UKC

The Brandt guide to Kyrgyzstan says that "benzin dlia zazhigalok" or lighter fuel is available in Bishkek in half litre bottles and is suitable for white gas stoves. We want to take a couple of MSR Whisperlite International stoves for our base camp.

Can anyone confirm the availability of such fuel in Bishkek, its cost, and its suitability for our stoves?

In reply to CliffPowys:

It's five years since I was there but the Red Fox store seemed to be the main gear shop. You could ask them?

https://www.facebook.com/redfoxoutdoorkg/

In reply to CliffPowys:

Thanks Damo. I will give it a go.

Do you have any words of wisdom on organising a climbing trip to Kyrgyzstan?

In reply to CliffPowys:


Not really. I just went and climbed Peak Lenin with a mate. We used Ak-Sai for the basics and they were good. Gas canisters up at ABC/C1 there were USD$8 back then and easy to get.

- Bishkek has a surprisingly good number of restaurants and cafes and bars, in which we spent a few days.
- It's bloody hot though, around 38C.
- Osh I found a bit average, tbh, not that interesting and a bit grubby
- don't let your mate get in a fight with the taxi mafia cos they will come from nowhere and gang up on you

In reply to CliffPowys:

Have just seen you're in Sydney. I'm in Goulburn. I have a few KG basic maps but nothing better than Google Earth if you're after unclimbed stuff. I do have a large collection of magazines and some journals though if you want to waste some time that way.

In reply to CliffPowys:

Thanks for your offer of magazines. I have already done a scan for expedition reports. Our area does not seem to have been visited. We are a group of eight and intend trying some unclimbed 4000m peaks. I know what you mean about taxi drivers, having had a fight with one in Lahore many years ago. The cafes sound good.

In reply to CliffPowys:

I always used the local petrol, never seemed to cause a problem. You can get gas cartridges but beware refilled ones, they have a tendency to leak. The locals fill them using football inflators. The shop identified above is as good as you get in Bishkek.
There are quite a few threads on here identifying how to access the Russian military maps which are pretty good. There is the odd problem so keep your critical facilties engaged.
Have fun there's a lot of peaks out there.

In reply to CliffPowys:

Thanks marxk.

We are trying to avoid petrol as we do not want to spend too much time cleaning our stoves. I think that we will probably end up using gas of some kind.

The Russian maps are indeed very useful, particularly if you overlay them on Google Earth.