The Trans-Ili Alatau is included in the northern group of the ranges of the Heavenly Mountains. Its peaks, covered with snow and ice, rise in a high crenellated wall south of the sun-scorched Ili Valley.
The western border of the ridge is the river. Chu, eastern - r. Charyn, in the south, behind the deep longitudinal valleys of the Chon-kemin and Chilik rivers, lies the Kungei Alatau ridge parallel to the Zailiysky Alatau, in the middle both ridges are connected by a bridge, forming the Chiliko-Kemin mountain junction
Within the indicated boundaries, the length of the Zailiysky Alatau ridge is over 400 km, the width is from 40 to 60 km. The ridge has the shape of an arc, curved to the south and elongated in the latitudinal direction.
The variety of natural conditions and the color of these mountains are amazing. No wonder the locals gave them the name "Ala-Tau", which means "Motley mountains"
The name "Zailiysky" appeared much later, in the second half of the 19th century, when the first Russian military detachments, moving from the northeast, saw mountains beyond the Ili River, rising like a beautiful oasis among the steppes.
The western part of the ridge, known as the Kendyk-Tas Mountains, stretches from the northwest to the southeast and is a leveled surface occupied by a number of low plateaus (Kurdai, Argaytyn, etc.) with absolute heights up to 1,500 m. This part The ridge is separated by the Chokpar and Kopin depressions from the low Chu-Ili mountains lying to the north. The Turkestan-Siberian Railway passes along them, as if along a wide corridor.
The central, highest section of the ridge, which is actually the Zailiysky Alatau, is enclosed between the Kasteksky (2,825 m) passes in the west and Amanzhol (3,510 m) in the east and is about 170 km long. Here, on the meridian of the city of Almaty, the Zailiysky Alatau is connected by a mountain jumper with the Kungei Alatau ridge lying to the south, parallel to it. Between them, in deep tectonic valleys, glacial rivers flow - Chon-Kemin to the west and Chilik to the east of the bridge.
In the central part of the Zailiyskiy Alatau there are 370 glaciers with a total area of 540 sq.m. In this central part, the height of the ridge exceeds 3,200 m everywhere, and it reaches its highest height, 5,017 m, in the Talgar massif in the upper reaches of the river. Middle Talgar.
High peaks are located not only in the ridge of the Zailiysky Alatau itself, but also in the side spurs that separate the river valleys. On the northern slope, the most significant spurs are: Maloalmatinsky, Novy, Northern, Talgar, Issyk. The southern, steeper slope has short spurs - Dzhusaly-Kungei, Issykten-chokhu, etc.
To the east of the Aman-zhol pass, the Zailiisky Alatau drops strongly and further, to the Chilik river, it is known under the name of Sary-tau. The second branch of the ridge is called Karash and is located north of Sary-tau, its height is 3,500 m.
The eastern end of the Trans-Ili Alatau occupies the interfluve of the Chilik and Charyn rivers and consists of two parallel ridges: the Syugatin mountains in the north and the Tur-Aigyr mountains in the south. These low mountains (up to 2,500 m in height) are separated by the arid Syugatinskaya valley.
In the immediate vicinity of the city, from the main ridge of the Zailiysky Alatau, the powerful Maloalmatinsky spur branches off to the north. After a few kilometers, it is divided into two branches - eastern and western. Between them in the wooded area flows the river Malaya Almatinka. The high eastern branch of the spur, over 30 km long, is crowned with a number of beautiful peaks - Ordzhonikidze (4440m), Mayakovsky (4200m), Manshuk Mametova (4100m), Abay (4080m) and others. glaciation and branches into several ridges covered with bristles of Tien Shan firs. This branch of the spur serves as a watershed for the basins of the Malaya Almatinka and Left Talgar rivers.
The second part of the Maloalmatinsky spur - the western one, known as the Kumbel ridge, which means "sandy pass", separates the Malaya Almatinka river from the Bolshaya Almatinka river. From the top of Kumbel (3200m) several lateral ridges fan out, bearing the common name Term-butak.
The Tien Shan is a very ancient mountainous country that has experienced many different changes over its long geological history. These mountains first formed during the Calydonian folding. In the ensuing long continental period, the mountains were severely destroyed, turning almost into a plain. During the period of Alpine folding, on the site of the destroyed mountains, a modern folded-blocky mountainous country - the Tien Shan - arose.
Many signs speak of the ongoing uplift of the northern ranges of the Tien Shan. This, for example, explains the presence of a strip of "counters" (large terraces) along the northern slopes of the Zailiysky Alatau and very frequent earthquakes in this region.
The combination of the remnants of ancient covers with forms resulting from glacial erosion and sedimentation has created a modern mountainous relief that has a number of characteristic features. The central part of the ridge is quite strongly dissected and is a narrow mountain range, some peaks of which do not rise sharply above the ridge line. Transverse valleys in their lower part usually look like wild gorges, widening in the upper reaches. Characteristic In this part of the ridge there are dry channels of mud-stone flows with powerful outcroppings of clastic material reaching the bottom of the head valleys. The slopes facing north are mostly covered with snow and ice, while the southern slopes are covered with huge talus of heavily destroyed bedrock.
Snowfields and glaciers fed by them are found only in the central, highest part of the Zailiysky Alatau, which stretches for about 120 km from west to east. There are over 190 glaciers in the Zailiysky Alatau, with a total glaciation area of about 400 sq. km.
On the northern slopes, glaciers occur in the upper reaches of the Uzun-Kargala, Chimalgan, Kaskelen, Aksai, Bolshaya and Malaya Almatinka, Talgar, Issyk and Turgen rivers.
The greatest glaciation is observed on the maximum elevations of the ridge in the upper reaches of the Talgar River, where ice and snow cover at least 150 sq. km. Here are valley and basin glaciers - Dmitrieva, Constitution, Toguzak, Kalesnik and Shokalsky, having a length of 4 to 6 km. The glaciation of the southern slope of the ridge is much smaller and is concentrated mainly in the upper reaches of the B. Kemin and Chilik rivers, especially to the east of the Chiliko-Kemin dam. there are large glaciers - Bogatyr and Dzhangyryk.
The snow limit on the northern slopes runs approximately at an altitude of 3,700-3,900 m, rising from west to east, and also depending on the exposure of the slopes. On the southern side of the ridge, even at an altitude of 4000-4200 m, there is often no snow cover.
Observations made on a number of glaciers in the Trans-Ili Alatau provided a lot of interesting information about their structure and activity. It turned out that even fairly large glaciers move at an insignificant speed. So, in its most active part, the Tuyuk-su glacier moves 23 m per year, and the Shokalsky glacier - 44 m. at the firn line - 134 m. Shokalsky glacier, one of the largest, the rest are many times smaller and belong mainly to the hanging or cirque type.
The glaciers of the Zailiysky Alatau are undergoing a period of active reduction. Some, formerly long glaciers, have shrunk so much that at present they have almost no tongue and do not go beyond their basins. Therefore, they even received a special name - hollow glaciers (Dzhangyryk, Dmitrieva, etc.).
Many valleys in their upper part are partitioned off by powerful ancient and modern terminal moraines, which impede access to the upper reaches of the valleys. Thus, the final moraine of the Tuyuk-su glacier reaches almost 300 m in height. The upper reaches of the valleys of the Bolshaya and Malaya Almatinki, Talgar, Issyk and a number of other rivers have the same character.
The climate of Kazakhstan, located far from the oceans and open to cold north and northeast winds, is dry, sharply continental. But the climate of the Trans-Ili Ala-Tau is very much and favorably different from the climate of the plains lying at its foot. This difference is striking at first glance at the mountains. To the south of the dry wormwood steppe, a wide ribbon stretches a strip of counters covered with curly gardens and groves, above them a ridge rises in a steep ledge, blue with protected spruce forests. Even higher, where the forests end, stretches a soft green strip of alpine meadows, and above them, on the very ridges, glaciers and snowfields dazzlingly sparkle. Such a striking contrast between the mountains and the steppes depends mainly on the amount of moisture that the western and northwestern winds bring to the mountains. high strata atmosphere. Humid air masses come from the Caspian, the Black and Mediterranean Seas, and even from the Atlantic Ocean.
Moisture falls at the foot of the ridge in heavy rains, and high in the mountains - in the form of snow. This solid atmospheric precipitation feeds numerous glaciers, from which most of the streams and rivers originate, irrigating the flowering foothills. At an altitude of 3,050 m, the lowest air temperature is observed in January, when it drops to -30°. In summer, the temperature sometimes rises to + 17 °.
From east to west, the temperature drops, and the amount of precipitation increases significantly. During the year, there are a number of sharp cold snaps associated with the passage of cyclones in summer, and anticyclones in winter. They significantly change the usual picture of the weather.
Especially characteristic is the cooling in the first ten days of July, which is associated with the well-known phenomenon of the mud-stone flow in 1921, which caused significant destruction in Alma-Ata. There are also influxes of cold air at the end of February and at the end of April or at the beginning of May. The onset of autumn is usually preceded by sudden snowfall at the end of September after a long period of warm and sunny weather. After several cold days, warming soon sets in again, and snow remains only on the northern and, partially, on the western slopes. In the highlands (above 3,000 m), winter sets in in the second half of October. In November, January and February, dry snow falls at low temperatures, it is easily blown away by the winds into the valleys. That is why at this time the snow cover on glaciers and peaks is small.
In March, April and May, the picture changes dramatically. At this time, snowfalls occur at higher temperatures and wetter snow accumulates in the highlands, covering the glaciers with a thick layer of snow (1.5-2m), which persists until mid-June.
