On a fourth warm day we opted for a scenic drive down to the Charvak reservoir. View from our hotel window shortly before sunrise:
Matt’s favorite ski run, 2,000 vertical, in Uzbekistan is also visible from our hotel room, marked in orange in this pic.
The top of Chimgan ski area is the red circle at far left, but that’s not how you get there. It’s a 4.5 hour skin from the road.
A zoom shows that line has been recently skied, along with another one on the spine at looker’s right.
On our way out of town we passed the Savirsoy hotel, which has an old Aeroflot plane parked in front.
Our first view of the Charvak Reservoir:
Just below dead center where the beach meets the forest is a helipad. This and the hotel at center left were the base for heliskiing. Going into this trip that was my backup plan for at least one day if resort conditions weren’t good. But Murphy had other ideas. The old Russian army helicopter was due for refurbishment and to no surprise it’s probably not coming back from Russia. There are new western helicopters but as in Iceland they are primarily used for sightseeing. However, since this is Uzbekistan they don’t seem to be able to acquire baskets for the heli to carry a group’s skis and poles.
View across the reservoir to the Ugam Mountains which form the border with Kazakhstan to the north.
Note wind tower at left. Many of our reservoir overlooks were very windy. The Uzbek ski areas have an unusual microclimate for central Asia with not much wind. Matt believes they are sheltered by the much higher mountains to the south in Tajikistan.
As we drove along Matt and Ilya stopped now and then to scout potential ski touring objectives.
The Chatkal River flows into Charvat from high in Kyrgyzstan.
Ilya says that sometimes in late fall/early winter it contains ice crystals, and when the river slows down at the reservoir large blocks of ice can form on the banks. As the reservoir continues dropping during the winter those ice blocks are left high and dry as seen here. Ilya says this phenomenon occurs only once every 5-10 years.
Another overview from southwest end of Charvat, with new yellow hotel surrounded by run down Soviet era houses:
Note trash in foreground. Neither Liz nor I have ever seen such concentrations of roadside/hillside trash. Ilya said trash collection is erratic at best so people just dump it, and the chronic wind tends to collect it in certain locations.
View across the lake to town of Burchmilla:
The thin deciduous trees are similar to poplars.
Zoomed view of green roof compound built for first independent Uzbek president Islam Karimov.
We then drove northeast up the Pskem River for awhile.
At one stop a golden eagle circled overhead long enough for me to get zoomed pictures.
The eagle has prey dangling from its talons; our best guess is a small bird. These are the largest raptors to be domesticated for hunting, and you can see demonstrations in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.
We stopped by this spring, which was some kind of summer resort in the past.
This is the only road out the far eastern side of Uzbekistan and is thus militarily patrolled.
We drove far enough to get a decent view of the easternmost Uzbek mountains, max elevation over 12,000 feet.
There are high voltage lines on the left hillside coming down from a hydropower plant.
We then drove west around the north side of Charvak reservoir. Town of Chorvoq below the reservoir:
Uzbek flag, dam on other side:
Above the dam was a large Lenin profile.
Lenin has been removed but the supporting structure remains.
We had late lunch about 3:30 at this local restaurant featuring hearty shishlik kebobs for about $1.50 each.
I had to insist on sitting at a conventional table since my left foot fell asleep and back got stiff at a similar lunch place in Samarkand. I did not want to take chances with upcoming possible ski days. The local tradition in these parts is to cook all kebobs in lamb fat, so Liz’ lunch consisted of two beers.
We got back after 5PM so it was not long before Liz could have dinner at the hotel.
Matt’s favorite ski run, 2,000 vertical, in Uzbekistan is also visible from our hotel room, marked in orange in this pic.
The top of Chimgan ski area is the red circle at far left, but that’s not how you get there. It’s a 4.5 hour skin from the road.
A zoom shows that line has been recently skied, along with another one on the spine at looker’s right.
On our way out of town we passed the Savirsoy hotel, which has an old Aeroflot plane parked in front.
Our first view of the Charvak Reservoir:
Just below dead center where the beach meets the forest is a helipad. This and the hotel at center left were the base for heliskiing. Going into this trip that was my backup plan for at least one day if resort conditions weren’t good. But Murphy had other ideas. The old Russian army helicopter was due for refurbishment and to no surprise it’s probably not coming back from Russia. There are new western helicopters but as in Iceland they are primarily used for sightseeing. However, since this is Uzbekistan they don’t seem to be able to acquire baskets for the heli to carry a group’s skis and poles.
View across the reservoir to the Ugam Mountains which form the border with Kazakhstan to the north.
Note wind tower at left. Many of our reservoir overlooks were very windy. The Uzbek ski areas have an unusual microclimate for central Asia with not much wind. Matt believes they are sheltered by the much higher mountains to the south in Tajikistan.
As we drove along Matt and Ilya stopped now and then to scout potential ski touring objectives.
The Chatkal River flows into Charvat from high in Kyrgyzstan.
Ilya says that sometimes in late fall/early winter it contains ice crystals, and when the river slows down at the reservoir large blocks of ice can form on the banks. As the reservoir continues dropping during the winter those ice blocks are left high and dry as seen here. Ilya says this phenomenon occurs only once every 5-10 years.
Another overview from southwest end of Charvat, with new yellow hotel surrounded by run down Soviet era houses:
Note trash in foreground. Neither Liz nor I have ever seen such concentrations of roadside/hillside trash. Ilya said trash collection is erratic at best so people just dump it, and the chronic wind tends to collect it in certain locations.
View across the lake to town of Burchmilla:
The thin deciduous trees are similar to poplars.
Zoomed view of green roof compound built for first independent Uzbek president Islam Karimov.
We then drove northeast up the Pskem River for awhile.
At one stop a golden eagle circled overhead long enough for me to get zoomed pictures.
The eagle has prey dangling from its talons; our best guess is a small bird. These are the largest raptors to be domesticated for hunting, and you can see demonstrations in Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan.
We stopped by this spring, which was some kind of summer resort in the past.
This is the only road out the far eastern side of Uzbekistan and is thus militarily patrolled.
We drove far enough to get a decent view of the easternmost Uzbek mountains, max elevation over 12,000 feet.
There are high voltage lines on the left hillside coming down from a hydropower plant.
We then drove west around the north side of Charvak reservoir. Town of Chorvoq below the reservoir:
Uzbek flag, dam on other side:
Above the dam was a large Lenin profile.
Lenin has been removed but the supporting structure remains.
We had late lunch about 3:30 at this local restaurant featuring hearty shishlik kebobs for about $1.50 each.
I had to insist on sitting at a conventional table since my left foot fell asleep and back got stiff at a similar lunch place in Samarkand. I did not want to take chances with upcoming possible ski days. The local tradition in these parts is to cook all kebobs in lamb fat, so Liz’ lunch consisted of two beers.
We got back after 5PM so it was not long before Liz could have dinner at the hotel.
