Visited for 9 days in January 2023.

Powderhounds has already done a great job rounding up what there is to know about the resort in their main overview, so I’ll try to avoid redundancies for the most part. My experience was likely different than what someone visiting now would experience, as a fair bit has changed in 3.5 years, particularly accommodation-wise and possibly the ease of getting there as well.

Getting There
As mentioned in the main review, the trip there is an absolute adventure. I flew into Urumqi, the provincial capital of Xinjiang, took an overnight train with its own bar and karaoke room, and arrived in the city of Altay in the north of the province the next morning. There are drivers at the train station ready to take you to Hemu village, but they usually want to completely fill their cars with other folks also going there before setting off, unless you’re willing to pay 800-900 RMB yourself for the trip. Perfect if you already have a group of 3-4. Generally it should cost around 300-350 RMB per head. You can also fly into Altay, which has direct flights from Beijing, Xi’an, and Guangzhou, in addition to Urumqi.

Weather conditions at present have a HUGE effect on drive time to Hemu. If it hasn’t snowed in a while, and snowpack is stable, it might take just 3 hours. If a storm is rolling through, the traffic police will seal off the road, and no one can enter the access road until avalanche danger has passed. I presume this will change with the opening of a higher capacity road that is supposedly under construction. Our driver even stopped at a town along the way to quickly pick up some supplies or something, and whatever the drivers decide to do along the way, you kind of just have to roll with it.

Accommodation
The 3 different areas you can stay at in Hemu bring with them their pros and cons. The old village has plenty of great restaurants serving traditional Xinjiang fare, although there is also a KFC if you’re craving something more Western! There are also cool cultural experiences like horseback riding available in the village if you want to take an off day, and the general vibe, while definitely quite touristy, is still not completely tacky like at many other tourist attractions in China. Conversely it’s the furthest area from the ski resort, so bus trips or car rides (via the Didi app) will take 30-40 minutes to arrive at the resort, and be more expensive than they are for the new village. At least the ski area access road isn’t mountainous and subject to weather-related issues like it is at Keketuohai. I stayed in the new village area, as 3 years ago none of the on-mountain lodging had been open yet. There are fewer dining/apres options here, but it’s about 10-15 minutes closer to the mountain. The on-mountain lodging is luxurious, with big chain hotels or standalone cottage hotels, so if money isn’t an issue, and you’re focused on the ski experience, this might be the best choice.

Avalanche Danger
3 years ago, there was zero avalanche control, and no efforts to dissuade folks from entering obviously dangerous zones. It has now (from what I’ve seen on Chinese social media) swung VERY far in the opposite direction, with ski patrol sometimes physically restraining people from entering certain off-piste areas, namely the Lingyun Valley zone on lookers far right of the mountain. But then for those willing to cough up 2000 RMB, guides would take skiers/riders into the area, but without the necessary avalanche gear! This caused a major uproar in January of this year, and I believe they have removed that option, and ever so slightly loosened control over access to more dangerous areas. Whatever the plan may be this year, Jikepulin has a LARGE amount of avalanche terrain as denoted by areas shaded in red on the trail map, and with it being largely south-facing, a continental snowpack, and not possessing many treed areas, the efforts to prevent accidents are certainly understandable.

Avalanche education is still very low among the largely domestic market that makes up the majority of the clientele here, but that is slowly changing, as independent providers have begun avy education courses here. But expect to see people way in over their heads in terrain they have no business being in, after having been fed social media fantasies of endless powder skiing. It’s particularly bad in China, given this and Keketuohai are essentially the only two places in-country where it’s really possible to ski fresh powder. Those familiar with skiing in Japan often notice that Japanese skiers tend to stick to groomers, but Chinese skiers often take more risks, have less reservations about putting themselves in danger, whether intentional or not, and generally just have a more carefree attitude on the slopes, for better or worse. Accordingly your local competition for freshies will be much stiffer than it would be in Japan.

Terrain
Jikepulin is big, but the lift system is almost all high-speed gondolas. Taking lift 1 then 7 takes you from bottom to top in around 25 minutes, which seems long until you factor in the gargantuan 1330-meter vertical served by these two lifts. Terrain-wise, the only thing Jikepulin is somewhat missing is tree skiing, being mostly open alpine terrain (some of it exists on the E6 trail, and around the middle of lift 2). Long groomers, wide-open bowl skiing, shallow angle off-piste for “powder puppies”, gnarly cliff drops, even some moguls (long sections on trail E1) abound here.

