This year's skiing season was opened in December on the slopes of Kazakhstan's Chimbulak resort at minus 20 degrees. The location is about 20 minutes drive from Almaty where I can very much recommend to stay in the Dostykh hotel. There are now 4 modern built cable car lifts taking you from 2200m to 3100m and the slopes are from simple to intermediate. Apparently there are heliskiing opportunities there as well, however we have not tried those yets. Flights from Moscow can be recommended on Air Astana several times a day. 5 hours flight time and 2 hours time difference.

View detailed snow forecast for Shymbulak at:
snow-forecast.com