Alla-Archa is a well known climbing area in the Northern Tien Shan.

Map of region

Aksai "semi-horseshoe", at the head of the Aksai glacier in the Kirghiz Alatoo, is the highest and most interesting part of the Central Kirghiz Range.

Sheltered from the warm south winds, these high mountains display massive glaciation. Thanks to the large Aksay glacier, the micro-climate of the area is rather rigorous. There are more than 80 graded (from 1 to 6B) routes here, about 30 among them - of grades 5-6. Several peaks have rock-ice walls up to 900m:

Semyonov-Tien-Shan (4875m), the highest in the area;

Korona (4860m);

Svobodnaya Korea (4740m);

Baylyan Bashi (4700m);

Simaghina (4400m);

Boks(4240m);

Baychechekey (4515m).

Weather can be excellent from mid-June to mid-September with the best time for serious climbs being July-August (January-February in winter). Still you can climb here all the year round. Typical weather pattern is worsening in the afternoon and clearing in the evening. Several days of snowfalls and thick fog are possible, but then the three huts under the routes allow to sit it out.

The main rock is granite and gneiss. As a rule it is solid, but shattered and rotten pitches are encountered as well.

High climbing and training potential plus short, comfortable approaches make the area the most frequented in the whole Tien Shan. From Bishkek, Kirghizia "s capital, a metalled road goes for 4km to base camp "Alla-Archa", from which a forest path brings you in 3hr to a stone hut at the picturesque, grassy "Ratsek Campsite" near the snout of the Aksai glacier (3200m). The other three smaller huts are at several hours" walking distances from here: one under the first tower of Korona peak (and the spurs of Semyonov-Tien-Shan), two at the junction of the Korona and Aksai glaciers.

The huts reduce the walks to under the routes to less than an hour. The most attractive faces of the area are those of Svobodyaya Korea and Korona. The 900m north wall of the former is the most serious object here. Its closest European similar is Grandes Jorasses in the Alps. A third (13) of the hardest routes of the area are on this face. The easiest one, normally used for descent, is 5A (Lowe).

The list of established routes (the very first climb done as far back as 1959) is as follows:

Lowe and Barber routes are the most popular. Both were soloed by the two Americans in 1976.

In February 1997 a rope of Puchinin-Ruchkin did the direttissima (6A/A3).

The route followed the fracture line between Bezzubkin and Myshlyaev routes, going up vertical frozen waterfalls, broken at places by rock steps and overhangs. A lot of water ice and the solid rock with very few good cracks did not allow reliable belaying and fast moving. Two days of bad weather hampered the progress even more. The climb is done with a platform, without siege tactics (fixed ropes for the lower part) normal for winter.

Translated by Yuri Kolomiets