tourism News / 22.09.2022

barite waterfall. Arkhyz. Arkhyz, attractions, routes Road to Sofia waterfalls

Sofia waterfalls are a whole cascade of water flows, which is formed from a melting glacier. And it melts almost all year round, so the Sofia waterfalls are always full-flowing and beautiful. Well, in winter they turn into huge picturesque icicles, the sight is amazing! Although winter is certainly not the best time to go to the mountains.

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Sofia waterfalls 43.441453 , 41.284990 Sofia waterfalls are a whole cascade of water flows, which is formed from a melting glacier. And it melts almost all year round.Description (Calculate route)

Information

Sofia waterfalls are the source of the mountain river Sofia. They flow down from the Sofia glacier, which in turn lies on the slopes of Mount Sofia. The height of the mountain is 3640 m above sea level. Sofia waterfalls are the second largest in Arkhyz, located between the Kizgych and Psysh valleys. The Sophia River flows to the valley of the Psysh River, and then carries its waters to the source of the Bolshoi Zelenchuk, the main water artery of the mountainous Arkhyz. In summer, the height of the jets reaches 90 m. You can come close to the waterfalls and even swim, but the water is very cold.

How to get there?

An excellent asphalt road leads to the village of Arkhyz, so you can get here without any problems and comfortably by your own car. If you are driving from Krasnodar and the Krasnodar Territory, you will drive along this section of the road -. Having driven into the village of Arkhyz, you need to drive through it and move towards the Arkhyz ski resort. On the way to it, you will notice a turn to the left and a sign to the glacier. At the sight of this fork, your heart will begin to rejoice - the road is paved! But do not rejoice - only a short section of the road is asphalted, then it deteriorates sharply and turns into a broken-down forest road, which leads to the Taulu tourist center and the Arkhyz-City campground.

The walking route starts from the wooden automobile bridge across the Psysh River, there are tents with souvenirs, khychins and other traditional dishes of Karachai cuisine. After passing through the Taulu glade, it is necessary to move along the Sophia River all the time, at first you will not see it, as the road passes through a picturesque forest. Then the road comes closer and closer to the river, and at some point it will even be necessary to cross a swift stream. The main thing is to walk along the river all the time, so you will absolutely get to its sources, which are the waterfalls.

We have been planning this route for a long time, and now the weather is good, let's go!
Thread of the route: Glacier farm - lake. Aymatly - Dzhagaly - lake. Big Sofiyskoe lake. Small Sofia - lake. Upper comma - vdp. Gommesh Chat - lake. Lower Comma - Ice Farm
I decided to invite jeepers for the sake of experiment, 2 crews of Wihter79 (Viktor and Tatiana +2 children) and xoka (Oleg and Victoria) and my old friend (tourist) Oleg responded.
We agreed to meet at the Glacier Farm, I left late, after lunch. I sat down with a battery while we lit a cigarette, bought more groceries, in general I was late.
There was nothing noteworthy on the way, turning after Arkhyz at the sign to Taula, we drove to a conditional off-road, the road is good, well, of course there are bumps, but in general it is passable for any car. About 7 kilometers after the first ford across Sofia on a wooden bridge, the road deteriorates a little and there is already an element of crossovers and jeeps. True, it seems to me that the classic will be able to drive neatly if it is dry.

I shouted into the radio, but did not hear an answer, when the connection nevertheless appeared, I realized that we were already approaching our destination. Part of the way, about 400 meters, you need to go through the water, in the evening there was quite a lot of water, about the hub of the field, but there are no large stones, so this section can be skipped without slowing down. At dusk, we cross the last ford and Oleg (xoka) meets us, we arrived last, the guys had already set up camp and were preparing for dinner. Oleg drove a Hyundai ix35, and Viktor drove a field 2121.
As soon as we got out of the car, we changed our clothes, it was cold, but windless. We met, had dinner, discussed the nuances and went to bed at the beginning of 11. Victor and Tatiana with the children decided to go to the Sofia waterfalls, and everyone else according to the previously planned plan.
Getting up on Saturday at 5 am, having breakfast and collecting assault backpacks, we jumped into the car and drove to the starting point, which is about 3.5 km from the clearing. My car showed a temperature of 3 degrees, and Oleg 5, they decided that it was actually 4 :) all the greenery was covered with a thick layer of frost.
The first ford across Sofia made us finally wake up, the water in the morning is much less than in the evening, just above the knee, but what a vigor ...

