Don’t let my pictures fool you, I am not that adventurous.

That being said, being adventurous or not is highly subjective – It depends who I compare myself with: I am more willing to take risk than many people I know. But compared with backpackers I met during this journey, I am probably among the least adventurous. One rule that I have given myself is that I don’t do solo hiking. I have done my fair share of solo hikes when I was younger: Back in the days I would wake up at midnight, drive 4 hours to Yosomite, do a 10-hour hike at Half Dome (that giant rock with steel cables hanging on top), and make it home in time that same evening for late-night snack – Those days are gone. As I grow older, my priority changes and doing adventurous hikes no longer seems appealing. I have seen what could have gone wrong during solo hikes and that is a risk that I do not take.

Yet, I violated my own rule in Kazakhstan: During my last day in the city of Almaty, I was to do a 4-hour hike at the Shymbulak glacier. I didn’t realize that I would be hiking solo. Shymbulak is a ski resort and there is cable car operating every day. There were plenty of people at Shymbulak – But for some reason none of them were hiking the glacier that day. In order to reach the glacier, I had to climb Shkolnik Peak, which is basically a hill made out of giant boulders. The risk of climbing Shkolnik Peak is due to its unstable boulders: Every step I took I was stepping on loose boulders and I constantly saw rocks falling downhill. It wouldn’t be a risky hike if I were to have a companion. But since I was hiking solo, no one would have known if I had gotten stuck between the boulders. I had to be extra careful what I was stepping on, and always tried to stay high in order to not get hit by falling rocks.

The glacier itself was absolutely amazing and overall it was a fairly enjoyable hike – It would be even better if there were other hikers around so that I didn’t have to take on unnecessary risk to climb the peak all by myself.

#Kazakhstan

www.LifeAsNomad.com