Rock climbing and portaledge in Chamonix

My name is Iain Court and I am currently residing in Singapore where sadly there is a real lack of mountains or alpine climbing opportunities. Having spent the last 15 years focused on my family I was looking for an opportunity to get off the beaten path and do some alpine climbing. Being a novice and not having done anything like this for so long, my friend and I engaged Maksim as our guide for 2 weeks in Ala Archa, Kyrgzstan in August 2023. We left it up to Maksim to assess our skill level and capabilities and then tailor us a program for the 2 weeks. Maksim nailed it - he was able to very quickly assess our fitness, endurance and skills and adjust the difficulty accordingly. We had an incredible 2 weeks of rock climbing - trad & sport, alpine climbing, ice climbing and did 6 very memorable technical peaks. Maksim pitched it perfectly so that we were learning and developing in a safe and fun way but also still able to push ourselves under his supervision. Maksim is also a great guy and a lot of fun. We had many evenings in our mountain hut sharing stories over dinner and a couple of drinks. I will stay in touch with Maksim and I plan on doing another trip - potentially also with my kids in the future. I would highly recommend Maksim as a mountain guide.

I spent 10 days in the Ala Archa Mountains in Kyrgyzstan with Maksim, to summarise, it was incredible. Maksim is a very professional guide, he tailored the trip to my wants and needs, and made sure I got everything I wanted from the trip. I felt very safe climbing with Maksim and we did some amazing summits together. Would highly recommend doing this trip if you’re looking at it! Thanks again Maksim