Mountain Altai. The village of Tungur on the banks of the Katun is a center of tourism, the beginning of mountain, hiking, horse and water tourist routes. The village of Tyungur Republic of Altai Ust-Koksinsky district: recreation and tourism Where is Tyungur

The traffic along the Chuisky tract in the summer is quite large, you won’t have to wait long for passing transport. The direction from Tuekta to Tungur via Ust-Kan and Ust-Koksa is less busy, but here every driver understands that a voting person with a large backpack is going to the foot of Belukha or on, and among tourists it is customary to help their own!

Of course, all this splendor of the Altai Mountains will open before you in full.

The federal highway M-52 "Chuysky Trakt" is of very good quality, along the entire length from Biysk to Chibit there is excellent asphalt and road signs that are on the case.

The main fleet of our cars are all-wheel drive minibuses and jeeps, as the most suitable for work in the mountains. These cars may be slower than others on the track, but they solve a very important problem. Often, to the beginning of the route, for example, or, you need to throw up cargo and people so as not to waste time traveling 15-20 kilometers walking with a backpack along the road. This is where all-wheel drive vehicles come to the rescue.

If our tourists do not fit in minibuses, we launch our branded bus to Chibit with a large TV, good acoustics and a thematic selection of films and videos about Altai, hiking and extreme sports.

2000 rub. one way, 3700 rub. in both directions (there and back).

In our transport you are already traveling with guides and other participants of the trip, you can immediately get to know each other, ask questions of interest, listen about the sights and life in the Altai Mountains, have a bite to eat in a cafe that we trust.

In Chibit we traditionally stop at the recreation center "Nomad". Tent accommodation on the territory is included in the cost of all tours (unless otherwise indicated, for example, accommodation in houses is included immediately), but you can order more comfortable accommodation in houses or yurts on the Nomad.

to Tungur by regular bus

Distance to Tungur

From Novosibirsk to Tungur: 890 km
From Tomsk to Tungur: 1200 km
From Kemerovo to Tungur: 1000 km
From Barnaul to Tungur: 690 km
From Biysk to Tungur: 576 km
From Gorno-Altaisk to Tungur: 450 km

Buses to Tungur

There is no direct bus connection with Tungur! This is due to several difficult sections of the road after Ust-Koksa. They represent bottlenecks where cars can hardly pass.

In the summer, a gazelle seems to go from the Gorno-Altai bus station, but information about it is always vague for some reason, and it will be quite inconvenient with luggage in the form of a backpack. Maybe things will change in 2017.

The best place to get to by bus is the regional center of Ust-Koksa, and from it to Tungur (about 70 km) by taxi or hitchhiking. In extreme cases, you can spend the night in Ust-Koksa.

There is another option - to take a bus that goes to Multa to the turnoff to this same Multa. Then only 33 kilometers will remain to Tungur, but how to overcome them is the question. Either call transport from Tungur, or hitchhike. All in all. we do not recommend.

Bus Altai-Pokhod

In 2017, we plan to carry our tourists on our own bus, the cost of the trip from Biysk to Tungur will be 2400 rub. one way, 4500 rub. round trip.

It is quite a bit more expensive than on a regular bus, BUT! There are great benefits!

1. You do not have to solve the problem of how to overcome the "last mile" to Tungur.
2. You are guaranteed not to be late for the start of the hike, because the instructors will be with you!
3. In our transport you are already traveling with guides and other participants of the trip, you can immediately get to know each other, ask questions of interest, listen about the sights and life in the Altai Mountains, have a bite to eat in a cafe that we trust. stop for the toilet when needed, not when the driver wants.

To Tungur by car

Road

If you live not far from the Altai Mountains (for example, in Barnaul or even Novosibirsk) and drive a car well, you can get to the village of Tungur on your own.

The distance from Biysk to Tungur is 576 km on the most comfortable road, if you drive along the Chuisky tract through the Seminsky Pass, and turn towards Ust-Kan and Ust-Koksa, before reaching the village of Tuekta.

There is also a shorter road, about 450 km, through Soloneshnoye, Black Anui, Ust-Kan, Ust-Koksa to Tungur, but for the most part it is a gravel road, and after rains it is often just a dirty track.
Therefore, if you don’t have a jeep or a crossover, it’s better to drive along the Chuisky tract - you won’t lose in speed for sure!