In general, in climatic terms, the Zailiysky Alatau can be divided into several belts, located "floors" one above the other. The first - from 1000m to 1700m - garden-steppe, covers a vast area from the mouth of the Malaya Almatinka river valley to Gorelnik.
The second - meadow-forest - is located in the range from 1700m to 2700m. It is characterized by the wide distribution of coniferous forests and pronounced features of the mountain climate.
Alpine meadows of the subalpine belt stretch from a height of 2700m to 3100m.
The last, alpine belt (lies above 3100m) is a kind of mountainous Arctic - a heap of talus, bare rocks, blue glaciers and eternal snows.
The transition from one climatic zone to another does not occur immediately, but gradually. Therefore, in neighboring zones over a fairly large area, common climatic conditions are often observed. The garden-steppe belt is the closest to Almaty, but already has great differences in climate. Summer here, due to significant cloud cover, is cooler. The average temperature of the warmest month of July is 18.9°, while the maximum temperature is 35°. Snow cover is established in the second half of November, and disappears in mid-April, reaching its maximum thickness in March. In winter, the weather is mostly sunny, warm, and there are no strong winds. The coldest month
December, but the minimum temperature is -29.3°
The average annual precipitation is 860 mm, with a well-defined maximum in April, May and June, reaching 50% of all annual precipitation.
Within the second belt - meadow-forest - there is a former tour. base Gorelnik and ski base Chimbulak (1930-2500m). Steady snow cover here falls in the second decade of November and persists until April. The average snow depth is 45 cm. Snow, accumulating over several months, often reaches a thickness of 60 cm or more in March. Then comes the rapid spring thaw, and by the end of April - beginning of May, the snow completely disappears. In the area under consideration, the winter is mild, with slight frosts, without sharp fluctuations in temperature. The coldest month is usually December (average temperature -6.3°). The negative temperature persists from November to March. April is a spring month with a positive temperature (3.7°). Winter is famous for the abundance of sunny days, slight frosts are imperceptible and infrequent.
The described area is also remarkable for the absence of strong winds in winter, so the snow in the deep forest valley falls evenly.
Compaction of loose snow occurs due to its own weight, exposure to the sun and firnization processes.
The weather in March is unstable, there are sharp thaws, causing rapid snow melting and massive avalanches. In some years, by the end of April, snow cover remains only on the northern slopes. Often then there are more snowfalls, but they can no longer stop the rapid onset of spring and provide a stable snow cover.
After spring snowfalls, wet snow quickly compacts, freezes at night, and becomes covered with a hard crust. During the day, the air temperature often rises to 10 ° and the snow becomes limp.
May and June are usually rainy and often cold. It should be noted that above the city, the amount of precipitation gradually decreases and, starting from the Chimbulak tract, their maximum moves from May to June.
The climate of the highlands (subalpine and alpine belt) is very severe. Atmospheric pressure at the highest point of the Malaya Almatinka basin - Ordzhonikidze peak - reaches 434 mm, which is 57% of normal. In the Mynzhilki tract, which is located in the upper reaches of the valley at an altitude of 3000 m, there is a snow cover for 8 months, the air temperature sometimes drops below -30 °. The average temperature of the coldest month of February is -11.8°. Summer is short, only two months - July and August. It is not uncommon in July, the warmest month of the year (average temperature 7.7°), during the day the temperature reaches 20°, and at night there are frosts. The higher, the colder. Already from a height of 3500m. even in summer precipitation falls only in solid form - snow and grains. After another 250m passes the "snow border".
The snow cover melts in the Mynzhilkov region in late May - early June, and on the Tuyuk-Su glacier much later. Winter in the Tuyuk-Su region sets in after several snowfalls in early October. The heaviest snowfalls are observed in May and June.
The deposition of snow cover in the highlands has its own characteristics. From November to February, snow falls at low temperatures, it is dry, a significant part of it is blown away by the wind into the valleys, so during this period the snow cover on the peaks and glaciers is negligible. During March - June, snowfalls occur at higher temperatures, wet snow holds firmly on the slope and is no longer blown into the valley by the wind. At this time, mainly, snow accumulates in the highlands.
The prevailing winds in the area of the Tuyuk-Su glacier are southerly (56.6%), observed during the cold season, from January to March and from October to December. They play a major role in the formation of snow cornices, usually hanging from the ridges to the north and east sides. Northern winds (21%) are most frequent during the warm period - from May to September.
In summer, the onset of bad weather in the highlands is usually associated with southwesterly winds of the high layers of the atmosphere, and the appearance of cirrus clouds is the first harbinger of bad weather.
Mountain breezes are pronounced in summer in good weather - during the day they blow up the valley, and vice versa at night.
Sometimes in this region there is a phenomenon of warm wind "foehn", noted from the side of the Talgar pass.
The number of clear days, with thunderstorms and precipitation, is important for characterizing the climate in the upper reaches of the Malaya Almatinka valley. Most clear days occur in September (often up to 20), and with precipitation - in May (up to 24). Absolute humidity is higher in summer months and lower in winter. In the summer afternoon, clouds often cover the peaks and this is accompanied by precipitation at high altitudes.
Thunderstorms occur from April to September. The greatest number of days with thunderstorms is in June (average 7, but in 1953 there were 15), then in July (average 5).
Every year, in the area of the Malaya Almatinka basin, a number of sharp cold snaps are observed. Such a sharp drop in temperature occurs in late April - early May, and at the same time snow can fall even in Almaty.
Cooling in the first ten days of July is often accompanied by heavy showers, causing the formation of powerful mudflows (mudflows).
Usually, the onset of autumn is preceded by a sudden cooling and snowfall at the end of September, after a long period of warm weather.
The onset of a cold snap cannot be accurately predicted, but when choosing the time for hiking, one must take into account the possibility of the invasion of cold air waves.
Numerous rivers originate from the glaciers of the Trans-Ili Ala-Tau. Stormy, full-flowing streams, often 7-30 m wide, rush along narrow winding gorges. Their level changes dramatically during the day. In summer, during the period of strong melting of glaciers, the level of mountain rivers begins to rise from 9-10 am, reaching a maximum value by approximately 3-5 pm. The level of the rivers almost doubles, increasing in some cases up to one meter. If early in the morning in the upper reaches a person can quite easily ford the river, then in the middle of the day it becomes inaccessible even to a horse.
Having entered the plains, the rivers quickly become shallow, giving life-giving moisture to fields and gardens. To r. Or only Talgar, Turgen, Chilik and Kaskelen reach, having taken in the waters of Chimalgan, Aksai, Bolshaya and Malaya Almatinki.
Climbing up the valley of Malaya Almatinka for 30 km, you can observe the following vegetation belts, replacing each other:
Garden-steppe (700 - 1300m) - the most developed and man-made territory of the valley. The original steppe vegetation has been preserved, on the ridges
Shrubs and deciduous forests (1300-1700m) - not pronounced, has a wide variety of vegetation
Coniferous forests (1700 - 2700m) - covers a large strip from Medeo to the Tuyuk-Su gate.
Alpine meadows (2800 - 3500m) - juicy, flowering alpine dzhailau.
The foothills in the lower part, especially in the areas of villages, are occupied by gardens, in which the famous Almaty aport prevails. Above the slopes are covered with deciduous forests and groves of wild apple and apricot trees. Approximately at an altitude of 1,300 - 1,500 m, among the light green of aspen, mountain ash, birch and hawthorn, slender fir trees in a dark green dress appear. As the fir trees rise, more and more, deciduous forests are gradually replaced by dense spruce forests, which stretch up to a height of 2,700 - 2,900 m. But spruces grow mainly on the northern slopes. There are no forests on the southern slopes - here, as in the zone located above the forests, sun-loving herbs and juniper grow. Of the edible herbs, wild onions and rhubarb are of interest.
High, near the glaciers, edelweiss grows, often covering high-mountain meadows with a solid silvery carpet.
Diverse vegetation includes about 1000 species, of which more than half is found in the shrub-forest zone. Down and up from this zone, the number of plant species is noticeably reduced.
Zailiysky Ala-tau is famous for its picturesque lakes. Some of them, such as Lake Issyk, were formed as a result of a giant collapse, others are of moraine origin. The latter include the beautiful lake Jasyl-kol in the upper reaches of the river. B. Almatinki.
The fauna of the Trans-Ili Alatau is quite diverse and is closely related to natural conditions.
Pheasants are found in the prickly, impenetrable thickets of wild rose, hawthorn and barberry, which cover the stalls in many places. In the area of the stalls you can also meet the nightjar, long-eared owls, at the clay cliffs - swift scours, and below, at the mountain streams - kingfishers with beautiful green plumage. The grassy slopes are rich in yellow bunting and small dormouse. Foxes also live here. Many other animals, usually living higher in the mountains, come down to winter on the shelves.
Many animals live in the forest zone. In deciduous forests, there is an elegant goat - roe deer (spruce), and when berries and fruits ripen, a bear descends from the highlands. There are many birds here - mountain partridges, chicklets, tits, orioles, nightingales, thrushes, as well as their enemies - hobby falcon and sparrow hawk.
In dense coniferous forests live cedar forests, small crossbills, woodpeckers, and black grouse can be found in the branches of fir trees. At the bottom of the gorges, where swift streams rustle, you can meet an interesting dipper bird - it boldly dives into the water and runs against the current, extracting worms from under the stones.
Badgers, ermines, and wild cats in the most remote places of the forest are also inhabitants of these heights.
Wild boars are found in the spruce forests of Sary-Sai, Komissarovka and Butakovka. It is difficult to see them, but at the edge of the forest there are always fresh footprints - pitted earth.
