Lake Ulug-Mungashkhol

This route is for the trained, for people who aren't afraid of adventure and a little hardship. What sets it apart is a genuinely hard stretch — the traverse around Lake Ulug-Mungashkhol — which will demand everything you've got and a working grasp of basic rope skills when it's called for.

Your reward is the mountain lake Ulug-Mungashkhol itself: water of the purest kind, picturesque rocky shores and lovely bays, all of it fine resting ground. From the lake you'll come out at the headwaters of the mountain river Ona, which rises from beneath the stones. The rest of the way follows its course.

For this one it's well worth having an experienced guide in the team, someone who knows every detail of what's coming, so you clear each obstacle and keep the hard parts to a minimum. A carefully worked-out plan gives you plenty of real physical work in a short time (spread across the days to match the difficulty of each section), the fullest possible share of good feeling from meeting unique natural monuments, and an unforgettable rest on the shore of a bay of Lake Ulug-Mungashkhol, in one of the hardest-to-reach corners of the Khakassian mountain taiga.

Day by day:

1. Arrive by vehicle at the hundredth kilometer of the Ak-Dovurak–Abakan road. Cross the Pogranichny pass (2214 m). Adjust the gear as you go, meet the high-mountain nature of Khakassia, shoot the panoramas. Then drop into the floodplain of the stream that runs from Lake Ulug-Mungashkhol. Make camp, overnight.
2. Walk along the stream to Lake Ulug-Mungashkhol. A halt, then preparation and a safety briefing. Traverse the lake on the right side to the bay. Make camp, rest, get to know the surroundings and hear the guide's account of this country's nature. Fishing, supper and swapping impressions, overnight.
3. Prepare the necessary gear. Finish the traverse of the lake — lunch and rest on the shore of the bay. Walk to the headwaters of the Ona, make camp, overnight.
4. Walk the Ona to the mouth of the Karatosh, fishing along the way. Make camp, rest, see the sights, and hear the guide's account of how routes are run in these parts. Fishing, fire, grayling barbecue, overnight.
5. Walk the Ona to the hunter's lodge (the mouth of the Sarytkol). Visit the abandoned border outpost. Fishing, supper, banya, overnight.
6. Rest at the lodge, radial excursions, a mushroom walk. Fishing, preparing for the coming leg, a farewell supper and swapping impressions of the trip.
7. Walk to the Snow Leopard lodge. Leave by vehicle for Abaza.

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

All photos