In general, we were on the trail at 7 in the morning, the ascent immediately began, we walked slowly, someone was sick, someone simply could not catch his breath. The elephant trail, the view of the opposite ridge of the Sofia Valley is interesting, it is interesting to observe how far you climbed, soon the road seemed like a thin white thread that meanders in the valley. We stopped to rest quite often, at 9 the sun was already full, and we smeared ourselves with a protective cream, one hell of it does not help me.
Rising parallel to the tributary of Sofia, the river Kashkha-Echni, whose sources are located in the lake Aymatly-Dzhagaly, we observed waterfalls and soon came to the first of 6 lakes.

Lake Aymatly-Jagaly is located at an altitude of 2404 meters, according to A.V. The solid name of this lake is translated from Karachay as "Coast-Aimata"
The lake is beautiful, transparent as a tear, a small ripple in the water due to numerous streams did not prevent you from seeing the reflection of the neighboring mountains.
We spend 15 minutes on the lake and move on. The trail gets steeper and steeper, but goes well.

Here, I am visited by a thought, not for the first time. I get the impression that the presence of a full-fledged backpack when walking on such a terrain does not slow down much. I have a light average speed of 1.5 km / h, which is fully loaded. On the way we pass another nameless lake.

In an hour and a half we arrive at the Great Sophia Lake, wow! The lake is already completely open, only small snowfields have not yet melted. The lake is surrounded by the walls of the Kel-Bashi massif.
The height of the lake varies according to different sources, I found several options on the net 2811 and 2830 and 2832 above sea level. The maximum depth is 17 meters. In general, July is the most lake time, there is still a contrast with greenery, sky and snowfields.

Time 12, time for lunch. The zhrachki, as always, scored a lot, but I don’t really want to, while the water was boiling, two brave volunteers Oleg (hoka) and I decided to swim. To put it mildly, the water is refreshing, I don’t know how in the winter for baptism when swimming in an ice hole, but here when you dive at first you don’t feel anything, but after a second your body burns cold, getting out on the shore you are on fire, as if thousands of needles were stuck in the body, cool sensation, but not to be abused. In such water, a person can withstand a couple of minutes, then a shock from hypothermia and bye-bye. We didn’t dive a second time, but my wife dropped her glasses from a large rock, and I had to go back into the water and get them out.

At this time, we saw a group in the south, which rejoiced at the Irkiz pass. Well, we need to go north to the valley of the Gammesh Chat River.
We are promoting outdoor activities :)

After 10 minutes, we passed by the small Sofia Lake, it is not as impressive as the first one, but I think it will look quite harmonious from the Irkiz pass.
After 40 minutes, we pass by the city of Peshter (3010m, according to other sources, a little lower) and went to the Upper Comma Lake, from above the lake is very pretty and really resembles a comma. Behind was Sophia in all her glory.

