Where to rent camping gear in Karakol and how?
Good camping gear is the guarantee for a successful hiking. You can rent a camping gear in a few places in Karakol, and it is possible to rent from our office. Make sure reading our recommendation below, because not all the equipments may suit for your hiking.
Recommendations for those who wish to rent camping gear in Karakol.
First, you should pay attention that some trekking tours near Karakol can be done without staying overnight in a tent. For example: Ala kul Loop and Altyn Arashan. This makes your trekking much easier.
When renting camping gear in Karakol:
Carefully and thoroughly check its conditions. The gears should not have holes, and broken pieces. If you detected any defects, make a photo. This will prevent you from having problems when returning the gears.
Tent
When choosing a tent, please be aware that our tents are Red Fox 2 persons. They are of good quality, rainproof and are very warm. However to carry them can be difficult. If you are going to trek together with someone, you can distribute the tent between the two. Before packing the tent it is important to check the presence of all the details, the tent must be complete and without holes. If the tent is old in its conditions, it is unlikely to be rainproof.
Sleeping bags.
Carefully and thoroughly check the conditions of sleeping bags.
In the mountains around Karakol, on warm days in June, July, and August the temperature at night in the mountains near Karakol is + 5 + 10 C ’. On rainy days it is up to 0’C. Therefore, the sleeping bag must be at least 0’C Comfort. If it is no warmer than 0’C, you risk ruining your hike.
Sleeping mat.
I would recommend bringing your own sleeping mat and preferably an air sleeping mat. In the mountains the cold comes from below from the ground. It will be more comfortable to sleep with a sleeping mat. If you did not find anything of air sleeping mat, then you take the same as ours.
Gas and gas burner.
The burner can be easily rented in Karakol and gas can be easily bought. Please note that for other gas burners brought from foreign countries it is difficult to obtain gas in Kyrgyzstan. Gas cannot be transported when flying by plane. It is better to rent a gas burner upon your arrival in Kyrgyzstan. One gas of 200 grams is enough for cooking 4-5 times. The gas must be carefully packed into a backpack, and wrapped in clothes. Always pay attention to keep it away from fire. If the gas burner becomes hot it may explode by any physical act.
Backpack.
As we wrote here in our packing list for travelers to Kyrgyzstan article, you should definitely bring your own backpack. It is recommended to have a backpack with a volume of more than 50 L. Since it is difficult to get a good backpack for hiking in Kyrgyzstan it is better to bring your own.
Kitchen gears.
You can rent almost all kitchen gears in Karakol from forks to pans for mountain cooking.