The day trip to ski at Shymbulak was distinctly different between the morning and afternoon.

The morning was very cold, especially before the sun hit any of the slopes, and the quality of the snow on the groomers was fantastic, despite it primarily being manmade snow. It was really quiet and there were zero lift lines, and we had the slopes mostly to ourselves. The chondolas were an efficient way to get up the mountain so we got plenty of laps in, whereas the chairlift over the back was thumb twiddlingly slow.

It sounds like snow volumes at Shymbulak can vary a lot and despite it being late January, it was a lean season and the off-piste was not tenable, although it was easy to see the attraction of the terrain on offer (so have given it a decent rating). Without any off-piste offerings the piste runs were very déjà vu and they’d also closed the slopes off the KKD-4 lift for moguls training, so that shrunk the terrain further. With boredom setting in, we headed for an early and long lunch.

When we emerged from lunch the resort had undergone metamorphosis. The deck at the base was busy with tourists wanting to play with the birds of prey (I’ve never quite seen the attraction) and there were so many Indians and Pakistanis standing around taking photos of themselves with a bit of snow in the background (never seen the attraction of that either). More pedestrian tourists were lined up at the gondola cabins to head up higher to see the views or throw snowballs or something, and thankfully we could bypass that queue by catching a chair up.

It was delightfully sunny on all the slopes, although the views of Almaty that had been visible earlier in the day had become shrouded in fog or smog. The snow on the groomed runs was holding up really well despite the increase in traffic, and the slopes had become scary due to the many snowboarding noobs that were out of control falling over unpredictably. There is a decent gap in gradient between the green and blue runs near the base and the red runs, or perhaps the beginner runs were too busy so these people decided to head up the chondolas making it frightening for the rest of us. With the combination of the repetitiveness of the runs plus the danger factor, it was time to hit the bar and where better to do that than in a yurt?!

So unless you love sunny slopes, I’d highly recommend getting there early in the morning and then settle in for lunch that extends to après ski bevvies. I’d love to return to Shymbulak when the snow conditions line up to explore the off-piste and sidecountry.
See our video here