The height of the lake is 2230m, in order to go down to it you need to drop a lot, they went down for about 30 minutes. Even before the descent, they ran to the jumper to see how they climb to the top, it’s not an option from the south, only from the north along a large scree. My wife and I decided to run away, the guys stayed on the lake. But having passed 1/4 of the ascent, we looked at the sky and time, decided not to go, it was already the third hour, and the clouds were slowly gathering together, and we were not alone, but we would have to wait at least 1.5 hours. We decided to go to the top next time, but we will go on a different route. In general, we quickly returned and began to dump into the Gammesh Chat valley. Me Sveta Ansv and Alyukha Marsheva they warned that the descent into this valley is nasty, Sveta suggested as an option to fall from the Upper comma right to the exact place of the ford through Sofia, but there is no path there and I did not dare to lead the people in this direction and at the vote they decided to watch 6 lake Lower comma and go down the path. The descent is very steep, you need to go carefully, by this time my wife was already limping on her left leg and in this hike she replaced me in terms of disability (usually my knee shoots, but for 2-3 days) approximately in the middle of the descent there is a view of a gorgeous waterfall (Gammesh -Chat), which falls from the Sofia Range.

Having gone down to the lake, we did not find anything in it for the sake of which it is possible to stop on it, quite mediocre. From above, it looks much more beautiful.

A couple of tourists approached us and asked if we accidentally saw their friend who rushed up to the Sofia Lakes, at 17-00, they were worried that he had slipped and ran along the slopes looking for him. He did not go along the normal path, we did not see him, apparently he left somehow on horseback. I don’t know how it ended, but I hope that the guy managed to go downstairs and didn’t catch a cold overnight.
This tedious descent continued from the lake, among thickets of rhododendron, hogweed and nettle.

As a result, in the pine forest, we came to a good path and calmly went down. Through Sofia we crossed over fallen logs. On the road were exactly at 18-00. We had to walk another 3 kilometers to the car, but we stopped a local tablet and she gave us a lift. True, I almost spat out my gut from shaking :))

Arriving at the camp, we learned that Victor, Tatyana and Nazar with Evdokia went to the Sofia waterfalls, left at 10 and arrived at 16-00. Children are just smart, 3-year-old Nazar stomped through everything without any problems. In general, they surprised me, such calm kids, you can immediately see that they are used to camping life :)

Another feature of this trip is beer! I always dream of a bottle in the mountains, of course, these are always dreams, but here, after a day of running, we calmly bought Karachay in a stall, what a day it is! A dream, not a hike :)) At 10 everyone had already gone to bed. It was cool and very starry sky.
Based on my track:
During the day we covered 15 km, climb 1322 meters, 10 running hours, average speed 1.5 km/h
There are doubts about the climb, I looked at the route in advance, I got a little less.

Getting up at 7 in the morning, we began to pack up, had breakfast, stuffed things into backpacks, and left the tent to dry. We said goodbye to the guys and moved to the Sofia waterfalls. Wander around, no need to rush. An hour later we were at the waterfalls, there was no one, except for two Circassians who took water procedures. For about 30 minutes we hung out near the waterfalls, we even saw a local rainbow, which was in the font of the waterfall. The waterfall itself is impressive, especially if you move 100-150 meters away from it.

Having eaten a chocolate bar, we began the descent. And then an endless stream of tourists (mattress covers) reached out to meet us, they were brought by locals on tablets. It's good that we left early. I do not know how many there were, but clearly more than 100 people.
Having collected the camp, having removed the remnants of garbage, we moved home at 14-00, on the way we had lunch in Arkhyz with hychins and Dombai beer.
A couple of hours before that, as I later learned, 6 kilometers from the Glacier Farm, a Krasnodar UAZ lay on its side, they lifted it with a shishiga and a decent traffic jam formed there, the crew did not seem to be injured.
Having left Arkhyz, 2 Kruzaks fell on my tail, I don’t understand what they need, I don’t interfere with overtaking, I fly like a bird, 80 kilometers :). Almost without slowing down, I drive out onto a gravel section of the road and douse them with a cloud of dust and fine gravel, I see blinking, well, I go to the side of the road and get out of the car, and to meet me, the Pilot and the company, where else would we meet :)
The guys had their own route along the KBR, exchanged a few words and parted.
Behind Psebay, we dug up some corn in the fields :) We were at home at 21-00.
This is how the weekend turned out, many thanks to everyone for the company, it was cool, fun and interesting!
Hope you liked it too!
The travel budget was 1400 rubles per person (this is without beer and hychins)
The track can be downloaded
Trek to Sofia waterfalls
P.S.
From the negative. Big Sophia Lake is very "littered" in the area of a large stone, there is a lot of tourist garbage. There is an idea to go to the lake again, clean everything, I think 10 people will be able to take out all the garbage and return through the Irkiz pass. If anyone supports the initiative, we will be happy to participate and organize the Sofia Subbotnik.

