Splitboard Trips > Asia > Splitboard Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan Horses & Yurts

A Splitboard Kyrgyzstan trip is one of the most rewarding backcountry experiences you can take. The mountains here are quiet, the snow can be deep, and the culture is unlike anywhere else. Life in the high valleys moves at a slower pace, which is a welcome change from busy resorts and crowded lift lines.

When you travel through the Jyrgalan region, you step into a place shaped by ancient traditions. You will meet friendly locals, enjoy amazing authentic food and integrate with the communities living and working by the Tien Shan mountains. It is a world away from splitboarding in the Alps and an immersive cultural experience. The splitboarding is excellent as well. The valley sits between the huge Issyk Kul lake and the Tien Shan range. As a result, storms often bring light, cold snow to the area. You can ride open bowls, tree lines, mellow slopes or steeper chutes. Splitboard and ski touring isn’t common here, yet, and there are many first splitboard descents still to be made.

You will explore all of this with our UIAGM splitboard guides, Paul “Polo” Verdier and Laurent “Bib” Bibollet. They understand the terrain here and work with local guides to better understand how the snowpack has shaped up throughout the winter.

This trip is also packed with other adventures, we can ride horses deep into the backcountry, use skidoos for hot lapping a freeride zone and spend a night in a remote yurt under the stars. Each day brings something new, and every part of the trip adds to the experience.

If you want deep snow, big scenery and a real cultural journey, a Splitboard Kyrgyzstan adventure should be at the top of your list.

Read the 2026 trip update

When’s the best time to come?

Trips often run in March and April, we have dates available below so get in touch if you want a truly great experience.

6th – 13th March 2026, €3695
12th – 20th March 2026, €3695

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Programme
Fitness & Ability
What's Included
What's Not Included
Terms & Conditions

Trip Itinerary

Thursday 5th:

Arrive in Bishkek and take an internal connecting flight to Karakol. In Karakol you’ll spend the evening at a local guesthouse, dinner included.

Day 1. Friday 6th:

A few hours of lift assisted snowboarding at Karakol ski resort will help you warm up the legs. In the late afternoon you’ll be transferred by road to the next guesthouse in Jyrgalan Valley in a private mini-coach. Unpack, eat dinner and relax.

Day 2. Saturday 7th:

After a hot breakfast we’ll set off (packed lunch also provided) for exploratory splitboard tour in the local zone. Along the way we’ll dig pits to make snow-pack assessments, run avalanche training drills and transceiver search refresher sessions. We return to the guesthouse for dinner.

Day 3. Sunday 8th:

Today we’ll really warm up your snowboarding legs and get you used to riding at a higher altitude on a skidoo uplift day. We’ll make multiple shuttle runs to the top of the designated freeride zone in Jyrgalan Valley looking for the best powder lines

Day 4. Monday 9th:

Today we’ll will make a much longer tour, starting from the guesthouse and returning in the late afternoon for lunch and a complimentary sauna before dinner and the 4th night at the guesthouse.

Day 5. Tuesday 10th:

After breakfast we’ll transfer by road to a neigbouring village (approx 30 minute drive) to collect the horses for today’s adventure. The horses will take us on a calm approach deeper into the valley and help us gain a 600m altitude bump. After an hour or so we will leave the horses behind and continue the ascent on splitboards to the peak. A big descent follows all the way back to the same village. We transfer back to our guesthouse by car for dinner.

Day 6. Wednesday 11th:

After another good breakfast we’ll make a tour much further into the valley riding lines along the way before stopping for the night in a backcountry yurt. The yurt is basic, but it’s warm and clean. A local shepherd will be on hand to cook dinner and keep the fires burning throughout the night for us. Any overnight toiletries and small travel bags will be taken up to the yurt by a snowmobile.

Day 7. Thursday 12th:

After breakfast at the yurt we’ll splitboard to that days objective ( conditions allowing ) which is a 3600m peak. We’ll make the descent all the way back to Jyrglan village in time for a late lunch. After lunch you’ll need to pack in time for a 5pm transfer back to Karakol to spend a last night in the guesthouse there and enjoy a farewell dinner together.

End of trip

Friday 13th:

After breakfast at the guesthouse you can take a taxi to Karakol airport in time for your flight to Bishkek and onward destination

Fitness & Ability

We will look to make a vertical ascents of around 1200m per day so your fitness level will allow you to do this over consecutive days. You will most likely also have been on a Rider Social trip before, if you haven’t we will need to talk with you to assess the general group fit and ability level.

What’s Included

6 days of UIAGM splitboard guiding with Paul Verdier & Laurent Bibollet
8 nights’ accommodation (yurt camp and guesthouse)
Ground support vehicles – cat-ski, horses and snowmobiles
Private return transfers to Karakol
Private return transfers from Bishkek International
Breakfast & dinner on 8 nights
Lunch on 7 days

What’s Not Included

Flights to Bishkek / Karakol
Personal Insurance
Splitboard equipment
Backcountry safety equipment
Alcohol

Payment Policy: A deposit of €695 is required immediately upon booking your session with The Rider Social. The balance of your trip costs are due 8 weeks before the course start date. Failure to meet the payment deadline 8 weeks before the start date will forfeit your place on that session without refund.

Cancellation policy: For cancellations made up to 8 weeks before the course start date, 0% of the ‘deposit’ amount paid will be refunded. For cancellations occurring within 6 weeks of the course start date no refund payments will be made. If cancelling a course within 6 weeks of the course start date, payments made cannot be refunded, carried forward or moved to another course.

