Akimkam (Akim for short) first joined us in the winter of 2016-17, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Kas, who was the original 40 Tribes yurt host and caretaker and has since moved into the tail guide position. Akim is from a small village between Karakol and the mountain zone where we operate, but now lives in Karakol and works in the summer as a guide with his family’s company, Kyrgyz Tours. Akim grew up skiing at the local ski base, and when we first met him, he—like Kas—had a pair of old school straight skis that some tourists had left behind. For Akim’s first winter working with us, Kas hooked his little bro up with a pair of wider hand-me-downs that we had helped him acquire. After a few weeks up at the yurts and after joining our splitboard guides on a few tours, Akim finally confessed that he just wanted to snowboard! The following season, our Lead Guide Ty Mills brought Akim a proper splitboard and his setup was complete after one of our Splitfest clients left him with his bindings. In addition to tackling behind-the-scenes logistics for 40 Tribes' Kyrgyzstan operations, Akim works together with Nurbek at the Jalpak Tash Yurts each winter as our jack of all trades—lighting the fires in the yurts each and every morning (and keeping them burning, which is no easy task!), coordinating food resupplies, and generally making sure clients are stoked and yurt life couldn’t get any better. When nowhere to be found around the yurts, you can be sure to find Akim off sessioning one of the POGO powsurfers that live at our camp every winter.