This time we came to Arkhyz spontaneously. Just drawn to the mountains, away from the noise of the city. We stopped at the hotel. There are very few people here at this time of the year, preparations for the ski season are actively underway.

And the next morning we decided to take a walk to the Barite waterfall. We didn't quite imagine the distance to it. It turned out quite far and interesting. But first things first.

How to get to the waterfall.

To get to the waterfall, you need to turn from the central Arkhyz street onto Khubiev street. If you entered the village along the highway, then turn right opposite the market. There is also a large parking lot of cars offering excursions in the mountains of Arkhyz.

You can leave your car at the end of Khubiev Street. The road uphill to the Barite waterfall.

At the end of the street we left the car, there is plenty of parking space. Take a light snack and water with you.And they moved up the mountain.

Once upon a time we were in these places, but time has erased the details of those travels. Therefore, we immediately took to the right, crossed a small mountain river and went to the far right path.

We went along the right path, or on the left along a wide road, where even cars pass.

We saw that a car was parked above, that is, the road was wide there, but we did not know if there was a river crossing.

Small place across a mountain stream. You need to go to the far right path. There will be no such opportunity above.

As it turned out later, it was possible to walk 300-400 meters along the road, and only then cross the river to the right onto the path. It's just that the road is much better there.

The road to the waterfall is a rather steep climb. Stones underfoot.

I must say that all the way to the waterfall is a steep climb along a narrow path. That is, be patient.

Sometimes the road is crossed by small mountain streams.

All the way we walked slowly along the mountain path. Small stones crumbled underfoot. Sometimes streams flowed down the mountain.

What will you see along the way.

The entire path is surrounded by greenery. And endless thickets of hazelnut bushes. The weather was great. We had plenty of time.

There are many thickets of hazelnuts along the way. But in accessible places it is quickly robbed.

Nut bushes grow throughout the trail, there are really a lot of them. True, it has already been collected in accessible places, but we also got a few nuts. It turns out you can go for nuts at the end of September.

The beginning of the way. Very quickly, Arkhyz remained below.

Advice for those who are going to go to the waterfall. You must not rush. A steep climb quickly takes strength, so you won’t be able to “run away” to the waterfall, unless of course you are professional athletes.We met a few people who returned half way. Just tired.

The trees offer a view of the Arkhyz mountains.

Count on 5-6 hours of walking. It took us 2.5 hours to go up and an hour and a half to go down. We rested for about an hour and took pictures at the top near the waterfall.

Waterfall on the river, on the way to Barite. You can't get closer to him.

It is impossible to get lost here, there is only one way. We came across this beautiful waterfall. It's a little off, on the river.

Fork in the path. We to the right!

An hour and a half later we came to a fork. You need to turn right. There is an arrow pointer on the stone. You can’t go straight, there is an almost vertical, sheer cliff. We were told about this by the guys who decided to "cut off" and returned to the trail - they did not pass.

Squirrel did not agree to pose for a photo. So the frame turned out not the best.

And the path to the right led us to a pine forest. And that's who we met there!

The road led to a coniferous forest. Route marks are periodically found on the trees. We are on the right track!

And what there air! You can't breathe, your head is spinning.The road here is not so steep, although the rise is still felt. She made one sharp turn and soon brought us back to a narrow mountain path.

The last step on the way to the waterfall. You can already see the rocks. The trees are gone.