Attention! On outdated maps of navigators and navigation programs, the program sends tourists along the road from the village of Inya (358 km from Biysk) to Tungur. Seemingly simple and fast way is actually fraught with one surprise.
This route is not accessible by car! The mountain trail is accessible to pedestrians, horses, bicycles and motorcycles. Although no, once the jeepers passed this route, but there are no other applicants yet (link to video

The main fleet of our cars are all-wheel drive minibuses and jeeps, as the most suitable for work in the mountains.

If our tourists do not fit in minibuses, we run our branded bus to Tungur with a TV, good acoustics and a thematic selection of films and videos about Altai, hiking and extreme sports.

Shipping cost from Biysk to Tungur - 2400 rub. one way, 4500 rub. round trip.

It's a bit more expensive than the regular bus, BUT! There are some nuances!

1. 1. Regular buses to Tungur do not go!!! The closest point to Tungur is the turn to the village of Multa, and from there you can either vote on the highway or look for a taxi, which will cost you either inconvenience, lost time, or extra expenses.
2. 2. In our transport you are already traveling with guides and other participants of the trip, you can immediately get to know each other, ask questions of interest, listen about the sights and life in the Altai Mountains, have a bite to eat in trusted cafes that we trust.

All roads to Gorny Altai go through the city of Biysk, so the description will be from this city. The route looks like this:

The distance from Biysk is approximately 526 km.

GPS coordinates: 50.160435, 86.30967

In Biysk, after the bridge over the Biya, we drive straight ahead without turning anywhere. Behind Biysk, the historical part of the Chuisky tract will begin. The road is excellent asphalt, and immediately after Biysk there is a 4-lane road. True, not for long, after 20 km it will become an ordinary two-lane, but still of excellent quality. Approximately 150 km after Biysk, there will be a fork in front of the village of Ust-Sema. We leave along the main right along the M-52 highway to Tashanta. We cross the Katun on a new bridge. We rise to the Seminsky pass. Although this is the highest pass on the Chuisky tract, technically it is not difficult, it can be easily overcome by any car at any time of the year. The pavement on the pass, as well as on the entire Chuisky tract, is excellent asphalt. After the descent from Seminsky, there will be a fork. The Chuysky tract goes straight ahead. We need to turn right following the signs to Ust-Koksa and Ust-Kan. After Ust-Koksa, the Uimon steppe begins. After 60 km there will be the village of Tungur.

At the beginning of the village there is a suspension automobile bridge across the Katun. The village is a fairly large tourist center. Tungur is the nearest settlement on the way to Mount Belukha and the starting point of numerous mountain, hiking, horse and water tourist routes. There are several tourist bases in the vicinity of Tungur, from which hiking trips are organized to the Kucherlinskoe and Akkemskoe lakes, horseback riding, rafting and a trip to the foot of Belukha, which can be reached on foot by passing the Kuzuyak Pass and further rising up the Akkem River. Or on horseback and on foot - up the river. Kucherla and through the Karatyurek pass to Akkem lake and the foot of Belukha. In the village you can rent horses for a horse trail or delivery of goods. Tungur shops sell mountain honey from local apiaries.

At the entrance to the village of Tungur, to the right of the highway on the banks of the Katun, there is a monument to Pyotr Sukhov, the commander of the Red Guard detachment, defeated by the White Guards in August 1918. The village has a post office and mobile communications.

On the right bank of the Katun, opposite the village of Tungur, there are the Vysotnik camp site and the Tyungur camp site, which is part of the Kucherla tourist complex.

All camp sites have experienced instructors specializing in a particular type of tourism (rafting, horseback riding, hiking, mountaineering).

I managed to capture the last week of summer in Altai with the guys from Altaiautotour. Gathered suddenly, not in spite of, but thanks to for 3 weeks, fearlessly rushing into the unknown to get off the radar. Lucky with the group - a brave trinity, lucky with the guides - each with a guide! And the weather, duck, they just brought with them warm, almost no rain. Driving along one of the best roads in the world - the Chuisky tract, is already happiness. And going to Mars! And the descent from Katu-Yaryk, where on one of the loops they met a herd of goats and managed to safely disperse with them, not one of the goats was hurt! You know, Altai is a rethinking, these are people. When, seeing how you slide on a stone, they give you a hand, it's worth a lot. Maya - thank you very much for your warmth and purity - this is unforgettable. But in general, we got 2 rounds in one, as the maral has blossomed - and it seems, what else could we dream of, but Altai does not let go. Guys - thanks to your family for the road, accommodation, food. And to hear kaichi - masters of throat singing! I remember everyone and thank you for the unity!

Galina B.

