A story you wouldn’t expect.

It started with a degree in Mandarin Chinese. And extensive travels in China in the late 1990s/early 2000s, mostly in the rugged border regions of the southwest and far west. Some of these travels were personal, the rest were for work—first as an Instructor, then China/Tibet Program Director, and ultimately Executive Program Director for the cross-cultural education and travel company, Where There Be Dragons. As one of Dragons' lead administrative members from 2006-2009, Ryan Koupal, 40 Tribes’ to-be Founder, was immersed in complicated international travel logistics and the challenge of leading groups on authentic adventures not just in China, but in some of the world’s most obscure destinations, from North India to Cambodia to Senegal.

But work with Dragons wasn’t ticking all the boxes. Ryan’s personal passions for splitboarding and mountain exploration weren’t being met via educational programs for high school students. And so a plan came together for a mission he’d undertake with friends, to build upon travels he had done and the mountains he had seen in northwestern China years prior. The Republic of Kyrgyzstan was just over the border, and stories of Soviet-built ski resorts and local heli ski operations were intriguing. For this adventure, the crew would be packing their skis and splits…

That first trip to Kyrgyzstan was eye-opening to say the least. The crew found not just amazing riding, but a welcoming oasis in a hugely misunderstood part of the world. The tourism industry was surprisingly developed, supported by both the government and international development efforts like those of Helvetas, a Swiss organization who introduced the concept of community-based tourism soon after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The creation of the Kyrgyzstan Community Based Tourism Association allowed rural families to participate in tourism and receive skills training by simply opening their homes and summer yurts to tourists and offering guided activities like trekking and horse trekking.

But in the winter, the lights would turn off. Aside from a handful of small ski resorts and heli/cat operations, infrastructure for winter activities was non-existent and the skiing potential was largely untapped. The crew’s mid-winter explorations confirmed the possibilities, and Ryan committed to applying his experience with backcountry huts and yurts in the United States, and adventure travel, to create something that would change the future of winter tourism in Kyrgyzstan forever.

After two seasons searching for the perfect location and solidifying local partnerships, the concept of yurt-based backcountry riding in Kyrgyzstan, and 40 Tribes, was born.

The idea would marry entirely native resources: yurts, mountains, snow, and motivated locals. The pieces of the puzzle were there, it would just take putting them together. For 4 months spanning the fall-early winter of 2010-11, Ryan was on the ground in Kyrgyzstan literally leveling the ground where the first yurt would sit, building an insulated platform, and outfitting the camp through weekly trips to the local bazaar and flea market. After countless warnings from village elders about the threat of wolves and Herculean efforts to transport everything into the mountains via Soviet military jeeps and horses, Kyrgyzstan's first fully-winterized yurt camp was finally realized. New work opportunities were available to villagers who called this remote corner of the Terskey Ala-Too Mountains their backyard. We welcomed our first and the only client group for our inaugural season in January. In the following few years, we would see an explosion in media exposure, a steady increase in bookings, and well, the rest is history.

As for the name “40 Tribes,” it’s a reference to the Epic of Manas, a traditional poem that describes the origin of the Kyrgyz people. As the story goes, the warrior and now national hero, Manas, united the original forty tribes who occupied the region to defend their ancestral homeland against Chinese and Mongol invasion. The tale is a critical part of Kyrgyz ethnic identity and has been recited for centuries by generations of nomadic families. Today, a 40-ray sun representing the original 40 Tribes is the central emblem of the Kyrgyz national flag, and also our logo.

We continue to set up our yurts in the same location and work with the same partners now as we did back then. As first envisioned, Jalpak Tash (named after the summer pasture where it sits) is a wickedly comfortable basecamp, featuring an authentic local flavor that still caters to Western palates, and world-class terrain right out the back door. It’s a place and an experience that's so wildly different from anything you've imagined before, it's sure to be one you'll never forget. Click below for a taste.

THE KYRGYZSTAN EXPERIENCE

THE EVOLUTION

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Kyrgyzstan will always be at the heart of 40 Tribes, but it’s clearly in our blood to pioneer the next next-level adventure.

In April 2015 we spearheaded the first basecamp expedition of its kind at 78° North on the arctic archipelago of Svalbard. In February 2016 we introduced a village-based expedition in the Caucasus mountains in Georgia's Upper Svaneti region. In April 2017 we ran our first expedition to the Russian Far East—Kamchatka—where we basecamped amongst the perfect birch forest of the Ganalsky Range and rode from the summits of active volcanoes. In August 2018 we launched a summer shredventure in an exclusive zone deep in the Chilean Andes and then boarded the shred train in Western Siberia just a few months later for an early season pow smashing mission of epic proportions. In 2020 we unveiled the first in our series of Mystery Trips, where the only information disclosed ahead of time was where to meet and when (not the final destination). That trip—which took place in Ptor’s Backyard above La Grave, France—was just too rad not to be added to our list of regular offerings and inspired our new series of Backyard Expeditions, promising adventures unlike any you’d ever find on solo trips to the special spots our guides call home. In February 2022, clients on our second Mystery Trip joined us (unknowingly at first) in exploring a new zone in Georgia, Racha, where our partners have created one of the most luxurious basecamp scenarios we’ve ever experienced. Later that year we realized a long-held dream of ours and ran two mindblowing sessions based from a traditional hunting village on an island off the east coast of Greenland, using snowmobiles to tow across the ice and boats to push across open fjords to access our lines. The dream destination theme continued with our third Mystery Trip in February 2023: the Spanish Pyrenees, a zone we look forward to returning to in 2024 (coming soon). If you've got a taste for unthinkable, one-of-a-kind backcountry adventures, take your pick!