On Altai! To the mountains! I have been waiting for this trip for 3 years. All the time something did not develop and did not work. And finally, in August 2009, we flew away. A few months before, a company was found abruptly for hiking trip, conductor, money appeared. Even my good but very busy friend, suddenly it turned out to fly with us. We planned a hike, from the village Aktash, to the glacier Maashey (locals call Magey) and back. Easy so tourist trip to the mountains of Altai.
It all started with preparation. I had to buy equipment, which I was not here before: tracking sticks, a burner, gaiters. WITH I bought the tickets a little, I had to order them earlier, for half a year it is desirable prices Aviasales.ru and Skyscanner.ru). And already 2 months before departure is not there were cheap fares and we decided to fly with a friend to Barnaul by plane, and back by train. Separately, I wrote about how get to Altai.
The most unpleasant in preparation is drying the cheese. The stench was on the whole apartment, and the dinner table has been busy all this time. Backpack in the end came about 30kg, probably, for the guru of hiking This is a bit, however, I would like to go easy, but as I have not tried reduce it, nothing happened, things like all the necessary— decide for the Altai mountains!
Drying cheese before a camping trip.
And here we are in the plane. To Barnaul fly 4 hours. Leshka, which a good but busy friend, fools with silly questions: “why do we shakes, “and whether we fall”. This is his first flight, you can understand. And the airport of Barnaul met us on a sunny morning. Failed to sleep – prevented the anticipation of a tourist trip, and the night is short was: flew out late in the evening, plus a shift in time (the difference in time +3 hours from Moscow).
The airport in Barnaul is small, from the plane walking to the gate in metal fence enclosing the airfield, and get on parking, and right next to the pavilion with a hall for flown in, come to whom not laziness, take away things from the conveyor … I hope this thought will not occur to anyone else. By the way, backpacks can not to wrap with a film, only we of all the arriving tourists did it.
We boarded the bus and in half an hour we arrived at Barnaul, for a ridiculous 10 rub, although taxis and some private minibuses were ready to carry us only for a very large amount. Barnaul was low, not tight built-up city, quite green and pretty. Bus station another thing, not at all a pleasant place, homeless more than Kazan railway station.
Bus station and railway station opposite each other, those who come to the train is convenient to transfer to buses. Next we sat on bus to Gorno-Altaisk, buses run frequently, about once an hour. Go about 5 hours, with a stop in the city of Biysk.
In Gorno-Altaisk, we waited for the second part of the group, which traveled through Novosibirsk. Oh, how we remembered them, sitting a few hours at the bus station! But they ate more than once delicious ice cream sold nearby (I advise everyone).
After, we took a minibus to Aktash. Finally, the plains were replaced by mountains, which, as the distance from Gorno-Altaisk, becoming higher and higher, and the vegetation was becoming poorer and poorer. The road took hours 5-6, and despite beautiful views, rather tired.
We arrived already in complete darkness, and were already waiting for us on the spot. the conductor, our friend from Moscow, who for several weeks wandered in the mountains of Altai.
Under the bright light of the moon, we hacked away somewhere off the road, in search of a place for a tent. Stood near the river Chuya, not far from the unfinished hydroelectric power station, from the highway of kilometer 3. The water in the river seemed terribly cold. Then we still did not know that on the way back, in the end of the hike, after swimming in the lake near the glacier, she will be like a hot bath for us. Habit is a new thing.
The next day, almost everyone got out of the tent with the words: “Wow!” So here they are, the mountains of Altai! Mountain river, around the rock, on on the horizon a mountain covered in ice produced an amazing impression. But the breakfast was scarce, as the food is painted by days. Now instead of plentiful food – the aesthetics of places, but this is quite equivalent exchange.
Mountain Altai. Chuya river. photo Boris Volchek.
Mountain Altai. Hiking.
Altai Mountains. photo Boris Volchek.
Moved, decided to go for half a day. The route was not long and simple, for the first tourist trip to the mountains completely. Slightly climbed higher and all immediately behind the cameras pulled, Faster to capture the views of the mountains of Altai. Only here the sun is high, not The best time to shoot.
Altai Mountains.
How I regretted that I did not take the DSLR with me, I saved the weight— It would be better if I did not take any clothes. Why do we need a normal camera, if not to take it with you, to where it really is need Only thanks to our guide, experienced, who was not lazy and took a whole photo backpack, we brought home several dozen good photos.
On the first day we walked along Chui, it was hot, and the water was far below. How everybody wanted to swim. Pampered Moscow bodies ached from such bullying. Once again, you understand, you have to do sports, less sit at the computer, get out more often on nature and hiking trips and a lot more then you understand. If only all these understandings would live to see the city, and not sink into fly.
Altai Mountains.
Then we went down and turned towards the Maashei River, the rest walk along it. At the junction of the rivers was a large camp, there are a lot of people, horses, uazikov. Our first halt remembered cold bluish water and tea drinking.
Mountain Altai. bridge over Chuya.
Mountain Altai. the river Maashey.
At a slow pace, we walked for several days. Nature it was getting harsher and harsher, the temperature was falling. In the morning The tents were in hoarfrost, like everything around. Weather in Altai, in general playing jokes, then rain, then snow, then the sun, do not predict.
Altai Mountains. Trees in hoarfrost. photo Boris Volchek.
Mountain Altai – tourist trip.
Soon the lake Maashei stretched before us. And the only one the parking lot we were counting on was busy. AND we had to take some of the participants of the campaign, completely unload, and practical to carry on to the next parking. Road along the lakes were not as picturesque as the lake itself, because I had to watch constantly under my feet, jumping from stone to stone. True in the parking lot we were in for a surprise, a mushroom soup made from local mushrooms. As I recall, immediately drooling flow.
Altai Mountains. Lake Maashey.
Altai Mountains.
The main goal was the Maashei glacier and on the third day of the journey we saw him. From afar, but saw. More precisely, it seemed to us that we were before him. the next day we will reach, but the distance in the mountains is some kind deceptive, did not reach.
Continued here: Altai Mountains – a tourist trip to Maashei glacier. Part 2.
Altai Mountains.