We were on the tour "Golden Ring of Altai" from 06/30/19 to 07/06/19. It's just a fairy tale))) A complete separation from a terrible, dusty, stuffy civilization, unearthly landscapes of Mars, the purest water from rivers and streams, violent waterfalls and beautiful mountains, gorgeous Lake Teletskoye, silence in the evenings at camp sites, though when we weren’t singing with a guitar at bonfire)), stars that seemed to be possible to take with your hands, words can not convey all the impressions ... Our guide - instructor Dmitry and the organizers Artem and Maya showed us just a new life))) THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!))) ) We left with tears in our eyes, returning to civilization ...

Who believes in a fairy tale and loves life and who is sad and tired of the routine of life - come to Altai! For 7 unique days of a trip along the "Golden Ring" you will live a small happy life: you will see the best masterpieces of Altai nature, get acquainted with the chic instructor Dmitry and the project leaders Maya and Artem. All the guys are in love with their land and are ready to give joy to people. Thanks a lot!!!))))

Svetlana, St. Petersburg

We were in Altai from 8 to 14 June 2019! Maya, thank you from our whole family for a great tour! We remember our group)), ️We are proud of our "exploits"! Altai causes "feelings beyond comprehension;)"! To understand what I mean, you need to see it yourself! Mystery ... Delight .. Grace ... And .. Gratitude! Earth and Maya for your work;))) I found wonderful poems about Altai and post them in a review: Altai is a starry sky over the steppe, Decorated with the surface of lakes; Altai - clouds leaving in a chain On the slopes of the blue mountains; Stormy rivers and the song of a waterfall, Life-giving air of forests, Midday heat and night coolness, Flowers like from rainbow dreams... Altai! Many songs will be composed About your wondrous beauty! You are so many-sided and so wonderful, Like a fairy tale about a bright dream! (I. Serebrova)

Tatiana P

I realized my cherished dream - to go hiking in Altai. On the recommendation of Maya, I chose a trip to Belukha. I am delighted! A sea of ​​impressions! We were very lucky with the weather, we completed the entire program. Not a single day was wasted. Caught all seasons, down to sub-zero temperatures on the last day. Which made it even more impressive. Sitting at the computer monitor, and admiring the beautiful photos, I did not think that it would be so difficult to overcome the path "there" and especially "back" (after the rain). But! Now looking at my photos, I want to go there again. Thanks to the organizers Maya and Artem, and our guide Vitaly for the best vacation!

Evgenia, Novosibirsk

My acquaintance with Altai happened in the summer of 2018. Then the "Golden Ring of Altai" with a wonderful guide Maya revealed to me the amazing, unique nature of Altai. This trip was so unforgettable that when the long May holidays loomed in the future, I decided without hesitation to return to Altai again! And again - great emotions when meeting with Maya and Artyom, sincere communication with members of our friendly team, evening gatherings with songs and funny stories, and finally, the main miracle - pink mountains - the flowering of Maralnik!!! During the 5 days of our trip, we saw so many interesting things that our common WhatsApp chat is still buzzing with memories! Maya, Artyom, thank you for giving people from different parts of the country the opportunity to see, understand, admire Altai! I will definitely come back here again!!!

Alyona. Yekaterinburg

Mayushka, you are wonderful, bright, brave! Altai is magical. Came back and realized that was not enough. I want more!!! Hello from Tel Aviv

We rested in the second half of August 2019, the Golden Ring of Altai tour. Impressions beyond words! Indescribable nature - mountains, turbulent rivers, freely grazing horses, cows, goats, and sometimes pigs))) Of course, Altai is big, but we, it seems to us, saw the most beautiful places in a week, the route is very well planned, thank you very much for this organizers Artem and Maya, as well as their assistant instructors Vitaly and Veronica. Also thanks to the driver Vyacheslav for a comfortable and safe ride! Together you created this unforgettable holiday for us! I also wanted to mention not only about the excellent route, but also about how tasty and a lot of food we were fed - we don’t cook so much at home and don’t eat so much!))) And we were also lucky with the group! PisUCHARtsy, hello everyone!! You rarely see such unity, mutual assistance and universal positive. Thank you all very much!!