From here begins the steepest section of the ascent, but it is short-lived, and the goal is very close.

The waterfall appeared from behind the trees. Left just a little bit.

The waterfall seemed to us literally on the last meters of the road. A sheer stone rock of a bizarre shape and a flowing thin stream of water, about 20 meters high.

We were rewarded with this beauty for a long and difficult journey.

Later we found out that we had covered a distance of about three kilometers, and the elevation difference was about 700 meters.

The waterfall is easy to access. In autumn, in good weather, the flow of water is not at all large.

The waterfall can be easily approached. In September, the flow of water is very small. So we gladly swam in it, taking advantage of the lack of tourists. An indescribable pleasure! Try it! We don't post photos for obvious reasons.

Bizarrely shaped rocks and a waterfall. Altitude 2200 meters above sea level.

From the waterfall along the path you can climb even higher. The mountain offers a view of the village of Arkhyz and the gorge, as they say, from a bird's eye view.

On the path you can climb above the waterfall to the mountain.

For about an hour we rested, swam, took pictures, had a snack. Then they began to descend.

View from the mountain to the village of Arkhyz and the gorge.

One more piece of advice. You will need comfortable shoes with good trekking soles. For your safety. Going down is slippery in some places. Stones constantly fall under my feet.

Tracking poles are not needed on this route, they will only interfere, especially when descending.

So we got a lot of pleasure from the walk. We hope that this year the weather will allow us to come to Arkhyz once again because of the warmth.

Where is the best place to stay to see more sights.

And we made one more conclusion. For walks in the mountains of Arkhyz, through the forest, for relaxation in the warm season, it is better to rent a house in the village. Forest, rivers, everything is nearby. And in winter, during the ski season, look for places closer to the cable car.

Another advantage for a summer holiday in Arkhyz: in almost all guest houses, there is an opportunity to relax on the street, in gazebos, and barbecues. Well, what kind of vacation in the Caucasus without barbecue! We can recommend guest house Sofia. Or, for example, the Caucasus Hotel, located right in the center of the village.

Sofia waterfalls are waterfalls of glacial origin, flowing down from the Sofia glacier of Mount Sofia, which is the symbol of Arkhyz. To swim in the icy jets or to collect a bottle of clean water, we climbed a little more than an hour along the bed of a mountain river flowing from the actual waterfalls. Moreover, the most interesting thing is that during the ascent, the waterfalls are visible, and all the time it seems that they are within easy reach, but, no, it’s quite far to go and in some places it’s hard to get used to (the last hundred meters is the steepest place to climb - we already “climbed” there "), although the route is considered one of the easiest in Arkhyz. We got to the foot of the mountain from the village a little less than an hour (16 km) along a mountain road and with a crossing over the Sofia River), then another entertainment !!! The most popular type of SUV in Arkhyz is "pills" or "loaves" - remember the Soviet ambulances - here they are. It shakes more than on carousels, but they bring you as close as possible, easily overcoming the channels of mountain rivers, and forest impassability, and ravines with stones and potholes.

Sofia waterfalls are the largest in Arkhyz. They are called pulsating - the water flows in them are unstable, their peak falls on the flood period of July-August, the time of the greatest snowmelt in the mountains. The locals say that if you haven't been to the Sofia waterfalls, you haven't seen Arkhyz. The most powerful waterfall is the one that first meets those climbing the trail. To approach it, you need to cross a mountain stream (we did not climb). In some places, a loose glacier hangs overhead. Along the rocks along the wet ledges you can approach the rest of the waterfalls. From the waterfalls opens, as if in the palm of your hand, the entire Sofia Valley.

By the way, during the ascent, we found another fan for tourists - a block of last year's snow, near and on which everyone was happy to take pictures, break off pieces as a keepsake and play snowballs. And at the very beginning of the ascent, one of the trees became a "tree of desires" - all people climbing the waterfalls tie ribbons, strings and other interesting things "for memory" to it.

