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Rough costs of helicopter lift, kyrgyzstan

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 Calum Nicoll 19 Nov 2015
Wondering if anyone knew very rough pricing of helicopter hire in Kyrgyzstan?

Happy to travel to where ever is cheapest(but safe) for a lift.

Looking for a rough per hour/distance cost/contacts who would know.

Probably 5 climbers and 200kg kit, most likely just one journey and we'll walk out.

Cheers
Calum
 dunnyg 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

Contact itmc, they should be able to give you a good idea.
 tjoliver 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:
A friend and I were looking into this a little while back. I think we were quoted something like $2,000 per hour though can't remember precisely off the top of my head. What I do remember is that the end result was that for what we wanted to do at the time of year we wanted to do it, it was going to be prohibitively expensive, especially if it was just the two of us. If it was 5 of you and just one way I imagine the hourly rate wouldn't really change much so could be reasonably affordable
Post edited at 18:36
 Denni 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

If you can walk out, why not walk in?
Not meant to be facetious, just wondering why you would need a helicopter to get there when you can walk out ergo, walk in.
Den
 pass and peak 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

But where in Kyrgyzstan are you heading for? If its just to the PK Lenin base, then just take one of the main operator buses, they have one going back and forward to Osh every other day during the climbing season. As mentioned above ITMC are worth contacting!

M
 ebdon 19 Nov 2015
OP Calum Nicoll 19 Nov 2015
In reply to dunnyg:

Will do, cheers!
OP Calum Nicoll 19 Nov 2015
In reply to pass and peak:

Definitely not peak lenin, not decided yet but will be less explored than that.
OP Calum Nicoll 19 Nov 2015
In reply to tjoliver:

Excellent - do you know if that was per hour you were in it, or 2k per hour including the time for them to fly back to theirs?
OP Calum Nicoll 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Denni:

Can't walk in without it breaking into a massive siege, can easy enough carry base camp equipment and food for 10 days on the walk out, but carrying food for that, and basecamp food/fuel, and food for the walk in, means probably another 30kg each, which will just be too much for us.

Plus it's all downhill on the walk back
 Denni 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

Downhill always good on a walk out!
 tjoliver 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

It was my friend who communicated with them (via ITMC). Can't remember him every saying for sure what it was, but I'd have assumed it was both way given that I assume the big cost is fuel. We were going to need a flight both in and probably out as we were planning on going at a time of year when land-based transport would have been impossible (we were thinking about steep skiing objectives, hence snow conditions), and so we essentially didn't follow it much further as it was clear it was going to be too expensive for us without considerable external funding.
aultguish 19 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

Can't speak for your location specifically but as a former commercial helicopter pilot covering UK and Europe, it would be standard that you only pay for the time the helicopter has its engines running, so....aircraft travels from base to you, then flies to destination, then returns to base...that's usually what you pay for. Looking at number of pax and cargo, you'd also be looking at a twin engine heli. So, UK prices would be in excess of £1300 per flying hour. As I say tho, no idea of price at your location but hopefully it gives you a wee baseline to work from. Cheers
2
 Damo 20 Nov 2015
In reply to Denni:

> If you can walk out, why not walk in?

Weight of food and fuel! You can walk out with just climbing and camping gear and the food for the walk out, but you can't walk in with climbing and camping gear, food for the walk out, plus all the food and fuel for the two or three weeks that you're in there.

Helos vary country to country but even in Asia you're usually looking at $3,000 an hour or so for the helo itself, not per person. But that's usually smaller helos, taking 2-3 people. If you're looking at a big old Mi-8 like they still use in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, then you could easily triple that or more (depending on how much space is for pax and how much for cargo or extra fuel etc) which makes it prohibitive for just a few people. You also need to watch the weight on the smaller choppers, as with two or three people you may not end up with a huge amount of space and/or payload for gear and food etc.
 pass and peak 22 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

Think I'd be tempted to look at mules as I'm not very afluent. Think it was $3 per kilo per day, up to 60 kilo per mule! probably take a lot longer on the way in but you'll get some of that back by using it as Aclimatization.
 67hours 23 Nov 2015
In reply to Calum Nicoll:

That's my face in the photo!

We paid £1750 total for a half hour flight into the mountains for 6 people and 400kg of stuff and then the same in return 3 weeks later. We shared the inbound flight with another team of 6 and at the weigh-in the total weight was probably c.2 tonnes.

You can read more about it on in our report from this website: http://www.djangart2013.co.uk/

Our helicopter was loaned by the military to Tien Shan Travel for the season. I believe ITMC then sub-let it from TST for people flying to Khan-Tengri basecamp (or us, going the opposite way). So I'd get a quote from both ITMC and TST, even though ITMC seem to be the most well known TST seemed cheaper and better for us, so we used them.

Message me if you want any more info. The flight in was nervy, the flight back was awesome!!

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