Many times I saw a photograph with the same subject - a mountain lake in which the sky is reflected, then a couple of dark mountains that look like gates, and behind them - a grandiose shining wall of ice and snow from the very peaks. I knew that it was in Altai, and that somewhere in that mountain wall - Belukha (4509m), the highest point of Siberia, the sacred mountain of many peoples, and according to Roerich - Northern Kailash. And if road trips along the Altai tracts are the prerogative of Novosibirsk and other regions in the neighborhood, then people go to the mountains and rivers of Altai from all over the vast, and even when I was at school, the head of our tourist club took groups here. The place from the photo turned out to be Akkem Lake, the most famous trekking attraction of the Golden Mountains. And even though I myself am not a hiker (of which I had to make sure once again), the experienced Olga rode with me, and the week-long trip to Akkem became the culmination of mine.

The story about the Akkem campaign will consist of three parts: the way up from the last village of Tungur (including footage from the way down), Lake Akkem and its surroundings, radials to Yarlushka and Seven Lakes. In I showed Ust-Kan, but between it and Tungur there is also Ust-Koksa and the Uimon Valley, which I will show after Akkem. And instead of a preface -.

In the upper reaches of the Katun there is the fertile Uimon steppe, the Old Believer Belovodie. Behind it is the small Katanda steppe, the owners of which under the tsar were the Cossacks of the Bikatun line of the Siberian army, under whose protection Vasily Radlov was the first to dig their archaeologists in 1865. And outside of all the dimensions is the village of Tungur, whose name could be translated as Zabubenny: in Altai Tyungur is a shaman tambourine. Behind Tungur there are sparsely populated mountains without roads, after passing 70 kilometers you can jump out. View downstream, almost all the shots from Tungur were taken on the way back, when we left here - and this is not so easy, because there is no scheduled transport here, officially its passage is prohibited due to an emergency bridge in Katanda, and an unofficial minibus "Only for locals" they are also periodically fined - I suspect that around the time they are convicted of transporting tourists.

On the high bank - the grave of the Red Army. In the upper reaches of the Katun, there was also the culmination of the Civil War for Altai, and in fact, the heroes of the semi-mythical fought. In 1918, near Tungur, Pyotr Sukhov died with a detachment of red partisans, defeated by the "whites" in the Altai steppe and retreating here along the mountains. In 1921, in Katanda, in his house, the last ataman of the Bikatun Cossacks Alexander Kaigorodov, who was trying to liberate Russia from the territory of Mongolia, was killed. The locals, however, believed that he did not die, but went to China, and it was easier for the Reds to wash their hands. Here rests, of course, Sukhov:

There is also a Round House in Tungur - a clear Uimon trend:

And harsh rusty jalopies, reminiscent of the fact that locals do not live by tourism alone. I saw Altaians in Tungur, but it seemed to me that this was mainly a Russian village.

And behind the Katun - a squirrel and the highest Katunsky ridge in Altai, from which the Katun itself flows in an intricate spiral. This, as I understand it, is the Kucherlinskaya valley, and usually they go up along it, and down along Akkemskaya. But such a hike, with the Kara-Turek pass separating the valleys, lasted ten days, or even a couple of weeks, which I didn’t have. In principle, the idea to combine dynamic road trips and mountain trekking in one trip turned out to be, to put it mildly, not very successful - most of the trip we had to carry useless (except for the trekking part) cargo, there was frankly little time for trekking, but we already managed to squander.

Belukha is clearly visible from the hills above the Tungur, primarily Mount Baida. 12 kilometers down the Katun, almost opposite the mouth of Akkem, is the mouth of the Turgunda River, where a whole "magnificent seven" kezer-tashes ("stone warriors") of Turkic times have been preserved. But going there is a day, and renting a car is inadequate thousands, and I saw a lot of "stone women" on that trip. So let's go over the bridge:

The suspension bridge across the Katun, not the first and not the last along its course, literally hangs over the Tungur:

It was opened in 1982, and as I understand it, it was from that time that tourists poured into Akkem and Kucherla in a stream:

And if Tungur himself stands on the left bank, then behind the Katun - his camp sites. On the way "there" we spent the night at the camp site "White Krechet", which was served by two boys who looked like brothers. These were not service workers, but classic "enchanted by Altai", who helped brothers in mind go to the mountains, and the fact that they took little money for this was perceived by both us and them as a convention. But the guys refused to take our things to the storage room - from day to day "White Gyrfalcon" was closed for the winter. The neighboring tourist base "Bayry" has already been closed - and this is in the first days of September! Only "Vysotnik" operates here all year round, combining the functions of a camp site and a forest hotel. "Vysotnik" and holds both of these valleys, organizing various casts. On Akkem, he has a "branch", which is simply called "Upper Vysotnik" here, and we also had to get acquainted with him.