Even higher in the zone of alpine meadows marmots live in colonies. Seeing a person from afar, they raise an alarming whistle and hide in their burrows.
Among other rodents, we can mention the rock vole and the red pika, or senostavits.
Cliffs rise above the alpine meadows. The area of the Tuyuk-Su gate and the Talgar pass is a favorite place for mountain goats - teke. Other well-known inhabitants of the highlands are mountain turkey - snowcock, red-billed chough, a large bird of prey bearded lamb and the famous rare snow leopard.
Kaskelen Gorge
Kaskelen gorge, lies 27 km west of Almaty.
The Kaskelen River, flowing through a wide valley, is formed from two sources. The left one - the smaller one - originates from a group of glaciers lying in the area of the Kaskelen pass (3,715 m). This section of the Zailiysky Alatau range stretches eastward, and peaks from 3,900 to 4,000 meters high rise above its crest. In the upper reaches of the right main source, flowing at first parallel to the ridge, the Zailiyskiy Ala-tau turns sharply to the north. Here, at the bend of the ridge, there are a number of significant peaks: Kulakbashi (3920m), Akkum (4098m) and Tur (4350m), which were first climbed in 1938 by members of the expedition of the Moscow House of Scientists.
In the side spur, extending from the main ridge, the rocky peak of Okzhetpes (4100m) rises.
From Almaty to the upper reaches of the Kaskelen valley can be reached within one or two days. The trails along the gorge are good, there are bridges across the rivers. From the upper reaches of the gorge through the passes Kaskelen and Jaya, you can go to the valley of the river. Chon-kemin, lying at the foot of the Kungei Ala-tau ridge against the majestic Chotkal group, or through the Dyure pass (3733m) to Lake Issyk-Kul.
The next major valley, located east of the river. Kaskelen, is the gorge of the river. Aksai. In its upper reaches there are over 15 small glaciers (the largest is the Shnitnikov glacier, no more than 3 km).
The southern boundary of the Aksai river basin runs along the main ridge from which the Shnitnikov and Aksai glaciers flow. Between the peaks Tur and Bezymyannaya (4250m) for 10 km, the Zailiysky Alatau takes a northeasterly direction. On this segment there are the peaks of Shnitnikov (4300m), 20 years of KazGMI (4240m) and others.
Between the eastern source of the Left and middle Aksai, the spur of Bogdan Khmelnitsky stretches for 8 km. It departs from the main ridge to the east of the Friendship Pass (3900m). There are six rocky peaks in the spur, including Bogdan Khmelnitsky Peak (4150m). The Middle and Right Aksai rivers are separated by a small spur that starts from the top of the Uzlovaya Aksai.
On the eastern side, the Aksai river basin is limited by the Aksai spur, which stretches to the north for 18 km. Here, to the south of the Aksai Pass (3650m), three peaks are dimly expressed. The Aksai section of the main range has two small southeastern spurs. One begins in the area of the Druzhby Pass and has such peaks as Lokomotivets (4250m) and others. The second spur goes from the top of Lunin and separates the valleys of the Aksai and Almaty rivers.
Between the valleys of the Aksai and Bolshaya Almatinka rivers, the Zailiysky Alatau forms a ledge to the north, at the top of which the deep wooded valley of the Kargalinka River seems to be wedged. The snow-covered crest of the watershed ridge in the upper reaches of the river is crowned with three snowy peaks, from which the Kargaly glacier descends.
Good trails lead to the upper reaches of the valley. The highest peaks are located mainly in the upper reaches of the Left Aksai, reaching a height of 4,500 meters. Behind the Aksai valley lies a small gorge Kargalinka, for climbers it is of no interest.
The B. Almatinka River, flowing along the western outskirts of Almaty, originates from two sources separated by a spur with the majestic pyramid of the Big Almaty Peak at the end. To the west of this spur flows the river. Checkpoint, in the east - r. Ozernaya. In the foothills they merge, forming B. Almatinka.
The passable gorge is approximately 19 km long. In its upper reaches lies the easy Prohodnoy Pass (3609 m) covered only in the upper part with snow. This is the closest and most convenient way from Almaty to the headwaters of the Chon-Kemin River. The first 25 km from the city to the Alma-Arasan holiday home, the highway runs along the Bolshaya Almatinka valley, after its branching - along the valley of the river. Checkpoint. Further along the river stretches a rather difficult path, along which you can climb the Prokhodnoy pass. From the pass begins the descent to the south along the river valley. Almaty before its confluence with the river. Chon-kemin (13 km).
More or less significant peaks in the region of the river. There is no passageway, but the glaciers, of which there are more than ten, do not exceed 1-1.5 km in length. This area is primarily interesting for mountain hikes.
The Ozernaya River has two sources. The sources are fed by glaciers flowing down from the northern slopes of the Zailiysky Alatau ridge and its side spurs.
In the west, a wide river valley is limited by the Big Almaty spur, in the east - by the Maloalmatinsky spur and its branches.
The Big Almaty spur departs from the Zailiysky Alatau ridge northeast of the Prokhodny pass and stretches approximately 12-13 km to the northwest. And its southern part lies the Almatynyn-Alagir massif, which has several rocky peaks up to 4,047 m in height. In the north, the spur ends with the rock pyramid of B. Almaty peak (3684 m), which is usually climbed from the Dzhusaly-Kezen pass (3200 m).
The section of the main ridge, lying in the upper reaches of the described area, is about 20 km long, its average height is 4100 m. Above its crest, in places where the side spurs branch off, there are a number of peaks up to 4,500 m, among them there is Legostaev Peak (4,468 m), lying in the upper reaches of the Chernoy Glacier.
The Maloalmatinsky spur, branching off from the ridge in the upper reaches of the Gorodetsky glacier, serves as a watershed between the upper reaches of the Ozernaya and Left Talgar rivers for the first 6 km. Several nameless peaks and a sharp pyramid of Young Guard peak (4600 m) rise above the crest of the spur. This ice peak was first climbed by E. Schneider, V. Nearonsky and Yu. Gudkov in October 1945.
Peak Sovetov (4,100 m) is widely known, a beautiful, technically easy peak in one of the side ridges of the Maloalmatinsky spur.
In the river basin Ozernaya has over 20 glaciers; the largest of them is the Gorodetsky glacier (about 5 km).
On the Alma-Ata meridian, the Zailiysky Ala-tau ridge makes a sharp turn to the southeast, connecting with the Kungei Ala-tau ridge by a bridge. At the turning point from the Zailiysky Alatau ridge, the powerful Maloalmatinsky spur extends far to the north. Behind the Touristov pass, the spur branches out, forming an extensive circus, in which the Tuyuksu group of glaciers lies, giving rise to the river. M, Almatinka. In this circus there are about 17 peaks from I to V categories of difficulty.
After the first branching, the Maloalmatinsky spur becomes the watershed of the basins of the M, Almatinka and Left Talgar rivers.
Behind the Tuyuk-su pass and the peak of the same name (4150 m) there is a wall crowned with seven "Needles". The first traverse was made by the group of E. Alekseev in 1940.
From the Eagles, a jagged rock ridge stretches to Partizan Peak (4264 m), an ice dome topped by high cliffs. Further north, behind Partizan Peak, stands the majestic Ordzhonikidze Peak (4440 m), the highest point of the Tuyuk-su region, taken in 1936 by B. Mamontov's group.
Further, the spur goes down a lot, it contains mostly rocky peaks: Mayakovsky (4250 m), Patriotic War(4050 m), Antikainen (4000 m), Manshuk Mametova (4100 m), 28 Panfilov heroes (4020 m) and others.
From Burner the road goes up the left side of the gorge, the spruce forest gradually ends, the gorge narrows, forming the so-called "gates" of Tuyuk-su. The trail winds in zigzags between rocks and screes over a seething river and leads to the expansion of the Mynzhilka valley. At the beginning of the glade (3,050 m) stands the house of the Hydrometeorological Service station, in the south, behind the huge terminal moraines, there are glaciers. The trail crosses the Mynzhilka glade and rises in steep zigzags 400 m along the moraine to the place where the weather station used to be (3450 m).
In the upper reaches of the river M. Almatinka has 12 glaciers. The central valley-type glacier, 4 km long, is called Tuyuk-su ("Closed Water"). Smaller glaciers are fan-shaped around the main glacier, now preserved only on the northern slopes of the ridges. In the past, they connected with the main one, forming a complex valley glacier.
Big and beautiful river valley. Issyk lies in the eastern part of the Zailiysky Ala-tau ridge. The western border runs along the Talgar spur. In the south of the upper river Issyk approaches the main ridge, in the east the border of the region lies along the Issyk spur, stretching in the meridional direction between the valleys of the Issyk and Turgen rivers.
The Talgar spur, extending from the top of Zharsai in a northern direction, immediately after the branch is crowned with several significant peaks.
In the upper reaches of the river valley The Issyk ridge of the Zailiysky Ala-Tau bends to the south, forming an extensive circus divided into three large chambers occupied by glacial groups (from west to east): Bos-kulskaya, Ak-kulskaya, Kassinskaya. There are many different peaks both in the main range and in the spurs of the Talgar and Issyk.
The largest glaciers in the basin of the river. Issyk, reaching a length of 3-4 km, are: Zharsay, Grigorieva, Palgova and Kassina, there are over twenty small glaciers here. The Issyk Valley deservedly enjoys the fame of one of the most beautiful corners of Kazakhstan.
