The southeast is Kazakhstan's adventure heartland, where the snow-capped wall of the Trans-Ili Alatau rises straight out of the steppe above the country's biggest city. Within a single day of Almaty you can stand in a glacier cirque at 3,500 m, walk a turquoise mountain lake, and drive out to a canyon that looks lifted from the American Southwest. It is the most accessible serious mountain country in Central Asia, and the natural first stop for any trip to Kazakhstan.
Mountains, lakes and canyons
Hiking reaches the impossibly blue Kolsai and sunken-forest Kaindy lakes and the sculpted walls of Charyn Canyon, while the Dzhungarian Alatau of Jetisu holds wilder, emptier valleys. Big Almaty Lake and the peaks around Almaty Region give mountaineering and trail running straight from the city edge.
Winter and the city springboard
From December the Tuyuk-Su glaciers and the slopes of Shymbulak above Almaty become a skiing and ski-touring hub with a genuine high-mountain feel. Almaty itself has the country's best transport links and guides, so most trips start here; open the Book here tab for live dates and prices.