On the "Vysotnik" we spent the night on the way back - and I understood that I would go to spend the night here for any money. Firstly, we were terribly exhausted and soaked to the skin in the rain, and secondly ... a hiker must either not sweat or have a winter swim: I really wanted to wash. In the summer there is a tourist shelter with sleeping bags in the common room, but in September it was already closed, and the choice was to put up a tent or spend the night in a hotel from the frame above. Rooms with amenities there cost 1500 rubles per person, without amenities - 1200. At the same time, there was nowhere to hang wet rags to dry, the water heater was designed for one and a half people in capacity, and perhaps the lack of Wi-Fi could be explained by the lack of fiber optics in Tungur. It is also forbidden to eat and keep food in the rooms, but who will control this? Otherwise, "Vysotnik" was good - a cozy area, polite staff, excellent food in the cafe (but expensive), in the tourist office they are attentive to customers, which helped us out on the way "there". And here it is not necessary to settle in order to use the left-luggage office for the duration of the trip to the mountains.

There is also a separate show. In the morning, we were lured out of the room by the noise of the propeller:

A small helicopter arrived - a light American "Robinson R66", five-seater with a cargo compartment. Heavy helicopters, as many of them I saw in Siberia, are exclusively Russian and Soviet, but small "flying cars" are the same overseas "Robinsons" with a characteristic mast under the propeller:

Helicopter tours are a very popular entertainment in Altai, and it suggests that there are not so few people with money among us as it seems. A 40-minute air excursion with a flyby of Belukha costs 70,000 rubles overboard, and this particular R66 was flying from an intermediate landing (apparently for refueling) in Tungur. In the frame - the entire cabin of the helicopter, not very different from the car. As I understand it, 4 tourists and an instructor are flying here, and the tour is read automatically.

He did not specify whether this helicopter could be used as a means of dropping off tourists on Lake Akkemskoye or picking them up from there, in both cases also showing Belukha. A more well-known option for those who are too lazy to go on foot is a horse, but at a price comparable to a helicopter: firstly, not one, but two mares carry a tourist with a load (one for himself, the second for a backpack); secondly, an instructor will go at the head of the caravan, whose horse is paid separately at the same rate; thirdly, you pay separately for the return trip at the same rates for each horse. That is, the calculation formula is as follows: the number of horses \u003d (number of tourists) x2 + 1, and we multiply all this by the number of days + 1. Considering that renting a mare costs 1500 per day, for two we would have come out from 15 to 22 thousand rubles , of which half to a third would be spent on the return of the instructor.
The easiest option to simplify the transfer is to take a "shishige" (cargo GAZ-66) to Three Birches. The fact is that Akkem flows into the Katun about 15 kilometers below the Tungur (map), and in order to get to it, you have to overcome the Kuzuyak pass along a boring forest road: the first day of the journey promises a lot of effort and few spectacles. Taxi "shishiga" costs 10 thousand rubles, which is even inexpensive for a large group, but single tourists for 1100 rubles (100 rubles - the "Vysotnik" commission) are put on quite frequent occasions. And in the evening, when we left for the "White Krechet", we were told that there were no opportunities for tomorrow, and the maximum that they could offer was to participate in the rafting to the mouth of Akkem for the same money. However, in the morning, a car was suddenly found, transporting some materials and cargo to Three Birches, and the girls from Vysotniki, who had not forgotten about our wish, called me. To pay or not to pay 2200 for two, Olga and I did not even have a question. At 11 am, a jeep drove up to the gates of Vysotnik and took us to Kucherla - the real "last village" three kilometers further:

If Tungur seemed to me mostly Russian, then Kucherla is an almost purely Altai village. And at many houses of Kucherla there are chaks - traditional Altai hitching posts. Because the horse here is not a luxury, but a means of transportation and earnings:

Somewhere in Kucherla, the "shishiga" was waiting for us. On the Kuzuyak road, they can be found in this way, but according to other tourists, they take strictly 1000 per person from any point and do not bargain.

On the wooden bridge "shishiga" crossed the river Kucherla, even more turquoise than the Katun. The Kucherlinskaya valley, compared to the Akkemskaya one, is considered more picturesque and gentle, but also longer, and the beauty of the alpine lakes and the almost kilometer-long glacier-icefall of Mushtuairy, to which it leads, is very difficult to access, and as a rule, tourists turn from it to the Kara-Turek pass to Akkemu, along which they go down. Pay attention to the fragment of the bridge and a bunch of logs - the bridge was washed away by a flood a few years ago, but since then a new one, also wooden, has been built.

