west at the borders with China and Kirgistan. High mountains (4000m-6000m) with big glaciers and steep faces provide the terrain for challenging new lines.

We arrived to Almaty Kazakhstan early in May 2025. Darya and Alex were waiting for us. We were planning together to go first of all for an acclimatization on the beautiful Tuyuk-Su area at the refugee. This area it’s well known by de ski community because it is near by Almaty and has a good approach with 4x4 car.

We planed to be there 5 days and it was perfect timing. We’ve ski all around. Days were starting at 2:45am and at 3 o clock was already clear. Good weather join us, perfect springs conditions and heat was high at midday.

This spring conditions made us reflect about our next objective. We needed to go higher to have colder temperatures and better snowpack. On the way back we spend some days in the city waiting for the permit to go Bayancol area. We decided for the next mission to go to this very high altitude Mountain area in the Boarder with China, Peaks touching 6.000m and looks like dreaming mountaineering ski first descends.

It was a big expedition, great planning and management to get to the base camp. Darya and Alex help so much to make it possible, they have this “Powder nomads” tourism operation. So they were the “people” to managed all papers and permits to go into this valley.

Bayancol area is 8hrs driving to the East from Almaty. Once there was a little bit slow to get into the valley coz we needed some information left on the papers, that valley is a military area, so they make an inspection to every people gets in there.

Everything rolls good! Horses were waiting for us to pick up our base camp and soon all start to go higher and higher on the Valley.

We arrived all good to Bayancol Base Camp at 3.200m. The weather was ok, but we needed to be very aware and check it everyday. The day after that we arrived to Bayancol BC and left everything setup there, we high up with our camp 1 backpacks were really heavy’s.

The place of our camp 1 was a dream. On the boarder with China to the East and Kirkistan to the South, the majesty of the horizon plenty of white summits and glaciers all around! between them Bayancol, the highest, so pure atmosphere.

Once there, we read the environment. We were very objectives about weather and timing. Marble Wall a big pick 6.400m was our main objective from below, once up there we realized that wasn’t a big deal for skiing. So, our eyes posed on this peak just in front of us Pogranichnik 5.000m plenty of glaciers but with a notable connected line top to bottom and even a round lap to the camp 1.

On the 3th day we could do it, weather was perfect just a little beat windy and we pray to the mountains to stop it in the right moment.

Darya on the way up decided to not go with us. So we keep it going up thru the icy slope and strong wind join us. The crux of the approach was this tiny edge where I felt that the wind start to slow dawn.

Once on Pogranichnik summit, wind was totally quiet and we start to chase the connected line, it took a while to find it. Snow was so good so fresh! and clear sky!

We chase the connected line! It was a beautiful one! Starting going straight down, then sideways to the left and then continue straight down to the glacier at the bottom. We did it! So gorgeous! The feeling to Ski a new line never skied before with cravers everywhere on the boarder with China is totally amazing and a blessing.

After this, we spend one more night at camp 1 to return next day before the big storm was getting closer. We arrived all good at the base camp. Checking the weather we realized that we just have one more chance of very little sun window of 1.5 days before a 10 days storm. This weather forecast change all our planning ahead.

So, we start to quickly arrange our next mission to Bayancol 5.790m. We did a weight approach with stuff till the snow line. The next day early we started to going up to Bayancol camp 1.

Very steep terrain and very heavy backpacks. Suddenly when we were very close to Camp 1, turnt totally foggy and we couldn’t see anything, we decided to put the tent in the best place around and with our probe helping to not go into the cravers and an emap to see the flat, we setup our tents and finally rest to next day Bayancol mission gonna start very early.

At 2 am ring the bell, the Sky was totally clear! An amazing view show us the paradise that we slept, beautiful peaks turning orange with the first light of the sun. We were on the right place, even not seen anything to setup the camp we camp on the right place.

We had a limited time for this mission, coz after 11am the weather will change drastically. So we started to skinning up with this gorgeous sunrise at 3 am.

It was not easy, icy under knees force us to change to crampons and then heavy powder to change to Skinning mode again and again. At 11am we were at 5.400m, 600m to the summit. The view from up there was insane, to feel yourself into a heart of this white world is a surreal experience that we will always treasure.

We decided to Ski from there. The summit was an incredible idea to get it, but we knew that we had too little window so we knew that any experience in this field was the treasure. We Skied down with sun! Only some clouds. The snow was delicious. Even starting getting wet. We had to move quickly coz also spring avalanches can be possible.

Delicious Ski line to the camp 1! Once we were Skiing down to the bottom, gets really cloudy and cover mountain. We get out just on time.

Happy to share this adventure! Thank you for reading!