A trip I'd been quietly looking for, for years. Slow, generous, real — and our horseman Bekzat became a friend.

The best ski touring I've done in a decade — empty bowls, deep snow, and the warmest hosts at the end of every day.

My partner and I came for the felt — we left understanding why so many small things in this country are still made by hand.

A real adventure with real people. The horses, the yurts, the food, the songs in the evening — all of it.

We didn't speak a word of Russian or Kyrgyz, but we understood every family we stayed with. That's the trick of a great trip.

Trip-of-a-lifetime kind of trip. The team thought of everything — even the things we wouldn't have thought to ask about.