Devin, Sara and I hiked up to Altyn Arashan, "Golden Springs", 2,800m. We walked four hours up a rough road which people apparently drive in the summer. It is impassable by car at this point because there are 30'+ deep avalanche debris piles covering the road. There are some BIG paths on the opposite side of the valley that slide across the river and up the other side. Some of the debris looked like D4 potential.
The hot spring "resort" consists of a few buildings that offer lodging and some indoor concrete soaking pools filled with clear, hot water, just the right temperature to hang out in after a nice walk.
This was my fist semblance of excercise since I blew out my knee and it took a while for my legs to wake back up. I had on my bionic-man brace and my knee didn't give me any trouble, though my left calf is still sore.
From the springs we were treated to a view of Paltaka Pik, the original ski objective Devin and I had picked out. It was a bit of a tease to be so close to it and not have any gear. I was conflicted because my knee felt so good coming up. "Maybe I could have done it. Did I make a mistake by calling off the ski mission?" I had to remind myself that skiing is different from hiking and that I made the responsible decision... for once.
The scenery was beautiful, though full Spring had not arrived yet at that elevation. Pictures we had seen showed the valley a lush green, but had a slighty browner version to enjoy. The passes to adjoining valleys were too snowy for us to do a loop, so we just stayed at the springs for a night and hiked back down the next day.
I had some pictures uploaded, but somehow I deleted them and I can find the Cyrillic command for "Undo". Sorry.
-Dan
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