The way from Almaty to Issyk village (45 km) and another 5-7 km up the valley can be driven by car. Then there is a pack trail that rises to a huge dam and leads to Lake Issyk (altitude 1,700 m). The lake is surrounded on all sides by high rocky mountains. In the south one can see peaks covered with white caps of eternal snow. The shores of the lake are indented with coves and bays, dark blue spruces grow on the steep slopes of the mountains. The lake is 2.5 km long, 1.5 km wide, and up to 50 meters deep.
Near the lake on the dam, which arose as a result of a grandiose collapse, there are two large buildings of the former tourist base, below them lies another small lake flowing like a waterfall into the valley. The water of the upper lake seeps into the lower one and fills it.
To get to the upper reaches of the valley, you need to cross the lake in boats, or bypass it along a steep path from the east side. Further, the path, winding from one bank to another, and then along the left side of the valley through dense coniferous forests leads to an ancient moraine.
From the top of the moraine, a wonderful picture of the dried-up lake Bos-Kul opens up. The wide empty basin of the lake, overgrown with grass and shrubs, is cut by numerous dry channels. From the west and east, the lake is squeezed by spurs, from their rocky destroyed ridges wide strips of talus descend into the basin of the lake, in the south a rocky massif rises, dividing the valley into two parts. The trail crosses the Bos-Kul basin and the forest lying behind it rises along a heap of moraines and screes to the next blockage, behind which is Lake Ak-kol (3400 m).
Climbing this blockage along a steep scree is difficult. The lake itself must be bypassed on the western side in the direction of the passage washed by the river in the rocks. Behind the rocks, the valley expands again, forming a vast clearing, in the south partitioned off by heaps of moraines, from behind which the white tops of the peaks stick out. Moving along the left side of the valley, in 3-4 hours you can climb the Kok-bulak pass (4070 m), through which for the first time in 1903, E. Dmitriev passed to the Korzhenevsky glacier.
In conclusion of the review of the mountainous regions of the northern slope of the Zailiysky Ala-tau ridge, let us briefly dwell on the basin of the river. Turgen.
The Turgen River flows through a wide valley and, 19 km from the village of the same name, branches into three sources: Chin-Turgen, Turgen and Kishi-Turgen. In the west, the Turgen basin limits the Issyk spur; zhol (3515 m) drops strongly and is further called Sary-tau. The eastern border runs along the heights lying between the upper reaches of the Kishi-Turgen and Asy rivers. These heights stretch from Sary-tau to the Karash ridge, located north of the river basin. Turgen.
From the southern slopes of the Talgar massif descends the largest glacier of the Trans-Ili Ala-Tau - the Korzhenevsky glacier. In the southwest, the glacier is limited by the Issykten-chokhu spur, with the peak of the same name (4800 m). In the area of the Surovoy pass (about 4,350 m), a side spur with peaks - Vsevobuch (4650 m) and Twins (4450 m) departs from the ridge. Three short spurs descend from the Talgar massif to the southeast, dividing the Korzhenevsky glacier into several branches. In one of them, the most extreme to the south, there is the South-Western Talgar peak (4860 m), taken in 1935 by a group led by V. Zimin.
The northeastern border runs along the main ridge. From the east there is a spur of Chubur-archa. The river flows out of the Korzhenevsky glacier. South Issyk, which after 5-6 km merges with the South-Eastern Talgar River, and then they flow into the river. Chilik.
We used to go to the Korzhenevsky glacier along the Issyk gorge through the Kok-Bulak pass. Now sports groups climb the Korzhenevsky glacier from the valley of the Sredny Talgar River through the difficult Ak-Tuz pass or the easier, but located a little further, Sourovy pass. The way from the former camp "Metallurg" through Ak-tyuz lasts 8-10 hours.
To the south-west of the Korzhenevsky glacier there are large glaciers Bogatyr and Dzhangyryk.
43°03′ s. sh. 77°15′ E d. / 43.050° N sh. 77.250° E d. / 43.050; 77.250 (G) (I)Coordinates : 43°03′ s. sh. 77°15′ E d. / 43.050° N sh. 77.250° E d. / 43.050; 77.250 (G) (I)
Relief and hydrography
The Zailiysky Alatau ridge is one of the extreme northern arcs of the Tien Shan mountain system. It is located at 43 ° N, within 75-78 ° E, partly in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China. The ridge begins in the west within the river. Chu and extends 280 km east to the river. Chilik. To the north of the axial ridge of the ridge, the slopes gently descend to the depression of the river. Ili and the plains of Kazakhstan, in the south the ridge is separated from the Kungei Alatau by longitudinal intermountain valleys of two rivers - Chilik and Chonkemin. In the area of their sources, the ridges are connected through the Chiliko-Kemin mountain junction. The prevailing heights are 4000-4600 m, the highest point is Talgar Peak (4973-4979 m). On the northern slope is the Gorodetsky Glacier.
The ridge was formed during the Caledonian folding , heavily modified in the quarter . It is composed mainly of granites, conglomerates, limestones and shales.
There are a large number of lakes, mostly near-glacial, they are associated with tension in the mudflow environment. The largest and most famous lakes in the Zailiysky Alatau are Big Almaty Lake and Lake Issyk. The study of the elements of the water balance of the mountain watersheds of the Zailiysky Alatau is associated with the name of A.F. Litovchenko.
Climate and precipitation
Animal and plant world
Dry steppes are replaced with height by shrub-steppe vegetation and forests (apple, aspen, above - Tien Shan spruce). There are about 460 glaciers in the ridge zone with a total area of more than 490 km². On the northern slope is the famous Almaty Reserve, transformed in 1996 into the Ile-Alatau National Park. Found: Tien Shan brown bear, snow leopard, mountain goat, snowcock, kekliks.
Write a review on the article "Zaili Alatau"
Notes
Literature
- Vukolov V. N.. Mountain tourist routes along the Zailiyskiy Alatau and Kungei-Alatau. - Moscow, "Profizdat", 1991
Links
An excerpt characterizing the Zailiysky Alatau
He scattered the fire, smashed the pipe and threw it away. Denisov paused, and suddenly, with his shining black eyes, looked merrily at Rostov.- If only there were women. And then here, kg "oh how to drink, there is nothing to do. If only she could get away."
- Hey, who's there? - he turned to the door, hearing the stopped steps of thick boots with the rattling of spurs and a respectful cough.
- Wahmister! Lavrushka said.
Denisov frowned even more.
“Squeeg,” he said, throwing a purse with several gold pieces. “Gostov, count, my dear, how much is left there, but put the purse under the pillow,” he said and went out to the sergeant-major.
Rostov took the money and, mechanically, putting aside and leveling heaps of old and new gold, began to count them.
- BUT! Telyanin! Zdog "ovo! Inflate me all at once" ah! Denisov's voice was heard from another room.
- Who? At Bykov's, at the rat's? ... I knew, - said another thin voice, and after that Lieutenant Telyanin, a small officer of the same squadron, entered the room.
Rostov threw a purse under the pillow and shook the small, damp hand extended to him. Telyanin was transferred from the guard before the campaign for something. He behaved very well in the regiment; but they did not like him, and in particular Rostov could neither overcome nor hide his unreasonable disgust for this officer.
- Well, young cavalryman, how does my Grachik serve you? - he asked. (Grachik was a riding horse, a tack, sold by Telyanin to Rostov.)
The lieutenant never looked into the eyes of the person with whom he spoke; His eyes were constantly moving from one object to another.
- I saw you drove today ...
“Nothing, good horse,” answered Rostov, despite the fact that this horse, bought by him for 700 rubles, was not worth even half of this price. “I began to crouch on the left front ...” he added. - Cracked hoof! It's nothing. I will teach you, show you which rivet to put.
“Yes, please show me,” said Rostov.
- I'll show you, I'll show you, it's not a secret. And thank you for the horse.
“So I order the horse to be brought,” said Rostov, wanting to get rid of Telyanin, and went out to order the horse to be brought.
In the passage, Denisov, with a pipe, crouched on the threshold, sat in front of the sergeant-major, who was reporting something. Seeing Rostov, Denisov frowned and, pointing over his shoulder with his thumb into the room in which Telyanin was sitting, grimaced and shook with disgust.
“Oh, I don’t like the good fellow,” he said, not embarrassed by the presence of the sergeant-major.
Rostov shrugged his shoulders, as if to say: "So do I, but what can I do!" and, having ordered, returned to Telyanin.
Telyanin sat still in the same lazy pose in which Rostov had left him, rubbing his small white hands.
"There are such nasty faces," thought Rostov, entering the room.
“Well, did you order the horse to be brought?” - said Telyanin, getting up and casually looking around.
- Velel.
- Come on, let's go. After all, I only came to ask Denisov about yesterday's order. Got it, Denisov?
- Not yet. Where are you?
“I want to teach a young man how to shoe a horse,” said Telyanin.
They went out onto the porch and into the stables. The lieutenant showed how to make a rivet and went to his room.
When Rostov returned, there was a bottle of vodka and sausage on the table. Denisov sat in front of the table and cracked pen on paper. He looked gloomily into Rostov's face.
“I am writing to her,” he said.
He leaned on the table with a pen in his hand, and, obviously delighted with the opportunity to quickly say in a word everything that he wanted to write, expressed his letter to Rostov.
- You see, dg "ug," he said. "We sleep until we love. We are the children of pg`axa ... but you fell in love - and you are God, you are pure, as on the peg" day of creation ... Who else is this? Send him to the chog "tu. No time!" he shouted at Lavrushka, who, not at all shy, approached him.
- But who should be? They themselves ordered. The sergeant-major came for the money.
Denisov frowned, wanted to shout something and fell silent.
“Squeeg,” but that’s the point, he said to himself. “How much money is left in the wallet?” he asked Rostov.
“Seven new ones and three old ones.
