Altai Mountains - a tourist trip to the Maashi glacier. Part 1.
To Altai! Into the mountains! I have been waiting for this trip for 3 years. All the time, something did not work out and did not work out. And finally, in August 2009, we flew away. A few months before that, a company for a tourist trip, a guide, appeared abruptly, money appeared. Even my good, but very busy friend, suddenly turned out to fly with us. We planned a hike from the village of Aktash to the Maash glacier (locals call it Mazhoy) and back. Easy such a hiking trip to
Altai mountains.
It all started with preparation. We had to buy additional equipment, which we did not have before: trekking sticks, a burner, gaiters. With the purchase of tickets, we were a little stuck, we had to order them earlier, preferably six months in advance (I advise you to use Aviasales.ru and Skyscanner.ru to search and compare prices). And already 2 months before departure, there were no cheap fares and it was decided to fly to Barnaul by plane and go back by train. I wrote separately about that, how to get to Altai.
The most unpleasant thing about preparation is drying the cheese. The stench was all over the apartment, and the dining table was busy all this time. The backpack eventually came out about 30kg, my wife had 17kg, probably for the guru of hiking trips this is not much, however, I would like to be easier, but no matter how I tried to reduce it, nothing came of it, things like everything you need ... Altai!
Drying cheese before hiking.
And here we are on the plane. Fly to Barnaul in 4 hours. Leshka, who is a good, but busy friend, pesters with stupid questions: «why are we shaking», «are we falling». This is his first flight, you can understand. And the Barnaul airport met us on a sunny morning. It was not possible to sleep - the anticipation of a tourist trip interfered, and the night was short: we flew out late in the evening, plus a time shift (the time difference was +3 hours from Moscow). The airport in Barnaul is small, from the plane on foot to the gate in a metal fence enclosing the take-off field, and we get to the parking lot, and right next to it is a pavilion with a lounge for arrivals, come in and take things from the transporter ... I hope this idea will not come to anyone else to the head. By the way, you don't need to wrap your backpacks with foil, for the hike only we of all the tourists who arrived did it.
We took a bus and in half an hour got to Barnaul, for a ridiculous 10 rubles, although taxis and some private minibuses were ready to take us only for a very large amount. Barnaul turned out to be a low, not densely built-up city, quite green and pretty. The bus station is another matter, it is not at all a pleasant place, there are more homeless people than at the Kazan station. The bus station and the railway station are opposite each other, for those who come by train it is convenient to change to buses. Then we took a bus to Gorno-Altaysk, buses run often, about once an hour. Drive for about 5 hours, with a stop in the city of Biysk. In Gorno-Altaysk, we waited for the second part of the group, which traveled through Novosibirsk. Oh, how we remembered them, sitting for several hours at the bus station! But we ate more than once delicious ice cream sold nearby (I advise everyone). After that, we took a minibus to Aktash. Finally, the plains were replaced by mountains, which, with distance from Gorno-Altaysk, became higher and higher, and the vegetation became poorer and poorer. The road took 5-6 hours, and, in spite of the beautiful views, I was rather tired of it. We arrived in complete darkness, and a guide, our friend from Moscow, who had been wandering in the Altai mountains for several weeks, was already waiting for us..
You can read about the best way to go to Altai here: Mountain Altai. How best to get there?
Under the bright light of the moon, we rushed off to the side of the road, looking for a place for a tent. We stood next to the Chuya river, not far from the unfinished hydroelectric power station, from the highway of kilometer 3. The water in the river seemed terribly cold. Then we did not know yet that on the way back, at the end of the hiking trip, after swimming in the lake near the glacier, it would be like a hot bath for us. Habit is gainful.
The next day, almost everyone climbed out of the tent with the words: «Wow!» So that's what they are, the Altai mountains! A mountain river, around a rock, on the horizon a mountain covered with ice, all this made an amazing impression. But the breakfast was meager, as the food is scheduled on a daily basis. Now instead of plentiful food - the aesthetics of places, but this is a completely equivalent exchange.
Mountain Altai. Chuya river. photo Boris Volchek.
Mountain Altai. Tourist hike.
mountains of Altai. photo Boris Volchek.
We moved out, decided to walk for half a day. The route was not long and easy, for the first hiking trip to the mountains it was. We climbed a little higher and everyone immediately reached for the cameras, to quickly capture the views of the Altai mountains. Only the sun is high, not the best time to shoot.
Altai mountains.
How I regretted that we did not take the DSLR with us, we saved weight ... It would be better not to take some clothes. Why do you need a normal camera if you don't take it with you, where you really need it? Only thanks to our experienced guide, who was not too lazy and took a whole photo backpack, we brought home a few dozen good photos.
On the first day we walked along the Chuya, it was hot, and the water was far below. How everyone wanted to swim ... The pampered Moscow bodies ached from such bullying. Once again, you understand, you need to go in for sports, sit at the computer less, get out more often to nature and on hiking trips, and much more you understand. If only all these understandings survived to the city, and not sunk into oblivion..
Altai mountains.
Then we went down and turned to the Maashei river, the rest of the way we will go along it. There was a large camp at the junction of the rivers, there were many people, horses, UAZs. Our first halt was remembered for the cold bluish water and tea drinking.
Mountain Altai. bridge over Chuya.
Mountain Altai. Maashei river.
We walked like this for several days at a slow pace. Nature became more and more harsh and harsh, the temperature dropped. In the morning, the tents were frosty, like everyone else around. The weather in Altai, in general, plays jokes, then rain, then snow, then the sun, you can't predict.
mountains of Altai. Trees covered with hoarfrost. photo Boris Volchek.
Gorny Altai - tourist hike.
Tired but happy
Soon Maashei Lake stretched out in front of us. And the only parking lot, which we strongly counted on, was occupied. And we had to completely unload some of the participants in the hike, and carry practical ones to the next camp. The road along the lake turned out to be not as picturesque as the lake itself, because you had to constantly look at your feet, jumping from stone to stone. True, a surprise awaited us in the parking lot, a mushroom soup made from local mushrooms. As I recall, drool immediately flows.
mountains of Altai. Lake Maashei.
Altai mountains.
The main goal was the Maashi glacier and on the third day of the trip we saw it. From afar, but they saw. More precisely, it seemed to us that we would reach it the very next day, but the distance in the mountains was somehow deceptive, we did not reach it..
Continued here: Altai Mountains - a tourist trip to the Maashi glacier. Part 2.
Altai mountains.
Our route along the Altai Mountains to the Maashi (Mazhoy) glacier