The resort is split into an East (served by lift 1 and 7) and West side (lift 2, 3 and 4) that comes together at the top, where one large bowl and a smaller bowl opposite the large one come together. These are the first areas to get smashed up on a powder day. The areas between trails that are not marked in red on the trail map are generally all fair game as well, although beware of certain sections between the winding turns of the E2 cat track, which may end in cliffs that overlook the trail.

Lingyun Valley was completely open when I visited, and was awesome. An entire section of the resort just for off-piste, but it was rarely if ever patrolled when I visited, so the necessary backcountry/avy precautions would need to be taken, assuming you can gain access. Terrain here is mostly open slopes, with some cliffs to spice up the selection. A 15-20 minute traverse (with some painful uphill sections) all the way down the far ridge line of the area brings you to some nice but short trees as well, but the more traversing is done, the less vertical drop can be skied on the actual fall-line. Egress is on a very easy cat track, but lapping it again requires the aforementioned 25-minute ride back up to the very top of the resort. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT, drop skiers left off the far ridge line (AKA out-of-bounds), as juicy as it looks. Elsewhere in the world, you would just have a long skate or walk back to the base area. Here, there is a border patrol station (that’s how close it is to the Mongolian border) at the bottom of that next valley that you would have to pass by, and that would land you a visit to the local police station, a pulling of your pass, and quite likely a blacklisting from the resort and a fine. Fun!

It is possible to drop off the backside of Jikepulin by staying on the ridge line marked as W19 on the trail map, and then picking a line down skiers right that tickles your fancy. I did not do this at the time, as I had neither the skills nor the training to attempt such an undertaking back then, but I really want to come back to Hemu on more of a backcountry mission now, and this would be the number one run I’d be looking to complete. Terrain on the backside is steep, avalanche-prone, but puts you through all types of terrain in just a single, loooong run down. This would be a last run of the day, or just one-day one-run type of thing, as reaching the bottom leads to a loooong slog back to the village, not anywhere near the resort. Closer to Hemu village, just over the Hemu river, Yemaigaiti Peak offers numerous human-powered possibilities (that I am slobbering over just looking at a topo map) both mellow and hardcore. The peak can be seen directly to the west when looking from the summit of Jikepulin.

Snow and Weather
Jikepulin gets a lot more snow than Keketuohai due to its location further northwest. From what I have seen, the statistic is around 5-7 meters. Last year was a dud, but the snow was deep and very dry when I visited. Temperatures in winter are very cold and stay stable, averaging a high of around -15 to -20C in mid to late January during my visit. As mentioned in the main review, it starts snowing early here, and I have seen videos of some folks with a BC kit floating through fields of pow as early as late October, before the lifts even start spinning. Conversely, the season ends somewhat early-ish compared to Koktokay, in late March or early April, as its elevation is lower. Another thing worth mentioning is hours of operation, which are generally 10am-6pm. China has only one time zone, and being this far west, the sun only comes up right around 10am in the dead of winter, but doesn’t go down until after 6. Makes for easier recoveries after a night of sampling local baijiu (Chinese grain alcohol)!

Other Notes
As stunning as the views are atop Koktokay, I think Hemu has it beat. Having rode the Gletscherbus at Hintertux Glacier, and seen the Japanese Alps from Hakuba on bluebird days, the view from Jikepulin of the rest of the Altay mountain range, with Hemu village below, is right on that level. The apres in Hemu village is more along the lines of dinner with drinks served alongside the meals, as opposed to the more numerous bars/clubs in Koktokay village. This area can also lay a claim to being possibly the birthplace of skiing, as evidence exists to suggest that local Tuvan and Kazakh herders that have inhabited the area for millenia had been using skis for over 10,000 years to hunt game. The local tourism board uses this quite heavily in its marketing for the ski area and village accordingly.

The Verdict
If my verdict for Keketuohai was go for the cultural experience, not necessarily for the skiing, then my verdict for Jikepulin is go for the cultural experience, go for the skiing, go for the adventure, just GO! The remoteness of the area, quaintness of the wooden huts that make up Hemu village, and the big mountain feel of Jikepulin creates a far better atmosphere than at Keketuohai (not quite as remote, village is largely commieblock-style concrete boxes from when it was a mining village that was basically commandeered by the Soviets, mountain is much smaller). The skiing is leagues ahead (especially if the off-piste access can be sorted) as well. I have personally gone back and forth on the area. In the 2 years following my only trip there, I have been the biggest advocate for it, but after the off-piste restrictions and absurdities imposed upon skiers by resort management last year, I was temporarily turned off of it. But I think I’ve come around to it again, and look forward to making it back sometime, with an eye towards a more backcountry-focused trip the next time around.
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