“Ah, skweg,” but! Well, what are you standing, scarecrows, send a wahmistg “a,” Denisov shouted at Lavrushka.
“Please, Denisov, take my money, because I have it,” said Rostov, blushing.
“I don’t like to borrow from my own, I don’t like it,” grumbled Denisov.
“And if you don’t take money from me comradely, you will offend me. Really, I have, - repeated Rostov.
- No.
And Denisov went to the bed to get a wallet from under the pillow.
- Where did you put it, Rostov?
- Under the bottom cushion.
- Yes, no.
Denisov threw both pillows on the floor. There was no wallet.
- That's a miracle!
“Wait, didn’t you drop it?” said Rostov, picking up the pillows one at a time and shaking them out.
He threw off and brushed off the blanket. There was no wallet.
- Have I forgotten? No, I also thought that you were definitely putting a treasure under your head, ”said Rostov. - I put my wallet here. Where is he? he turned to Lavrushka.
- I didn't go in. Where they put it, there it should be.
- Well no…
- You're all right, throw it somewhere, and forget it. Look in your pockets.
“No, if I didn’t think about the treasure,” said Rostov, “otherwise I remember what I put in.”
Lavrushka rummaged through the whole bed, looked under it, under the table, rummaged through the whole room and stopped in the middle of the room. Denisov silently followed Lavrushka's movements, and when Lavrushka threw up his hands in surprise, saying that he was nowhere to be found, he looked back at Rostov.
- Mr. Ostov, you are not a schoolboy ...
Rostov felt Denisov's gaze on him, raised his eyes and at the same moment lowered them. All his blood, which had been locked up somewhere below his throat, gushed into his face and eyes. He couldn't catch his breath.
- And there was no one in the room, except for the lieutenant and yourself. Here somewhere,” said Lavrushka.
- Well, you, chog "those doll, turn around, look," Denisov suddenly shouted, turning purple and throwing himself at the footman with a menacing gesture. Zapog everyone!
Kuznetsk Alatau - the largest mountain system Kemerovo region. It consists of the Kuznetsk Alatau itself and the Abakan Ridge, which begins somewhat north of Lake Teletskoye. The total length of the main ridge in the meridian direction exceeds 500 kilometers.
The height of Alatau is much less compared to Altai and Sayan.
The most high peak- Amzas-taskyl (Upper Tooth) - 2178 meters above sea level.
Along the main ridge and some spurs there are several dozens of granite bald mountains with a height of 1500 to 2000 m with eternal (perennial) snowfields on the northern slopes, with areas of mountain tundra and alpine vegetation. In the mountains, especially along the main ridge and on the spurs closest to it, extensive forests have been preserved, mostly dark coniferous, but now there are already large massifs of deciduous trees. In some places, above the blue of the mountain taiga, rise like islands, bare peaks with alpine landscapes and snowfields.
You can trace a whole chain of these peaks: Heavenly Teeth (2178), Bolshoy Kanym (1870), Bolshoi Taskyl (1448), Church (1450), Suitcase (1858), Cross (1648), Bobrovaya (1673), Pukh-taskyl (1818) ), Chelbak-taskyl, Bear char, Chest, Kugu-tu, Belaya, etc.
Most of the high bald peaks are concentrated in the central part of the mountain system, in the area between 88°-89° east longitude and 55°-53° north latitude. This highest part of the Kuznetsk Alatau is known locally as Belogorye.
To the north of Big Taskyl the mountains go down. Along the main ridge, they already have a height of less than 1000 meters. In the northern part, the mountain system takes on a fan-shaped appearance and turns into ridges of hills stretching to the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Alguysky waterfall Kuznetsky Alatau 
Mountain peaks in Alatau have different shapes. The most common, one might say classic, is a dome with small terraces and a smooth top. This is usually granite, polished by the winds, and covered with scale lichens on the windward side. Such are the domes on the Big Taskyl.
For others, the peak has already leveled out over time, turned into a platform covered with relatively small fragments of rocks. A similar picture is observed on Bolshoy Kalym and Mustaga. The tops of other loaches turned into a pile of large boulders, as on Alatag and the mountain next to Big Taskyl. Here, huge blocks of granite look like the ruins of a fortress or cyclopean buildings. And on the Tserkovnaya wind, for millennia, it processed one peak in such a way that it acquired the shape of a granite pillar resembling a bell tower (hence the name of the mountain).
In Alatau, there are many mountain tarns of snow-glacial origin, firn snowfields, and mountain swamps. That is why there are so many rivers, rivers, springs, streams. The left-bank tributaries of the Chulym, the Tom and all its right-bank tributaries, and in the upper reaches some of the left-bank ones, originate in the Kuznetsk Alatau.
The Kuznetsk Alatau is not only the watershed of the Tom and Chulym, Ob and Yenisei river systems, it is also a reservoir that feeds these rivers. Separate massifs, like Amzastaskyl, Bolshoi Kanym, Chemodan and others, are the cradle of several rivers flowing from these peaks in different directions.
Mount Taizhasu Kuznetsk Alatau 
GEOGRAPHY OF KUZNETSK ALA TAU
Kuznetsk Alatau (from Turk. ala - “motley” and tau - “mountains”) is a low-medium high upland in the system of the Sayano-Altai mountain region in the south of Western Siberia, about 300 km long from south to north and up to 150 km wide. The highest height is 2211 m (Old Fortress plateau). The Kuznetsk Alatau is not a single ridge, but consists of several ridges of medium height, between which there are river valleys. It is a watershed of the rivers Tom and Chulym (tributaries of the Ob).
In the west it is bounded by the Kuznetsk, and in the east by the Minusinsk basin. In the south it borders on the Abakan ridge of the Western Sayan, in the north it has no clear border. The highlands include the Celestial Teeth mountain range.
It extends submeridially, rising steeply above the Kuznetsk depression lying to the west and gently descending to the east towards the Minusinsk depression. The length is about 300 km, the width is up to 150 km. Peaks in the south. parts reach an altitude of 2000 m above sea level. In the northern direction, the height gradually decreases and at the northern tip it is about 300 m. The general appearance is determined by the predominance of low leveled watersheds, above which individual mid-mountain peaks rise as a result of selective denudation and neotectonic uplifts of igneous rock masses (Mountains Pukh-Taskyl - 1820 m , B. Taskyl - 1447 m, B. Kanym - 1872 m, Krestovaya - 1549 m), etc. A significant contrast of flattened watersheds and deep valleys of the White and Black Iyus, Kiya, Tes and other rivers is characteristic. Several alignment surfaces are observed, which is emphasized layered relief.
In the south of the mountain range in 1989, the Kuznetsk Alatau Reserve was created with an area of 412.9 thousand hectares.
The Novokuznetsk-Abakan railway line passes through the Kuznetsk Alatau, closer to its southern tip.
The mountains are composed of limestone, quartzite, siliceous and argillaceous schist of the Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic, intruded by numerous intrusions of gabbro, diorites, granites, syenites, etc. The modern relief was created in the Neogene-Anthropogenic time as a result of uplift and dissection of leveling surfaces of different ages. The slopes of the ridge are asymmetric: on the eastern gentle slope the river valleys are well developed, on the western steep slope the rivers flow in narrow valleys with large slopes; they have a lot of thresholds and shiver.
The Kuznetsk Alatau is characterized by takhyls - the top surfaces of rocks and massifs, covered with stone placers descending into river valleys. Minerals: iron and manganese ores, gold, chromites, etc. Quaternary glaciations covered only the highest parts of the Kuznetsk Alatau, where they left traces in the form of moraines, cirques, and glacial lakes. There is a modern glaciation represented by glaciers. Kuznetsk Alatau has 4 areas of development of modern glaciers:
1) northern - the city of B. Taskyl, the city of Bobrovaya;
2) central - the city of B. Kanym in the upper reaches of the Black Iyus;
3) southeastern and southern - Mt. Tegir-Tash, Kara-Tash.
There are 91 glaciers in total with a total area of 6.79 km². Ice thickness is from 12 m to a few tens of meters. Type of glaciers - cirque, hanging, slope. The very low position of the glaciers is 1250-1450 m. For the inland parts of the continents (50-55º N), this is the only case in the world. The amount of precipitation is over 1000 mm per year, in some places almost 3000 mm. Mountain taiga vegetation predominates (spruce, fir, Siberian cedar, less often larch taiga). Above 1800-2000 m - subalpine meadows, shrub, moss-lichen and rocky mountain tundra.
LAKE AGASKYR
Agaskyr is a lake in the Black Iyus valley in the Ordzhonikidzevsky district, Khakassia.
The lake is sewage, feeds the river. Pechishche, 2.5 km from the village of Agaskyr, is located in the foothills of the Kuznetsk Atatau at an altitude of 500-600 m above sea level. Surrounded by forest (light coniferous larch taiga). Length 2 km, width 1 km, area about 2 km². Fresh, at the base of volcanic rocks.
In Khakassia and Tuva, including on Lake Agaskyr, there is a species of butterflies, whose Latin specific name includes the word Agaskyr - eastern marsh aeneid (oeneis agaskyra Korshunov et Nikolaev, 2002).
(also Koshkulakskaya, from the distorted khak. Khoskhulakh - a karst cave in Russia (Republic of Khakassia, Shirinsky district) in the massif of Mount Koshkulak (Kashkulak, Khoskhulakh), located in the northern spurs of the Kuznetsk Alatau.
It has three tiers connected by vertical wells with a depth of about 20 meters. The depth of the cave is 49 meters, the total length of the passages is 820 meters. In the upper tier (the complex of grottoes "Temple", "Obscurantist", "Dead Pagoda") there are calcite sinter formations.
