Ala-Köl Lake

LakesIssyk-Kul,Kyrgyzstan

A Kyrgyz lake at 3,532 metres on the country's most-walked trek, shifting from turquoise to grey and faint pink with the light, held behind moraine.

September·Edge of season

Sep

September thins the crowds and clears the skies to brilliant blue, with the first autumn tints — but cold sets in fast, early snowstorms can close the pass, and the safe crossing window shuts by mid-month.

Year-round The colour-shifting glacial lake sits above the treeline year-round, but the pass is walkable only from early July to mid-September, snowbound the rest of the year.

Ala-Köl means the motley lake, and it earns the name hour by hour. It lies behind a wall of moraine at 3,532 metres in the Terskey Ala-Too of eastern Kyrgyzstan, south of Karakol. Through a single day it goes from green-blue to grey and some days to a faint pink, as the light and weather move over it. The first outsider on record to reach it, a Russian traveller named Putimtsoff in 1811, already wrote about the violent winds and the strangely coloured stones in the water. No stream runs out of it, either. The moraine dam that holds the lake lets the water drain away underneath instead, seeping through the rubble to feed the Karakol river far below. The lake is the centrepiece of the most-walked trek in Kyrgyzstan, and it takes you two or three days out of Karakol. The lower trail climbs through spruce and fir, crossing icy meltwater streams on logs: the green, sheltered half of it. Above the treeline the ground turns to boulders, and the last kilometres are a steep haul over loose rock to a lip of moraine, and you come over it into the basin, ringed by snow-streaked peaks. You pitch a four-season tent on the bare shore and spend a night above 3,500 metres, where it freezes even in July, and wake to the water changing again as the light climbs the peaks. The way on is the Ala-Köl Pass at nearly 3,900 metres, a lung-burning push, and from the notch the lake lies behind you while a new valley falls away in front. That valley is Altyn Arashan, green and open, with rustic camps around hot springs where the trek ends in warm mineral water. Travellers sometimes book the wrong lake: Kazakhstan has a namesake next door, Alakol, a lowland salt lake roughly 1,750 times the size. Nobody has ever sounded the one up here.

Worth knowing

Good to know

The pass is safely open only from early July to mid-September — outside this window snow blocks the crossing, and even at the season's edges fresh snowfall can close it overnight.
Acclimatize before you climb — the lake sits above 3,500 metres and the pass near 3,900, so altitude sickness is real; spend a night high near Karakol first and go slowly.
Camp overnight rather than rush through — the water shifts tone hour by hour, deepest turquoise under midday sun and quietest at dawn, so a night on the shore rewards the cold.
A small park fee is collected at the valley gate — Karakol Nature Park charges a few dollars per person where the trail begins, and no road reaches the lake.
Listen for marmots whistling from the rocks — ibex and foxes appear to quiet walkers, and snow leopards live here too, though they keep above the treeline and are almost never seen.

Things to do

1
Ascend to Ala-Köl Pass and drop to the shore
Climb the last steep kilometres to the Ala-Köl Pass near 3,900 metres, a lung-burning push over loose rock, and the entire turquoise basin drops open below you, ringed by bare snow-streaked peaks. From the top the trail plunges down a steep, gravelly slope to the water, a slow, careful half-hour on loose stone. At the bottom the lake turns from a distant sheet into vivid turquoise you can crouch beside and touch.
2
Camp on the frozen shore
Pitch a four-season tent on the bare moraine by the water and spend a night above 3,500 metres. It freezes even in July, but you wake to the lake shifting colour minute by minute as the first light climbs the peaks.
3
Hike through the fir valley
Follow the lower trail from Karakol through spruce and fir forest, crossing icy meltwater streams, before the path breaks above the treeline. It is the green, sheltered half of the trek, loud with birdsong before the bare high country begins.
4
Soak in the Altyn Arashan hot springs
Rest at the Altyn Arashan hot springs, a cluster of rustic boz-üy camps in a green valley at the start or end of the trek. Sink into the warm mineral water to ease legs worn from the climb to the pass.

Watch

Nearby

25 km