Medeu High-Altitude Ice Rink (1,691m), 842-Step Dam & Shymbulak Gondola to Talgar Pass

Nowhere else in the world does a city of two million people transition so rapidly into a 3,200-metre alpine arena. Just fifteen kilometres south of the Hotel Kazakhstan up the Little Almatinka (Malaya Almatinka) Gorge, the Medeu speed-skating complex and Shymbulak Mountain Resort link directly by electric cable car from spruce forest into perpetual glacier snow.

Medeu High-Altitude Skating Rink and the 842-step dam

Opened as a natural-ice track in 1951 and rebuilt in 1972 as a 10,500-seat concrete stadium with 170 kilometres of sub-surface refrigeration pipes, Medeu sits in a sheltered mountain basin at 1,691 metres above sea level. Because thin mountain air reduces aerodynamic drag and pure glacial meltwater freezes into exceptionally smooth ice, speed skaters set more than 300 world records here across the late twentieth century, earning the arena the nickname "Factory of Records". From October through spring, the 10,500-square-metre oval opens to public skating sessions with skate rentals on site; in summer, the concrete apron hosts concerts and roller sports.

Immediately south of the stadium rises the colossal Medeu mudflow protection dam, engineered via controlled directional explosions in 1966 and 1967 and proved in July 1973 when it successfully held back millions of cubic metres of glacial debris that would otherwise have inundated Almaty. Visitors can climb the 842 steps of the "Stairs of Health" (Lestnitsa Zdorovya) up the steep face of the dam to look down over the stadium roof and across to the Shymbulak valley.

The three-stage Shymbulak gondola to Talgar Pass (3,200 m)

Beside the Medeu bus stop, a modern Doppelmayr gondola system ascends to Shymbulak in three separate legs:

• Stage 1 (Medeu to Shymbulak Base, 1,691 m to 2,260 m): A 4.5-kilometre cable car glide high above the mudflow dam and along the forested Little Almatinka canyon to the main Shymbulak village of restaurants, ski rentals, and alpine hotels.
• Stage 2 (Combi-1, 2,260 m to 2,860 m): Mixed six-seat chairlifts and eight-person cabins climbing the steep middle face of the resort.
• Stage 3 (Combi-2 to Talgar Pass, 2,860 m to 3,200 m): The final lift delivers you to the wind-swept saddle of Talgar Pass, where timber viewing decks face the crevasses of the Bogdanovich Glacier and the 4,376-metre pyramid of Nursultan (Komsomol) Peak.

In summer, well-marked alpine trails branch from Talgar Pass toward Chimbulachka Peak (3,450 metres) and the Bogdanovich Glacier moraine; in winter, 25 kilometres of groomed pistes descend back to the base. Check the official Shymbulak resort portal for seasonal lift maintenance windows, pair the trip with Big Almaty Lake, and layer up using our what to wear in Almaty advice.