The lower tier (the "Ovalny" grotto) and even partly the middle tier (the "Skeleton" and "Entuziastov" grottoes) are periodically flooded during heavy floods. Cave difficulty category - 2B.
During the last two thousand years it has been used as a place of worship by shamans. The floor of the cave is littered with the bones of sacrificial animals trampled into clay, coal from sacrificial fires. The walls are covered with petrified soot. The main place for sacrifices was the Temple Grotto and the stalagmite located there.
During civil war the cave was used as one of the bases by a detachment of white partisans under the command of Solovyov.
For the first time, Kashkulakskaya is mentioned in the literature, probably in the works of A. M. Zaitsev in 1904, under the name of the Turimskaya cave (after the name of the Tyurim stream).
In the 1950s - 1970s. was the subject scientific research speleologists, archaeologists and paleontologists.
The cave has gained controversial notoriety over the past half century. Opinions are cited in popular literature that people with high sensitivity can allegedly see hallucinations here, this cave is spoken of as a “place of power” and a “scientific phenomenon”.
Since the early 2000s . Several travel companies operate here, regularly making flights from the Lake Shira resort.
There are many scandals associated with the cave. So, in 2000-2002, this place was the subject of cult veneration of a non-permanent group of Hindu Shaivite clergy, led by Swami Sathya Sai Daas, who founded an unofficial monastery here - Sai Lingeshwara Ashram (Sanskrit: Abode of Truth and Universal Welfare and Peace).
For them, this place was of interest as a natural temple. According to the "Brahmins", this place was indicated from above as holy and requiring care and protection from the destructive effects of man.
After three years of struggling with the negative attitude of the local administration and the population, the neophytes were forced to leave the place. Until now, Khakass shamans and Russian sorcerers conduct rituals here, and trainings are held among the "esotericists".
At the moment, there are several travel companies that organize excursions to the Kashkulak cave (as a rule, only along the upper tier). Most often they are organized in the resort "Lake Shira" or in the village of Zhemchuzhny.
The cave is also visited by a large number of independent groups of cavers. Approximate description of the path: Shira village - the highway to Kommunar - Topanov aal (asphalt road); further into the mountains goes the gravel road of the 1980s - 1990s. After 10 km, a well-trodden field road departs from it, but movement along it is extremely difficult in the rainy season (July - early August). Follow this road for another 5 km to the cave itself.
____________________________________________________________________________________
SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
http://www.kuz-alatau.ru/
Encyclopedia of the Republic of Khakassia: [in 2 volumes] / Government of the Rep. Khakassia; [scientific-ed. Council.: V. A. Kuzmin (prev.) and others]. - Abakan: Polikor, 2007. V. 1: [A - H]. - 2007. - 430, p. : ill., portr. — Bibliographer. at the end of words. Art. - S. 27.
photo by Oksana Rakhmatullina.
Wikipedia site
Kobyakov, Evgeny. A chapel, the Kemerovo and Novokuznetsk diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church, was consecrated on the tourist mountain path (08/03/2007).
TOMSKNEWS.COM.
http://www.tur-sib.ru/
http://kemoblast.ru/region/territory/kuznetskij-alatau.html
http://www.photosight.ru/
photo by Vitaly Yaroslavsky, Petr Zakharov, user Walter.
Basic moments
The Trans-Ili Alatau lies within four altitudinal belts. Up to 1600 m, forest-steppes and deciduous forests dominate here, where wild apple trees, apricots, aspen and mountain ash grow. Above - up to 2800 m - there are coniferous forests, consisting mainly of pyramidal Tien Shan spruce. Above them lies a zone of alpine meadows and creeping juniper, and from a height of 3500 meters bare rocks and glaciers begin. Passes, plateaus and peaks reach 4000-4600 m above sea level, so they are covered with snow and ice all year round. Here is the largest knot of glaciation in the Northern Tien Shan - the powerful Korzhenevsky glacier, which stretches for 11 km, as well as the Bogatyr glacier, which is 9.1 km long. Slightly inferior to them are other glaciers - Shokalsky, Grigoriev and Tuyuksu. Scientists have counted 441 glaciers on the high mountain slopes, and the total area of glaciation reaches 171 km².
The highest point of the Trans-Ili Alatau - the picturesque peak Talgar - has a height of 4979 m. The three-headed peak is perfectly visible from the city of Talgar and some areas of Alma-Ata. No less impressive are the giant peaks Aktau (4686 m), Metallurg (4600 m), Korp (4631 m) and Bogatyr (4626 m). The center of the mountain range with an area of 71.7 thousand hectares is part of the Almaty Nature Reserve, which since 1996 has been considered part of the Ile-Alaut National Park.
In the spurs of the Trans-Ili Alatau, there is the Medeu high-mountain skating rink, the popular Chimbulak ski resort and the Assy-Turgen astronomical observatory. Here are the routes of sports tourist and climbing groups. The season for fans of mountain tourism starts from mid-July and ends at the end of September, and the most favorable period for skiing and snowboarding lasts from December to the end of March.
Climate
Zailiysky Alatau is located in the zone of dry, sharply continental climate. It can be very hot in Alma-Ata in summer, but in the evening the breezes blowing from the mountains bring a long-awaited coolness. From mid-summer to mid-autumn, a dry, comfortable climate reigns in the mountains. Rains are rare, and at altitudes above 3500 m precipitation falls exclusively in the form of snow or hail.
During the year, several cold snaps are recorded in the Zailiysky Alatau. In summer they occur due to the passage of powerful cyclones, and in the winter months - anticyclones. The snow cover on the glaciers reaches a height of 1.5-2 m and lasts until mid-July.
Fauna and flora of the Zailiyskiy Alatau
In that part of the Zailiysky Alatau, which is part of the nature protection zone of the Almaty Reserve, there are Tien Shan brown bear, lynx, deer, mountain goat, roe deer, snow leopard, badger, hare and stone marten. Black grouse, golden eagles, bearded vultures, mountain and bearded partridges, Himalayan snowcocks, juniper grosbeaks, bluebirds, woodpeckers and nutcrackers live in the mountains.
The flora of the mountain range is well studied, because next to it is the city of Alma-Ata, which has many universities and scientific organizations. About 1600 species of plants are found on the slopes and in the valleys of the Zailiysky Alatau. Over 50 species are rare and 26 of them are listed in the Red Data Book of Kazakhstan. In the undergrowth of coniferous forests, you can see hawthorn, thickets of cotoneaster and wild rose, honeysuckle bushes, buckthorn and barberry.
Many travelers come to the mountains to admire the beautiful flowering. After winter, crocuses and goose onions are the first to open their delicate petals. Then comes the time when the mountain slopes bloom with tulips, irises and peonies. At the beginning of summer, bright bathing suits and buttercups, forget-me-nots, violets and anemones bloom, and asters, small petals, hawks and gentians complete the active flowering.
Medeu
Near Alma-Ata, on the northern spurs of the Zailiysky Alatau, there is a unique skating rink. It was built at an altitude of 1691 m in the Medeu tract and bears his name. The high-altitude complex is used for winter sports and has the world's largest artificial ice field, with an area of up to 10,500 m². For its filling, the purest mountain water is used. Medeu is covered with very high-quality ice, and thanks to this, more than two hundred skating records have been set on the high-mountain skating rink.
Shymbulak
At an altitude of 2200-2500 m, above Medeu, there is a popular ski resort Chimbulak. Here, in the northern spurs of the Zailiysky Alatau, 8 routes have been laid, the total elevation difference on which is 900-1000 m.
The history of the resort began in the middle of the last century with the Chimbulak sports base. Today, after a large-scale reconstruction, the ski resort meets the most modern requirements, and its slopes have been certified by the International Ski Federation.
The ski area is located at an altitude of 2260-3163 m. The maximum slope on the slopes for skiing is 45°. The resort has chair lifts, several hotels have been opened, there are restaurants, cafes and ski schools. In addition, professional and amateur competitions in snowboarding and alpine skiing are held in Shymbulak.
How to get there
The most convenient way to get to the Zailiysky Alatau is from the north - from the side of the city of Alma-Ata. Russians do not need to apply for a visa to visit Kazakhstan. Upon arrival at the airport, tourists must fill out a migration card. If they plan to stay in the city for more than three days, they must register with the local OVIR. It is advised to carry your passport with registration at all times. Registration must be checked at the airport upon departure from the country.
From Alma-Ata, people drive up to the mountains by regular buses, taxis and trucks.
Tien Shan - celestial mountains, even the name itself inspires respect and some kind of awe. But my hiking life has developed in such a way that I consider one of the ranges of the Tien Shan, the Zailiysky Alatau, to be almost native. Or, at least, your favorite area. So, when friends asked to show them high mountains, there were somehow no questions about exactly where to go.
We dreamed and planned for a long time - at first there were other things to do, then there was no time, and Zailiyka was still waiting somewhere in the south. But the time has come, two years of dreams and many months of preparation are behind us, and now we are getting on the train to Almaty. It takes a day and a half to drive from Novosibirsk to Almaty - just enough to enjoy the romance of the train, but not so long that you get tired of all this. Moreover, the four of us are going, and we have something to talk about.
Mountains are already visible from Almaty - their white peaks stand above the city, and distant ridges go somewhere into the haze. You can get to the mountains by regular city bus, but we save time, so we take a taxi. Previously, cars went to Chimbulak, where there is a ski resort. But now the taxi driver refused to go further than the Medeu mudflow protection dam. And above we went by cable car.
