Skiing and snowboarding in Almaty

Maybe this post is a little bit to late in the season but if you were wondering about skiing in Almaty here is the information.

The ski season is roughly from November up to April.

Shymbulak Ski Resort
Shymbulak (also known as Chimbulak) is just a few minutes drive from the centre of town.
Easily accessible and very popular!!!

Read more about Shymbulak -
http://www.shymbulak.com/en
http://prezi.com/ge5bj4vqqfly/welcome-to-shymbulak/
http://www.shymbulak.com/en/о-компании/

Everything can be rented at the ski resort.
Lockers are 500KZT with a 2000KZT deposit.
Equipment is +_ 5 000 KZT for the day
Entrance to the resort is also between 2 000 and 5000 KZT

Transport to Medeu / Shymbulak

Cars and busses travel only up to Medeu the open air ice rink (http://www.medey.kz/en/) .
At Medeu you pay the entrance fee to the ski resort  (you require some form of identification) and take the gondola up to the ski resort.


Gypsy taxis cost +- 2000KZT one way. Don't worry there is quite a few taxis waiting for you at Medeu to take you back to town : )

There is also a no. 6 bus that also goes up to Medeu (80KZT) , it is suggested that this bus runs every 30 minutes during weekends from the Kazakhstan Hotel on Dostik Road and every 90 minutes on week days (frequency of the no 6 bus is unverified)

Travel time from the centre of the city is roughly 30-45 minutes depending on your means of transport.


Other resorts
Both Tabagan and Ak Bulak are not as accessible as Shymbulak and not on the same scale as Shymbulak, this means that they will also be quieter.

I don't know of any busses that will take you there and because it is out of Almaty I don't know of any person that has taken a taxi to any of these ski resorts or how much it will cost.
Hopefully you will find friends that will take you to these resorts if you don't have your own transport.

Tabagan
http://www.tabagan.kz/page.php?lang=3

Ak Bulak
http://www.akbulak.kz
It is said that Ak Bulak attract mainly two types of skiers: beginners and thrill seekers.
Ak Bulak is apparently the best place to learn for beginners as the beginner's slope is very mild : )


More information is available from

http://www.edgekz.com/about-kazakhstan/ski-kazakhstan.html

I hope you found this information enjoyable !!!
PS. I don't like passing off other peoples information as my own, and therefore you will notice the my posts contain a lot of links to other pages : )