August 6, 2008

ASIA | KYRGYZSTAN

Kyrgyzstan’s New Current

By Stephanie Pearson

Welcome to the last frontier of adventure travel.

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So much for nostalgia. The government of Uzbekistan recently stymied Mountain Travel Sobek’s upcoming 40th anniversary celebrations by forbidding the adventure travel pioneers access to the Chaktal River — an extremely remote Class IV and V whitewater canyon Sobek has been running since 1988. The plan was to return this year as part of Sobek’s Signature Series, where legendary guides brave classic rivers such as the Rufiji in Tanzania and the Tuichi in Bolivia.

But the party will go on. Instead of rafting the Chaktal, Sobek — which first popularized whitewater in 1969 — is offering an equally hair-raising ride down the Class IV-V Naryn River in nearby Kyrgyzstan, September 2 to 11 and 16 to 28. To add even more adrenaline to the last-minute itinerary change, veteran trip leader (and Sobek co-founder) John Yost has never run the 100-mile stretch Naryn, which flows through a steep gorge from the Tien Shen Mountains past remote villages inhabited by Mongol herders. In fact, it’s so off-the-grid that no American outfitter has ever run it.

With precipitous rock canyons, drop-dead mountain views, and warm water, the Naryn is reportedly similar to the Chaktal. Experienced Russian and Kyrgyz guides accompanying the ten-day trip will diffuse the mystery further by helping Yost navigate the powerful torrents of whitewater. But unlike the Chaktal, which has no road access and is virtually uninhabited, rafters will be able to interact with the Mongol people who live along the Naryn River corridor.

One of the five “Stans” that kiss the border of western China, Kyrgyzstan is a largely Muslim republic known for having a far friendlier bureaucracy than neighboring Uzbekistan. “Denying us entry into and out of Uzbekistan from the river is all about an outdated dictatorial government that is paranoid,” Yost told globorati. “It’s an old Soviet dictatorship that’s getting worse by the year.” But, he added, “I’m quite a bit happier to be in Kyrgyzstan than Uzbekistan.”