The story
Ala-Archa Mountain Festival in Ala-Archa
Every April 30 into May 1, Ala-Archa National Park hosts Alpiniada, a mass camping-and-climbing tradition dating to Soviet times in which hundreds pitch tents at the alplager base camp before a dawn group ascent of roughly 4,200-meter Komsomolets Peak. No technical mountaineering experience is required, and the Kyrgyz Alpine Club still helps coordinate a climb that mixes veteran alpinists with first-time hikers.
Forty kilometers south of Bishkek, the high valley of Ala-Archa National Park fills with tents every April 30 as climbers and casual hikers gather for Alpiniada, a mass ascent tradition that gives the park's more generic billing as a mountain festival a very specific, decades-old shape.