Ascent to Lake Köl Ükök I.

The way to the starting point of the trek is relatively easy – either you rent a taxi or take an additional 7.5 km on foot south on a dirt road from Kočkor through the village of Isakayev (formerly Bolshevik) to the secluded Küpke building, where the trek official starts. All the way you will have a beautiful view of the mountain ridge and the valley you go.

In Küpke (2,025 m above sea level), secluded with a nice view of the Kočkor oasis on the horizon, is the official start of the trek. However, the information that the „road“ ends here is quite inaccurate. For an off-road passable road, you will continue a few kilometers further to that side valley, which you will then have to cross. Theoretically, you can shorten this whole long ascent to the lake if you get it and pay for a good car.

Just a few hundred meters from Küpke is a watering canal with a pond. This is the last contact with water for a long time, because now a long march through the „desert“ valley awaits you.

The path does not climb steeply, but even so, the march in this open sunlit valley is quite tiring.

It is not visible from the road to the Ükök river canyon, so if you want to see it, you have to connect a bit.

Looking back, you can see the small village of Kara-Suu in the middle of a huge, almost five-kilometer-wide, main valley surrounded by arid mountains. Scenery like from Ladakh.

At the first side valley, which you will pass on this march, there will be a beautiful view of the further continuation of the path. The river Ükök still flows along the rock wall. The ascent path traverses the flat sides high above it. In this first side valley, the water does not flow even from early summer, so you still have to wait a while to refresh yourself from the stream.

The higher you are, the better the views back to Kočkor and the mountains of the Kyrgyz ridge behind it.

After less than two hours of walking through the arid valley from Küpke, you will finally reach the first place where you can refresh and hide in the shade. Attention – the dirt road for off road just before this valley descends almost to the main river – so continue the traverse along the path and do not follow it down. You will join it again in time.

Relaxation by the stream is very pleasant. You will definitely not want to get up too much and continue with a heavy backpack on your back :-)

Just half a kilometer away is another stream where you can also replenish water supplies.

From the viewpoint of the second stream, it is nice to see another continuation of our journey. In a few hundred meters, the footpath connects again to the jeep road and traverses the slopes even higher above the Ükök river canyon than before.

The valley is turning more and more, so in a moment you will have the very last view of Kočkor and the oasis around it. From this point of view, you can also see both small valleys with streams and a jeep road that goes around them significantly from below.

As the height increases, so does the greenery, and thus the first cattle begin to appear. The landscape is slowly becoming more picturesque. You will usually only meet a few tourists here. Occasionally a local will ride a horse.

In the mountains you rarely see the locals walk. Well it's no wonder what you're going to do all day he offends a horse in a while. Now you have to climb to the edge of the largest side valley Tör Terc on this trek.

From the edge you will have a really wide view of the region. In front of you are the first pastures and far on the horizon you can see the moraine of Lake Köl Ükök. From here you can hear the roar of the river Terc, which you will have to cross in a moment, but you can't see from here either. It flows barbed in a narrow canyon.

So you are finally at the end of the first stage of the ascent to Lake Köl Ükök – by the river Terc. It roars here among massive boulders and if you are not here early in the morning, there is plenty of water in it. If you have more time and an adventurous nature, you can take a side trip to this valley. About 7 km of march awaits you before you reach the glacier, which feeds this predatory river.

Brod is not really very pleasant. The river in these places drops sharply and flows in several predatory currents. But all you have to do is walk through it if you want to continue.