Perevalny

Pressed for time? Passing through Abaza on business? You've got a rare chance to rest properly, take in the beauty of the taiga and the high country of Khakassia, and bring it all home on camera. This route is a fine choice for amateurs and working photographers alike.

Especially for you we've worked out one- and two-day versions. With your own eyes you can see — and on film, capture — the mountain and high-mountain taiga in all its moods: subalpine meadows and snow-veined treeless summits; mountain rivers and streams, from their first springs down to full, deep water; lakes ringed by forest, and high-altitude ones hidden beneath snowbound cirques among the rock...

No special training or long preparation required. This is the rare combination that opens the country to everyone: the broadest possible sweep of the sights of the Khakassian mountain taiga, with no hard demands on your fitness.

Day by day:

First, a drive from Abaza to the border with Tyva along the Abakan–Ak-Dovurak road, climbing three passes, each opening onto the river valleys of the taiga country. The road follows the mountain river Ona, which races between its rocky banks, then eases as it spreads into the open floodplain meadows.
After we reach the start of the walking section and go through the briefing, we walk across the Sayan Pass and climb to the foot of the highest point in the area (Mount Baik-Vlassol, 2590.6 m) for a superb panorama of the Western Sayan peaks. Time to rest, and to hunt for a souvenir of your journey into the mountain country of Khakassia — something that will bring back the adventure, the good spirits and the strange, fine feeling of the pioneer and discoverer...
Then we return to the start of the walking section.
On the one-day version the walking ends here, and the trip finishes with a drive back to Abaza, photographing the evening landscape at sunset.
On the two-day version you'll settle in at the Snow Leopard lodge, with supper and photos of the lodge's surroundings.
You'll set out on a fascinating journey to the source of Kamenny creek — a lake of the same name, lying among stone ridges beneath a cirque. A little lower is Lake Lyubimoe, tucked into the cedar forest of the high taiga. The bravest can also climb Mount Ploskaya for a panorama of the peaks, or cross the saddle to the treeless summit for photographs of the Stoktysh Lakes.
At the end of the walking, supper at the lodge and the return to Abaza with sunset photos of the evening landscape.

The second day's walking program is possible only from May to October.

Want to walk this route? Write to us — we'll tell you how to prepare.

All photos