The road behind the bridge basically looks like this, and even UAZs don't drive here after the rains - only shishiga, only hardcore! And how fun it was to walk along it back ankle-deep in slippery mud or, if the edge, waist-deep in damp grass ...

A couple of kilometers from Kucherla there is a grandiose meadow, two kilometers wide itself, followed by forests and a dirty dirt road again. Just an ordinary forest, without any special beauty, which would take hours to walk through. "Estimate would have trampled on foot!" would think with Olga, understanding each other without words. The only spectacular place on 22 kilometers of this road is actually the Kuzuyak Pass (1513m). It rises 700 meters above the "Kucherlinskaya" side, 500 meters above the "Akkem" side, and the ascent to it is not extreme, but simply boring and difficult.

You can see Tungur and Kucherla, stretched along their rivers:

And this is already a descent beyond Kuzuyak, and the deep valley of Akkem, which goes into the distance, is clearly visible. Notice how the lighting has changed? In the sun, it is in this valley that unnaturally bright colors are:

Here the road was no longer wet, but dusty. A couple of times we saw tourists walking towards us, and in some places behind Kuzuyak we could see hayfields and fences.

The way back was much harder - the weather deteriorated, it rained for two days in a row, and the roads were swept away from all sides, but this time there was no opportunity. Therefore, we walked on foot, and only the wild rosehip, which grew abundantly on the "Akkem" side of the pass, brightened up the efforts - we gathered it for the future, and brewed it into tea for several more days after the hike.

The zigzags of the wide "bump" gauge are conveniently cut along narrow and steeper paths. On the slopes, the mud, held together by roots, is not so slippery, but in the lowlands there can be very nasty swamps. These trails are not so much for pedestrians, but for horsemen, who sometimes come across us:

And on the way to the pass, I suddenly noticed a dog at my feet. Looking around, we saw a caravan, but only some other:

It was not imposing tourists with a misanthropic instructor who rode here, but stern Altaians with guns, and there were much more horses than riders, and on each horse hung something that most of all resembled a sack of potatoes. Having come up to level, the leader shouted to us: "Jump on the red! 1000 rubles to Kucherla!", apparently sincerely not realizing that a person may not be able to saddle a horse on the move.

I asked the next Altaian where you were heading from, and he answered me "What are you interested in?" in such a tone, as if for the next question he would take a gun from his shoulder and shoot. Only after seeing them off with a glance, we realized that these were cones, and the "potatoes" in bags - cedar cones from some distant plots, the location of which, of course, they did not want to shine. The meeting with the pack caravan for me at least somehow justified the difficult return trip.

Let's get back to the sunny start of the hike. At some point, an ail appeared from the bushes - there is a small camp site, where the "shishiga" materials were brought, apparently for conservation for the winter. We were taken another half a kilometer ahead of a wide meadow and landed on this clearing, popularly known as Three Birches. There are, however, more than three birches here, and I don’t know which ones gave the glade its name.

There are a couple of completely abandoned houses here, and on the way "there" we dined at the table in them, and on the way back we settled down to spend the night there, literally wet to the skin: if you walk in heavy rain for several hours, no raincoats and jackets will save . Inside it was not warmer than in the tent, but unlike the tent, the house already stood. He has seen a lot in his lifetime, probably:

So, we drove 22 kilometers. As the further path showed, we wouldn’t have passed them in a day: I just don’t know how to go to the mountains, and Olga lost her strength and dexterity in three years without hiking. In addition, she was used to walking with a large group, and therefore, no matter how light the backpack was, she still gained more on the road than she could carry. I could unload it (and in the end I carried more than 30 kilograms), but in purely tourist matters - to put up a tent, cook food - there was little use from me, except to collect firewood for a wood chipper and bring water from a stream, so we set up for 3 hours, but we gathered for 4 hours at all. That is, we walked for 7-8 hours a day with an average (including halts) speed of 1 km / h up and 2 km / h down, if measured in a straight line. From Tungur to Three Birches - 22 kilometers along the road; from Three Birches to Lake Akkem - about the same in a straight line, that is, in fact, 1.5-2 times more. Ministry of Emergency Situations and border guards pass the Akkem trail in a day (this is included in their standards), normal tourists - 2-3 days from Tungur and 1-2 days back, but we went up 2.5 days from Three Birches and 2 days went down to Tungur.

Or we could go even slower, but the Akkem trail is not a wild taiga, but a park. Probably, the Chuisky tract looked about the same in the "eternal" era - at least a meter wide and with carefully sawn trunks of trees that fell on the road. For the most part of the trail, there are solid kanmi and roots, and if on the descent they pretty much interfere, then they help a lot on the ascent, forming a kind of staircase, and it’s not slippery to go here in any weather.

