Visiting the Tian Shan
Visiting the Tian Shan is about more than just skiing somewhere you may find wild. Vitaliy’s deep knowledge of the mountains and their history, combined with his experience, stretches beyond finding good powder. My time in Almaty taught me that I loved Georgian food. My time spent in cars with Kazakhs taught me how wonderful they treat one another. My time on their skin track taught me that, once on snow, our skiing experience is similar, even thousands of miles from my home in the United States. It’s one of the only mountain ranges in the world that I can’t wait to visit again. Thank you, Vitaliy, for sharing your mountain range and breadth of knowledge with me and my friend, Robin. I can’t wait to return for more ski mountaineering, and maybe even some more powder skiing.