During the six years that I did not see Zailiyka, the cable car was built from Medeu to Chimbulak and further to the pass, right up to an altitude of 3400 above sea level. We don’t need to be so high, so we drive to Chimbulak, from where our route begins. Altitude 2600, the weather is excellent - the sun is scorching, everyone is in a fighting mood.
Zailiyka This is an amazing mountain area. Here you can wake up in Almaty in the morning, well, or on the train, as we did, and in the afternoon you can see glaciers and high mountains.
Along the valley of Malaya Almatinka there is a road to high-mountain weather stations. Theoretically, cars even go along this road, but we walked along it. On the way we admire the steep cliffs and glaciers in the distance. Nothing has changed here - the mountains are standing, the sun is shining, the climb is steep. This is the fourth time I’m walking this road, and the fourth time it seems like it’s going to kill me - it’s really a steep climb, and everyone goes fast along the road, and even the very beginning, so the body hasn’t yet realized that climbing up with a heavy backpack is fine.
At lunch, we admire the river valley and the steep slopes on the sides. I say that this is the slope we need to climb today. For some reason, everyone decided that this was a joke, but what kind of jokes are there if our pass is there, and it is precisely on such a slope that the path goes.
When we leave the road on the trail, life becomes harder - the height of more than 3000 meters above sea level, the steep climb, and all the same heavy backpacks already begin to affect. It is immediately clear that it has become difficult for everyone to walk - the conversations have subsided, everyone is saving their breath and immersing themselves in their thoughts. Actually, not the worst condition. You walk, you hear the sound of your steps and your own breathing, and, sometimes, the wind. It cannot be said that you can directly see the mountains around, but with all your skin you feel their presence. On the one hand, you dive deep into yourself, on the other hand, you dissolve in it. endless world. It is at this moment that what is written about in all the camping publics on the Internet happens - domestic problems cease to seem important, you seem to separate from them.
Evening is the most long-awaited time on a hike, there is no need to rush anywhere, you can sit quietly, you can eat, and then also lie in a sleeping bag. But on the first evening, dinner did not seem so desirable - the symptoms of altitude sickness, which is also acclimatization, make themselves felt. In general, mountain sickness is understood as a very wide range of problems, and the reasons are also different. It is clear that this is an adaptation, and at altitude there is more and more adaptation to hypoxia (the higher the mountains, the lower the atmospheric pressure, which means that less oxygen enters the lungs with each breath), but there is also simply adaptation to stress, to climate, to change of regime and lifestyle. After all, most of us spend most of our lives sitting in a warm, cozy room. And for this we pay with adaptation at the beginning of the trip, even when the height is not yet so great. And this time we had an altitude of 3600, and this is already quite felt. So it's not very fun to sip soup, but we still find the strength to admire first the sunset, and then the starry sky over the mountains. Still, mountain stars are something special, it seems to me, I can see directly that we have become closer to them!
The night was not the quietest. Here you lie, you seem to be sleeping, but you seem to hear everything around, and then you don’t sleep, and then you sleep again. These are also symptoms of acclimatization, and this is normal, but in the morning it is no more fun. I try to convince everyone that everything is according to plan, that now we will pass the pass, go down lower, and it will be fine, but it seems that they do not really believe me, but in vain.
The trail to our first pass starts right from the place of spending the night - here it is still clearly visible. The trail first goes along the moraine - this is such a heap of stones that the glacier left in front of him on purpose in order to hide harder and become even more inaccessible. It seems that we don’t need to go to the glacier, we need to pass by, but he didn’t know about it and poured stones under our feet. So we walk along the stones, then the path begins to climb steeper already to the pass itself. Here the stones become smaller and with every step they strive to fall out from under the feet, so you have to walk carefully so as not to pour these stones on top of each other. But if you go in helmets and do not go far from your comrades, then everything is quite safe.
It seems that the saddle of the pass is already visible, but more and more often there is a desire to sit. I'm rather against sitting on a stone slope, but climbing for two hours without a break (namely, that's how much it took us to climb to the pass) is somehow difficult. So we sit, as it turns out, on all these sharp stones.
Here, apparently, it is necessary to say about the passes in general. In the textbook on geography, it was written that the pass is a place in the ridge, convenient for overcoming it. And I remember this simple and understandable definition every time I climb some particularly unpleasant slope. Because, in fact, tourism is a sport, and people, in order to make their life even less boring, came up with the idea of walking where it is not at all convenient, but, as a rule, beautiful. And these very passes, which are sports, have categories, and the category of the hike depends on these categories of passes. Our trip was of the second category (out of six possible). So we had to have passes of category 1B (also, as it were, the second of the possible), well, or 1A (this is easier, this is the first of the possible). In a book, a little smarter than a school textbook on geography, called "The Classifier of High Mountain Passes", it is written that pass 1A does not require special equipment for passing, and pass 1B may already require something, but not necessarily a little. So as soon as we hung the rope on the slope, this pass is already more difficult than we need.
But this is all so wonderful only in theory, but in practice it turns out that the passes were classified a long time ago, the state of the ice cover has changed a lot during this time: there is global warming, and the natural movement of glaciers, and much more. So sometimes the passes do not correspond at all to what is written about them in this very classifier. We are still in autumn, and all the snow has melted. And where in the summer you can safely walk on the snow, we can have bare ice, on which it is no longer possible to stand without crampons (for some reason I did not photograph this climbing unit). So we were quite prepared for the fact that our passes would require a lot of special equipment and techniques for working with it. But, I must say, the reality has surpassed all my gloomy expectations.
So, we got to the Pioneer saddle - that was the name of our first pass. At the top there are very beautiful rocky outcrops, more like bizarre buildings. We take pictures near these rocks and laugh a lot - hypoxia makes itself felt.
From above, the descent seems quite logical, especially since, according to the stories of those who have already walked this pass, everything is simple - you go down carefully along the glacier, and that's all. But in these stories, everything is somehow too smooth, given that the cracks on the slope are visible even from space, so we go down very carefully so as not to fall into these cracks.
Before going to the glacier, we put on crampons to stand on the ice, and make a bunch (we all cling to one rope) so that if someone falls, others will insure him. These are all completely ordinary things for mountain trips, while everything goes according to plan - put on shoes, “contacted”, went on the sly. And literally after ten steps, the plan no longer seems so simple and understandable. I go ahead and very quickly come out on a patch of very hard ice - this kind of ice usually occurs in winter, when it cools down and recrystallizes, we could not expect this in September. In summer and early autumn, the ice is grey, spongy, loose, crampons and ice axes stick into it very well. In winter, the ice is smooth, shiny and very hard, and nothing sticks into it, but it is beautiful. It's like the difference between ice cream and icicle.
And now I’m standing on such an icicle and I understand that it’s just so dangerous to walk on it. In fact, we need to go down, but I can’t go straight down - below me on the slope there is a crack, the one about which I knew that it was visible from space. You need to go along it, and only then go down when it ends. If you could go straight down, then everything would be clear - you just need to hang a rope and go down it, but you can’t go straight down - there is a crack. Yes, but you can’t just hang a rope along it, because the slope is uneven, and there are still many small cracks in it - those that are not visible from space, but you can’t walk along them. So we decide to go further in a bunch, but, for greater reliability, we screw drills into the ice - additional points of insurance. (I won't go into the details of the technical work any further, if anyone in the know wants to argue with me why we didn't put up horizontal railings or why we didn't jump over the bergschrund - that can all be done in the comments).
So I screwed in the drill, ran a rope through it, and we walked along the crack. Then another drill, turn down, another drill, again along the crack, then again and again. In places there are areas soft ice, but more often the ice is hard and very slippery, it is difficult to turn the drills there - the glacier does not allow foreign objects into itself. At some point, I happened to check the reliability of the drill - I could not resist on a particularly steep section, slipped down the slope and hung on this very storm. Well, nothing like that, the drills are holding, the friction force is working. Slowly, very slowly, we move along the slope, even more to the side than down, writing out some kind of complex broken line and leaving behind a chain of holes from the drills. But here is the zone of cracks behind, we went to a more gentle part of the slope, from here you can already just go down. By this time, my legs were already trembling pretty much - not so much from fear, but from tension. But now it's just down on foot and that's it.
In fact, this pass turned out to be, of course, much more difficult than the 1B category we needed, but we did it quite well, passed everything clearly and accurately, although we went down for 3.5 hours. Well, what can I say, it can get worse. There was a moment when I really wanted to turn back, and the only thing that kept me from doing this was the realization that our bunch would not turn around on such a slope, so there was no choice.
After descending from the pass, we walk a little more along the glacier, and then along the moraine (yes, each glacier poured a mountain of stones for itself). Around - steep peaks covered with ice, or sharp rocky peaks, the sound of a rockfall is heard from somewhere far away, only ice and stones under your feet, and you can’t even believe that somewhere in this world there can be something alive.
In the morning everyone woke up in the same cold stone world - because of the difficult descent, they did not have time to reach the grass yesterday. The water in the boilers, prudently prepared in the evening, froze during the night, the sun has not yet set in the valley, I am sitting conjuring with the burners - life is beautiful. And then, like a bolt from the blue: “When we go down today, I will go down,” one of my comrades tells me. Or rather, in fact, it’s not like that, he told me this the previous morning, that it’s too hard for him, that the mountain girl is covering and there are no strengths, but then my brain simply refused to believe in it. Well, yes, well, mountain climber, well, sometimes it’s bad on a hike, but to decide to go down after the first day of walking ... Then I decided that it’s just a person who doesn’t feel well, and this is not a decision, but just talk. But then a day passed, and he again - "I'm leaving." Well, what can I say - I can’t hold anyone, you are an adult, this is your decision, this afternoon we will pass the cable car station, from there you can safely go down. And we are left alone.