On the right, streams flow in steep rocky channels:

To the left, from behind the trees, a wall sometimes appears and the noise of the ferocious Akkem is heard:

There are forks on the trail, but they are all conditional - the branches will converge after a maximum of several hundred meters. And along the entire length of the trail every 2-3 kilometers, or even more often - Glades. Tourists have developed them so thoroughly that others on Maps.me were marked as campsites. Many have left some sauces, jars of salt or sugar, bottles of water - take it and use it if you don’t disdain! Walking here is not dangerous - even if you broke both legs (which is not so easy to do here), then in a few hours at most (and most likely earlier) other tourists will pass by and if they don’t help themselves, they will report to the Ministry of Emergency Situations above. But all this self-made infrastructure has a downside - a shortage of firewood. Even the wood chips in most clearings are chosen almost cleanly, and it takes a whole hour to collect them for one cooking in the far district of the clearing.

The main landmark on the local trails is horse manure. If you haven’t seen him for quite some time, it means that you probably managed to go the wrong way. But, contrary to expectations, there is not much garbage - somewhere one piece of paper or a tin can is lying around, but I have never seen spontaneous dumps along the entire trail. The piece of iron, resembling either a homemade stove or a burbulator for a whole camp of hippies, was the largest example of local litter, and even this, perhaps, is not litter, but a "working" pine nut sieve. And it’s not the sozanny of tourists (one cattle company a month is enough to litter the entire trail to the state of a viper), it’s just that in Altai they understand that they need to clean up, and volunteers and instructors follow the cleanliness along the Akkem trail. They say that this is not the last reason - garbage attracts bears, problems with which are definitely not needed here. But if you meet Goga - remember that he is a Man!

There really isn't much to see on the trail. Forest and forest, dense and humid, and the mountains are reminiscent not so much of beautiful views as of a sinusoid in a vertical plane, which is a path.

The only thing that pleases the eye is living creatures - for example, nutcracker. Didn't know they were so funny.

Squirrels here are mostly black, and there are really a lot of them:

And on the stones underfoot, such black spiders, or rather haymakers, plentifully scurry about:

The section of the trail behind the Three Birches turned out to be the most difficult - constant steep ascents, sometimes replaced by mocking descents: if the general direction was up, then each descent promised a new ascent. In addition, Olya did not immediately realize that her carrying capacity had decreased, but I did not want to stop, and as a result, on the very first kilometer, she overstrained herself so that she could not recover until the end of the trip. Every now and then we came across other tourists, and their backpacks were two times smaller than ours - and alas, I have too little experience to understand how they succeed. We walked about 6 "straight" kilometers during the day, and at dusk we got up for the night among the boulders under the kurum near the Akkemskaya Pad stream. Until the end of the campaign, I called this place the Devil's Meadow, because on the basis of fatigue and dejection with very modest results, here I had an epic quarrel with Olga.

And the next day Belukha reconciled us. At some point, we saw a fork - one path went up, the other down, and Olga remembered from her past trip to these parts about a certain Lower Akkem path, where she had to climb through bushes and kurums. Therefore, she went to reconnaissance from above, and I - from below, and quickly realizing that the lower path was more trodden, I returned to the backpacks. And looking up, I saw squirrels shining beyond the taiga and:

And I didn’t know then that it was Belukha itself, coupled with the round Delaunay peak (4260m). From the Russian side, they look like a dome and a pyramid, if you like - like Easter cake and Easter. The Altaians call it Kadyn-Bazhy, which means the Head of the Katun, but at the same time Katun itself means "Lady", and then Belukha is simply the Main of the Main. According to the Altai belief, its peak is a channel connecting our world with the heavenly one, and even shamans were forbidden to approach the sacred mountain. I started with photographs of Beluga whales. Well, the Altaians know the entire Belukha massif as Uch-Sumer (Three-Headed), and its third element is the Western Belukha (4435m), the second highest peak in Altai and the most spectacular of the mountains above Akkem. Behind the mountains there will be a gentle slope with the Gebler glacier (military doctor Friedrich Gebler first explored the mountain in 1835), from which the Katun originates, and the steep northern slope is the Akkem wall, from which Akkem himself breaks out with a roar. "Ak" in all Turkic languages ​​means "white", "by whom" - a river in the ancient Turkic language. Akkem is really not turquoise, but white all over:

And the sign on the stone near the path reminds him of his furious burrows:

Akkem doesn't seem to be deep, but it's really not even quite a river, but something transitional between a river and a waterfall. Continuous threshold 40 kilometers long. Here, look - the slope of the channel is visible to the naked eye! In the distance, behind the trees - the western peak of Belukha:

But the taiga sinusoids ended, and the path now led along Akkem, and the slope, which was huge for the river, was quite tolerable for the path. The main obstacle on the second day were kurumniks, however, also mostly found ones. When we went up, I remembered that there were two or three of them, on the way down it turned out that there were at least five.