Oh, and a photo report.

Under the mountain there is a small market where you can have a bite to eat with delicious khychins or shish kebab and post a "thought room" without a door, but "facing the mountains" so that no one sees

And on the way to the waterfalls, we also passed a monument to fallen soldiers .. The photo was taken on the go, sorry ...

This is the road we were on

On the way there were stunning views of the glacier.

And when we were crossing the river, a cow blocked the road, and this is not uncommon in Arkhyz, we had to go around))

Our driver is resting, and under him is a sobssno "tablet", it is also a "loaf"))

This is me trying to lick an ice block))

I realized that autumn was already passing and I finally decided to take a ride, especially since I had been raking the accumulated cases upon arrival for the whole week. The forecast promised rain, but before that it had been sunny for several days, I decided to take a chance. Indeed, the clouds parted, but in the distance, over Arkhyz, it was quite clear. I'm passing In general, it's cool, I couldn't go especially fast.

But more often the gorge along Zelenchuk was in the shade, at Bogoslovsky Lake the company obviously spent the night. Well, our telescope is on top, of course:

Arkhyz passed. Now it's clear if you look back:

But ahead is much less comfortable, the clouds are falling lower and lower:

Turn towards Sofiyskaya Polyana on the new bridge:

Despite the fact that the tourist season seems to be ending, there are people and a marketplace in the Taulu glade:

I go straight, leaving on the right hand turn to

They are building a new resort. But the hills are gloomy in the distance, Psysh (mountain) is lost in the clouds, glaciers are almost invisible. I'm going along the Psysh (river)

A couple of years ago, the border zone began here (about 4 km from Taulu). Now there is a joyful inscription that "the border zone is 7 km away! Entry (passage) with passes ..." But my plans do not go that far.

The road sometimes looks like this, but even on my bike it is quite passable:

More often - a pleasant primer

When I was in Chamonix three weeks ago, I thought that nature is almost the same, but here on an almost "wild" path, one suddenly bumps into a civilized sign. Now we have these inscriptions:

It has been raining for a long time, but it is quite tolerable, the jacket (from the sale in the same Chamonix) successfully withstood the test drive. Sometimes the rain stopped, the slides opened up. There is almost no snow on the southern slopes yet:

Rivers cross the road

Somewhere 8 km from Taulu came to the Belaya River. And at first I even doubted, it seemed that there was not enough water, no deeper than knee-deep, a couple of jeeps easily passed before that. And before that, I was in these places a couple of times exclusively descending from above and it seemed that they only did that they crossed streams along logs. Brook again?

Moreover, there was a log here:

But I decided to check, dragged the bike along the path along the river, without crossing. I soon realized that I would have to leave it before a big climb. Literally after 300-400 meters, wading along a very narrow path (it was a wide tourist path), I came to the dirt road, where there were ... two "Nivas", not very dirty. It looks like it was possible to turn off earlier and drive through (there was a lapel half a kilometer before the river, but I decided that the puddles were too big). They assured me that I was on the right track.

A little more up. Here is the waterfall. Unfortunately, the photo is not very clear, it seems that it is very gentle.

But it's not. I remember that in the middle of summer it was impossible to get so close to it at all, but now the water has subsided. But still, the gorge is severe.

I also tried it on video:

All this time it was raining, constantly wiping the lens. At least something happened on the self-timer

Turned back, at times the sun peeped through, then rain again.

He made a fire under a pine tree, had dinner.

And this "delicious" photo turned out to be the swan song of my PowerShot SX130IS. In general, I didn’t like it from the very beginning, two years ago I bought it as a compact replacement for the old S5 IS, but the replacement is so-so. On my penultimate trip, I dropped it in the Barajas-T4, so it worked with a lot of pressure now. And when I decided to remove the crossroads, I stupidly dropped it on the asphalt, the lens cracked. So this is already taken from a mobile phone: