Kyrgyzstan can boast with a big quantity of water resources, including glaciers. It creates unbelievable views on top of the mountains which are the main highlights of tours in Kyrgyzstan. At the highest altitudes, snow falls and does not melt. As more snow falls, it compresses the snow, which is already lying on the ground, and forms sheets of ice. Some of the ice sheets are forced down the mountain valleys forming valley glaciers gouging a course (typified in U-shaped valleys and hanging streams, which are left over once the ice retreats), and carrying debris (moraine) along its course to deposit it some great distance away.
The ice in valley glaciers, known as "Ice Rivers", can move at a rate of between 3 and 40 cm a day, depending upon the size - width, thickness and slope of the valley. At the edges are often found crevasses - which may easily be covered by freshly fallen snow, and so present a particular hazard to mountaineers Glaciers, (800 of them - one source says 8208), and permanent snow cover some 8100 square kilometers - about 30% of the total land area of Kyrgyzstan. The Glaciers themselves cover about 4% of the surface area of the country.
The most famous, widely known among tourists in Kyrgyzstan, is Enilchek Glacier - actually there are two branches- Northern and Southern in the Peak Pobeda/Khan Tengri massif in the Eastern Tien Shan.
Some glaciers are within easy reach of Bishkek, (for example, the Ak-Sai and Adygene in Ala Archa National Park which is a famous destination for one-day tour in Kyrgyzstan) and several Companies offer two or three day treks to them. Togethers, the glaciers contain some 580 billion cubic meters of water - enough to cover the whole of Kyrgyzstan to a depth of 3m.
In order to see glaciers it is not necessary to climb the mountains in Kyrgyzstan, you can just book one of our cultural tours and enjoy travelling in our wonderful country.