And side streams, still coming across every now and then. Bridges have been made through many, here is the most solid one:

A large butterfly was beating on the stones of one of the kurumniks, buzzing helplessly, like a fly. Her time has passed:

In the mountains in September it can be -15, and the eezi (spirits of the mountains) were favorable to us - although the nights were cold, and it rained on the way back, the temperature never dropped below 5-7 degrees.

Here the goblin met, who did not pay the slightest attention to us - he bypasses his possessions before conservation for the winter:

Sod canopies under twisted roots came across such that they can be used as a hut:

However, we passed not only them, but also the largest parking lot in front of the Tekelu waterfall, which apparently most tourists reach from Three Birches in a day. Near the waterfall, they say, it is very beautiful, but there are no bridges over the Akkem, and photo No. 39a shows how the attempt to ford might end. Moreover, I am sure that there the river carried away much stronger and more experienced people than we did. Therefore, they usually go to Tekelyushka with a separate radial from above:

Behind Akkem, meanwhile, loaches are already appearing - not yet our path, but the surrounding mountains are sucked out above the line after which trees do not grow:

Having passed a couple more kilometers beyond Tekelyushka, we decided to get up for the night - on the second day we walked a little more than on the first, but still about 4 kilometers remained before the goal. Well, I chose the glades, not least because of the views that opened from the shore of Akkem - here, for example, in all its glory West Belukha before sunset ... do you see the FACE on the slope?

But at dawn - and the whole array of Uch-Sumer, in which other esotericists peep the Trident of Shiva. The view is grandiose, and thanks to the more severe climate, the icy 4-thousanders of Altai are no less majestic than.

In the morning at the same place. This is where the title frame of the post was taken from. The colors are still unrealistic:

And other tourists were walking towards us all the time, and their geography was not at all the same as that of those met on the roads - almost none from Novosibirsk or Barnaul, but every other time Moscow or St. Petersburg, and also Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Arkhangelsk, Chesky Budejovitsy. ... Only once on the way back we came across tourists to overtake: although we were moving slowly, the flow upstairs had almost dried up (especially since they often go up Kucherla), and those who followed us went faster just a little faster and in approximately the same mode of halts and overnight stays. People we met appeared every one or two hours on the way up, several times a day on the way down, and we invariably greeted each other, exchanged questions about the further path, and moved on. On kurumniks, passing a group, I got off the path, and the last passerby invariably gave me a hand - as on winter roads, where one slides into the snow, and the other, having passed, pulls it out.

Sometimes horses descended with a lone instructor, most often an Altaian - they had already taken the passengers upstairs ... but downstairs, mind you, they are not going without a load, and this load is most likely the same cedar cones:

And steadily every other day, the Akkem Gorge was heard by the crash of a low-flying helicopter - first up the valley, and after 20 minutes and down. This, by the way, is not a "Robinson", but also an American "Bell-407" (or another "Bell"), that is, the Belukha flight is carried out not only by "Vysotnik":

The forest gradually thinned all the days of the ascent, the birches and aspens became smaller, and on the third day the larch became the main tree. At some point, we ran into a gate for horses (so that they would not go down on a night pasture), which could be opened with only a little thought. But closing them behind me, I felt that the goal was very close.

In the next part - about Akkem lake and its inhabitants.

P.S.
Well, if my story seemed funny or pathetic to some of the experienced tourists, laugh and feel sorry for your health. I am not a hiker, and although Olga and I spent three weeks in the same summer, I did not gain much experience. Olga asked why I was always in such a hurry and jumping out of my skin, and after a little thought, I found the answer - because I don’t like trekking, the very situation of a long walk with a heavy backpack is stressful for me, and the goal is always unconditionally more important than the path before her. Therefore, if I still undertake such trips, then also in "park" conditions and for no more than a few days, for example, to Seydozero or Ergaki.

ALTAI-2017
. Trip review and. Katu-Yaryk, Pazyryk, Mikhalych outpost.