Refund policy: The Rider Social is not liable for refunds or compensation due to late arrival, failure to attend or complete a course due to injury or illness, travel restrictions, resort closure, adverse weather conditions, force majeure or any other causes or conditions outside the control of The Rider Social

Covid: In the event that you can’t attend your session due to Covid, associated travel and holiday disruptions including (but not exclusive to) resort closure, FCO imposed travel restrictions, airline train or ferry travel bans imposed by International or local governments, a 50% refund of the balance paid, minus the non refundable deposit amount, will be refunded to you (the client).

In the event that you can’t attend your course due to you, (the client) being personally affected by illness, inability to travel due to illness or any other personal restrictions affecting your travel The Rider Social will not be liable to refund any monies (as stated in the refund policy above). It is strongly recommended that you have adequate personal insurance for illness, personal cancellation and personal travel disruption.

Upon booking any advertised session of any duration with The Rider Social you are in agreement of the Payment & Cancellations policies listed above.

Destination Jyrgalan

A short 90-minute drive, in a north easterly direction, from the popular Karakol area you’ll find a small valley surrounded by very big mountains. This valley is located between the massive Tien Shan mountain range on and, crucially, the huge Issyk Kul lake, forming a micro-climate that is a perfect recipe for super snowy winter storms.

In this valley is a village that sits at 2200m altitude. It has all the right ingredients in place to make it the perfect base for a splitboard trip. The village is run by a consortium of local Kyrgyz people who are hoping to put it on the map as a winter touring destination. It is currently popular in the summer months but not so much during the winter ones so you’ll not see many other splitboarders here, yet.

The Accommodation

The accommodation we’ll be using in Jyrgalan has modern twin rooms with en-suite bathrooms and mountain views, and we can splitboard in a 360-degree direction from its front door.

The guesthouse is in the central village, has a wood-fired sauna for guest use and serves the most amazing, fresh and authentic food; it is seriously delicious stuff. Gulmira, who owns the guesthouse and her team look after all of our needs, day to day transport, logistics and can provide local intel on conditions to our UIAGM guides.

The surrounding area has everything you’ll need on a splitboard trip, too. Access to the high alpine for the sunny days and forest zones, should the visibility be bad on the snowy ones. The village has a few small shops and a crazy little apres bar made from an old railway car, if you’re in the mood for it, then it’s definitely worth a look inside.

The Splitboarding

There is a huge choice of lines to ride here, on many different aspects.

This variation in terrain will help us to find the best powder for you to ride each day, and we can choose from long, undulating runs of 25-30 degrees to some of the steeper chutes on offer. A lot of these lines haven’t been skied or ridden before, either, so making a first descent isn’t totally out of the question on this trip.

We will expect to make at least 1200m of vertical ascent per day, so your fitness level will allow for this

In terms of the riding, let’s just say it can get pretty deep in Jyrgalan, so you’ll know how to float a turn on a steep and manoeuvre through the trees.

Skidoo Freeride

We will spend a day using sledges to uplift us into the designated ‘freeride zone’ in Jyrgalan.

Piloted by local Kyrgyz, these sledges are fast and fun. You’ll ride pillion as they fly up to the top of this seemingly never-ending zone of fresh pow lines.

There is a cat-ski that runs, but this is by far the better way to travel. We’ll get more laps in using these sledges and don’t have to sit in a smelly old cat burning 300l of diesel.

Horses

The Kyrgyz were a nomadic people, before being settled into collectivised agriculture by the former Soviet regime, and horses were (and still are) an intrinsic part of their life and culture, and you can’t go far in Kyrgyzstan without coming across them. Taught to ride from a very early age, Kyrgyz people look effortless on horseback, which is no surprise, as their national game is Kok Boru.

Kok Boru is essentially a mounted game of polo using a headless dead goat as the ball. Games are fast, full contact and fierce, especially between rival villages. Winning is a source of huge pride, and claiming the bragging rights over who has the best equestrian prowess is everything. If you want to see footage from a Kok-Boru game, you can search it on the web, but be warned, it can be pretty gruesome.

We’ll be on the horses too, but for a much calmer experience

A highlight of this trip is using the horses to help us move deeper into the backcountry. Heading through open snowscapes and into the forests on horseback is really one of the most amazing experiences you can have with a splitboard on your back. The horses can make between 400m – 600m of ascent depending on the conditions. As soon as they tire, we carry on up using the splits, and the horses find their way back to the village with the help of a guide.

For anyone who doesn’t get along with horses or perhaps has an allergy to them, we will also have a guide on a splitboard from the start, who you can follow instead.

Yurt night

As a nomadic people, the Kyrgyz know how to camp out in comfort. On this trip, we’ll be looking to split and ride for a day, ending up at a remote backcountry yurt which has been set up for our private use. It will be manned by a local shepherd who will cook us dinner and keep the fires burning through the night. Any toiletries, other clothing, etc that you’ll want for that evening can be brought up in a separate bag by sledge and also taken back down for you.

Apart from an excellent under-the-stars camping experience in the Tien Shan mountains, using this yurt for a night serves another purpose. The next morning, we’ll be in a good position, nice and early, to make the summit of a local peak topping out at around 3700m in altitude. We can then ride all the way back to our guesthouse.

There is so much going on during this trip that it’s pretty hard to describe the overall experience. It’s one you just have to come and live.

FAQs

What cultural experiences can I expect on a Kyrgyzstan splitboarding trip?

Kyrgyzstan has a rich, nomadic heritage. During this trip we can travel by horse into the backcountry, eat authentic, traditional foods and spend nights in a remote yurt. These moments create a deeper connection to the place and play a big part in the overall experience.