It was this "three of us" that determined our further route. In general, according to the plan, we had a lot of interesting things, and, most importantly, two glaciers, on which few people walked at all. There is a minimum of information on those passes, only a classifier and images from space, so they are especially interesting. But in order to go there, one must be sure of the reliable passage of these places, especially after we saw what the pass, which is not difficult under normal conditions, can turn into. If there were four of us, then I would not even think about changing the route - we would go according to the schedule, and that's it. But the three of us are already too unreliable, it can become too dangerous in unforeseen circumstances. So we sat, got sad and decided to change the route - go for a simpler and shorter option. In this case, we are left without distant glaciers, but we can exit quickly and safely from any point on the route.
For all these complex thoughts, we reach the upper station of the cable car (the same one from the lower station of which we started our route) and then we part. We sit there for a while, repacking the backpacks in a new way, recounting the products, trying to optimize the weight. But all the same, backpacks become even heavier, because the equipment, designed for four, has not gone away. And we, for example, still have the same tent, which is now clearly a lot for three of us, but she does not know this and does not become easier. But, no matter how much you mess around, you still need to move, although it seems that everything has already ended.
Now we are in the valley of the Left Talgar River - in my opinion, one of the most pleasant places on Zailiyka, and one of the friendliest at the same time. The descent to the river valley goes along a good, but rather steep path. You can already see the river, but you still have to go and go to it.
In some places, the trail is crossed by old mudflows, and then it gets lost between the stones. It is terrible to imagine what is happening here at the beginning of summer, when the water stagnant somewhere above with all its fury blows away the mountains. But now there is a certain aesthetics in all this: gray stones, yellow trees, brown slopes: after all, autumn is the most beautiful time of the year.
We slowly go down the path, it leads us first to the expanses of alpine meadows, then to the forest, and in the late afternoon to the river. Here we spend the night - a great place, there is firewood for a fire, there is water for tea, and even warm enough to just sit and enjoy it all.
We need to go to the other side of the river. Left Talgar roam in a place with a romantic name "Sunny meadow". We come there, and the truth is - there is a clearing, the sun too. Not like the last time I was here in the pouring rain. And there are also numerous floods of the river, along which it can be quite calmly fermented.
We go to the other side and stay there until the morning. Of course, there is still time, but I really want to lie on the grass under the sun before leaving for the glaciers.
We lie warming up for a while, then I even find the strength to go to the neighboring slope, take pictures of all this beauty from above. And there is something to photograph - the bright turquoise floods of the river scatter over gray stones, and the stones seem to have spread in the autumn gold of the valley.
But in the morning we still go up. At first there is even a path. She leads us above the forest zone, and this is not at all small - at least we didn’t have to climb through the bushes. But then the bushes give way to stones, and the path leaves us. And, what is even more unpleasant, the water leaves us. In summer, streams flow everywhere - snow melts somewhere on the glaciers above. But now there is no more snow, there is nothing to melt, and what was flowing has either dried up or gone under the stones. So on this day we simply have to reach the glacier - there is definitely water there, even if it is solid.
We walk along the moraine, here it is somehow especially huge - a real moraine chaos. Huge piles of stones form waves, pits and ravines, and nothing is visible around, except for all the same stones - red, gray, brown. There are no trails here anymore, we just go in the direction, and only occasionally come across tours. Usually, paths are marked with such heaps of stones, but here the tours can only remind you that we are not alone in this world, and once someone has already walked here.
And only sometimes snowy peaks appear on the horizon. But what! True, it is much more pleasant to look at them from below than to climb - they look very impregnable.
Only in the evening we saw our glacier, and above it - our next pass. In this photo, our saddle is on the right.
We spend the night at the beginning of the glacier. The next day we wanted to go upstairs, but the weather made its own adjustments. At night, the wind blew, it began to snow and, most unpleasantly, visibility disappeared.
It cannot be said that the weather was completely unbearable, so, quite moderately. If we just had to move on, we would calmly go. But it was on this day that we wanted to watch and take pictures. According to the new plan, this pass is the farthest point of our route, so we wanted to see all this in good weather. The glacier does not let us go further, we sit in a tent all day and listen to the howling of the wind.
The next morning the weather did improve - it's still windy, and sometimes it catches up with patches of clouds, but there is already visibility, and this is now the main thing for us. So we get crampons, bundles, helmets and go to the glacier. The glacier was covered with yesterday's snow - not enough to fill up the cracks or interfere with movement, but enough to make it not slippery.
At first, the ascent to the tongue of the glacier is quite steep, but then it becomes smoother. And sastrugi appear on its surface - such funny sharp ice waves.
And then the crack zone. In some of them, water flows, sometimes right under the snow. It happens that you can’t see the water, you step on the snow, and you fall knee-deep into the water. Therefore, you need to be careful and check where you put your feet.
On the glacier, the sun will either peek out, or it will cover everything with dense fog.
The sun is still more often, but fog, with its gloomy charm, is also not uncommon.
On the glacier we approach the pass. The ascent to the saddle itself goes along the scree. But we were lucky that it snowed recently. You can make steps in it and climb up quite easily. If there was no snow, then the stones would again leave from under their feet, and so they froze, and on top - a layer of sticky snow.
We went out to the saddle, there - the wind and a lot of sun! It is understandable, the height of the pass is 4300 m, and this already means something.
All the wisps of fog fled to show us all the possible beauties. But we don’t need to go down to the huge glacier ahead - our route now lies in the other direction.
We admire the beauties for a very short time - the height and cold make themselves felt, so we quickly take pictures and go down back.
I really hoped that we would be able to follow our tracks back along the glacier, but while we were going up, the wind left nothing from these tracks. And the way back had to be found again.
On this day, we didn’t go anywhere - there’s nowhere to hurry. So again we spend the night in the same place, and again the wind throws ice crumbs on the tent all night long. Yes, and in the morning the weather, of course, is beautiful, but not that very comfortable - such clouds are much more pleasant to look at in photographs than to walk among them.
But we don't want to sit for another day or even half a day under the glacier, so we quickly pack up and go down. First, along the dry bed of the stream, all along the same endless moraine. Well, well, at least not straight back in your footsteps. Judging by the map, somewhere in the shafts of this giant moraine there must be a lake, we decided to go look for it. So it was not necessary for us, but it was interesting to see it, especially since we had already seen it from above. The lake turned out to be beautiful enough - a dark green bath among snow-covered stones.
Just a little more light to appreciate its beauty. But there is no sun, but there is either snow or fog.
Our road goes through a small pass with the romantic name Eagle's Nest. There is even something in it. From the moraine we do not rise at all high, but immediately a view of the distant ridges opens up, and even the clouds scatter somewhere, only shreds of fog remain on the distant slopes, but they are just for decoration.
And so - the visibility of 10 kilometers, or even more - what you need to inspect both where we came from and where we are now going.
Now we have nowhere to hurry, so we admire the movement of clouds over the mountains for a while, and then, slowly, we go down to the river.
We need to ferment this river - all life, to which we will have to return, has remained on the other side. But today it will not work - the midday sun has melted the snow that attacked over the previous two days, and the river has noticeably risen.
Early in the morning, before the glaciers began to melt, we still overcome the obstacle with the proud name of the Constitution River. And now we have only one pass left before civilization.
Backpacks have already become lighter, and we have adapted, so, despite the significant climb, we are going quite quickly. I don’t really want to stretch out walking along a windy path among bare stones, so we decide to pass the pass that day. Well, unless in the late afternoon we meet a lake with swans and a palace on the shore, and it does not beckon us to itself.
And what do you think, of course, we met him. Well, maybe not with swans, but with liquid water and a beautiful flat area for a folding palace - what else can you dream of!
Something I write all this, and somehow it turns out quite gloomy and severe. No, of course, it is stern, whatever you say, but in fact, on a campaign, we not only walk a lot, but also talk a lot, and laugh a lot. It's just that most of the camping jokes are completely unsuitable for a lengthy retelling, and there, in the mountains, it's very funny. For example, that evening, passing by the lake, I decided to check how strong the ice was on it, and threw a pebble - the ice survived. Then she threw a bigger pebble, the ice held out again. Very soon, all three of us were throwing pebbles on the ice, trying to break it. Either curling or billiards. As a result, we managed to drown a few stones, we considered this our victory over the ice and, quite proud of ourselves, went to cook dinner.
But, apparently, the ice decided that he would not give up so easily, and he did not intend to let us go. At night, the wind picked up, such that the walls of the tent sometimes simply lay down on us. All morning we tried to stuff flying things into backpacks. And under such a wind, they nevertheless began to climb the pass.
At this pass, the take-off is not at all steep, so even in such a strong wind it is quite possible to go. But only at the very end, when it was already ten meters to the top, it appeared again - solid winter ice. Well, what to do, and this time it was not without cats. We quickly put on our shoes and reach these last meters. But at the top, as expected, it blows even more. While I was trying to write a saddle note with a freezing pen, I was literally blown away by the wind - only a friendly shoulder kept me from falling. Nobody wanted to be photographed at the pass, including my camera, whose battery froze for the first time during the hike.
Well, if you can’t calmly enjoy the views anyway, then we find a path down, and along it, literally running, we leave the ridge until snow is added to the wind.
Thanks for the story. I remembered how I lived in Issyk as a child, and then as a student I went on an expedition with climbers, they then made a mountain for the Russian Championship. Our base was in the destroyed alpine camp "Talgar" (a mudflow descended on it in the 70s, in my opinion, in 1977 or 1978), it was in 1982.
Until now, the book has climbing routes "Along the Trans-Ili Alatau".
Thanks again for the story and photos.
