EXPEDITIONS

The Urals

Our call to send us stories got a respond from the team 'Naydi' headed by Konstantin Zykov. We publish their story about a trip to the Urals.

In 2006, August 4-11, there was an expedition of a group of racing motorists of the Perm distributor 'Naydi'. Their goal was the exploring the tracks leading to the Ural Mountain Ridge. The team consisted of four people and drove on the off-road vehicle UAZ, prepared in accordance with the classification TR-3. The general aim of the prospect was organizing of off-road expeditions in the future on the territory of Perm Region, along the Ridge 'Molebnyi Stone' onto Sverdlovsk Region.

Staff of the 'Naydi' team:

The first pilot - Konstantin Zykov
The second pilot - Andrey Mityuklyaev Snr. (senior)
Assistant - Oleg Zykov
Assistant - Andrey Mityuklyaev Jnr. (junior)

The chronology of events:

Day 1

10:00 - the ceremonial start from the esplanade in front of the Perm Drama theatre consisting of the annual expedition 'Eurasia-trophy 2006.' It was televised by three Perm TV channels. The chief of the crew K.V. Zykov gave an interview to television.

About 14:00 the group 'Eurasia-trophy 2006' appeared at the place of start - 120 kilometres away from Perm.

The first Special Section.

* Click on the picture with the left button of the mouse to see it enlarged in a new window.

In the action took part a group of off-road vehicles and a group of bicycles. The roads were ground and concrete-surfaced. The ground tracks were a bit limp, as for the concrete-surfaced ones they had been abandoned long ago that was why some parts of slabs were missing, others shifted both horizontally and vertically.

Finish on the outskirts of the village Nagornskiy in Perm Region on a picturesque hill with a beautiful panorama of the village. At night little repairs of the machinery, picking up mushrooms, cooking a nice mushroom soup and talks around the fire.

Day 2

The second Special Section.

The whole group drove out in the direction of a unique mountain formation, which people call 'Rocky Town'. We enjoyed the nature miracles and took pictures.

Further on through deserted miner settlements, passing sanded-in mines and the constructions of mine barns. We went to the settlement Bolshaya Oslyanka. On the way we placed temporarily the flag 'Naydi' on a high steep friable burrow of one of the mines.

Before the village Oslyanka on the other bank of the river Kosva we came to a halt for the night.

Day 3

The third Special Section.

In the morning after an hour and a half lasting walking in the river Kosva up to our chest we chose the optimum trajectory of movement and waded the river (to the fishermen's delight). The water penetrated into the body but nevertheless all the crews found themselves on the opposite bank.
We reckoned the losses. The 'Niva''s generator failed - we decided to exchange accumulators. The blades of the ventilator of GAZ-66 were bent by water thus they broke the radiator. The guys began to take out the radiator so that to stop the broken tubes working. They managed to do everything within one hour.

We moved towards the mountain Oslyanka. On one of the paths up the hill the main group determined to conduct a pedestrian climb. The team 'Naydi' decided to move on. We reached the dead village with the name 'Stone', had a look at the ruins and left the place in the direction of Sverdlovsk Region along desolate paths across the hills. We made a stop for a rest on a hill and tried to connect with the main group by means of portable radio transmitter with no result. Spent the night there.

Day 4

The day before while packing things in the boot of our car accidentally snapped into action the powder-type fire extinguisher. That was why the next day we put out all the belongings without haste, washed the interior of the car with water from a mountain stream and began to call the main group by portable radio transmitter. Our calling got no response thus we made up our minds to come back to the turning which led to the hills and try to call the group from there. We came there to see the wheels traces leading in the opposite direction. We rushed after them and two hours later managed to catch up with them but before it a mystical story happened to us.

Here it is:
Having stopped at the roadside (for a human need) Andrey Snr. found a pointer quartz wristwatch 'Luch' and there were several strange things about it.

First of all on the watch one needle of the wristlet fastening was quite safe and on its place, but there was no bracelet with all this going on. We thought that if it had been a bracelet with a fastening then it should have been on the watch. If it had been an all-round leather wristlet then the watch would not have been lost.

Secondly the serial number of the watch was 999 or 666 - it depends! It immediately put us on our guard. The watch was 30 minutes late. We found it all very strange - we noted the time, took the watch with us and went on.

Half an hour later, while going along quite a harmless muddy road we came over a stick with one wheel, which having risen smashed the precipitation tank away. We stopped. In fact there was nothing awful, the repairing took twenty minutes. But why did it coincide so? When we caught up with the group in ten minutes we resolved to get rid of it and left it on the side of the road. At first several people were about to take the watch but after we had told them our story there was none who wished to own it.
It must be lying somewhere now on the border between Europe and Asia…
Thus about the border… Virtually in 15 minutes we reached the boundary between Europe and Asia. Having taken a picture next to the boundary post we moved on.

When we were passing a forest section we noticed a flushing capercailye. In our veins immediately echoed the blood of our ancestors thus I (Konstantin) and Andrey Snr. having seized the pneumatic rifle rushed after the capercailye. We had about 15 bullets which were used up in no time. We evidently wounded it because it sat on a branch and did not fly away. I crawled to it to keep watch over it, as for Andrey he went to fetch more bullets. In 15 minutes Andrey brought them and I shot the bird. It fell dying to our feet. We were suddenly sorry for the capercailye but it was too late. I fired a shot into its head and killed the feathered. So with prey we directed our steps towards our car.

As a lot of time passed we rushed to catch up with our friends but having missed the right turning decided to follow our own route.

We rode without stopping all through the night to the North of Sverdlovsk Region driving the car in turn with Andrey Snr.

Day 5

At daybreak we passed by Ivdel and a couple of settlements more and drove out towards the village Tokhta on ground unknown roads. On the way in the suburbs of the deserted village Verkhniy Vizhay we came across a river which we had to wade and in some areas we had to drive through mud of medium difficulty for our car. Everything went all right and we did not use the winch. Before arriving in the village Verkhniy Vizhay we stopped to have dinner and take photos of lizards on the log. They were not scared of the camera and even posed.

When we got to Tokhta we found out that it was an uninhabited village, where the houses used to be there were only stove constructions, besides them there were tumbledown buildings of former garages of the sovkhoz (state farm). Nowadays local inhabitants of neighbouring settlements come there on UAZ cars to take out the scrap metal. The view is oppressive we must confess.

We went on riding on the denoted in the atlas forest path to the foot of the Ridge 'Molebnyi Stone'. On the way to it we overcame three fords next to broken bridges. One of the fords was impassable for a standard UAZ that was why we had nothing to do but use the winch. We did three attempts.
Gradually the road became worse and worse. There were steep ups and downs.

Before we began the main climb up the hill, in front of the ford we saw a standard UAZ parked in the forest. There were no owners. We thought that they must have gone hunting or fishing. There began a steep rocky rise - we could see only Ural's traces. We moved on very low gear up the hill. We several times rested against rocks with our axles and protection, drove backward and stormed the impediments on another trajectory. Though the people and the goods in the car jumped up to the roof everybody being fastened with belts put up with it. It took us two and a half hours to go five kilometers.

Having overcome the most difficult part of the rise we saw two rocks 'Ostantsy', at the foot of which we could see sawed firewood and a metal brazier - somebody likes to come to the place, probably the owners of the Ural.

The height of that area is 750 meters above sea level - this is the very boundary where underbrush ended and higher we found only stones and moss. We moved on onto the mountains. It was easier to drive now - the moss being thick hid the stones and the car did not shake.

We saw the way cloudberry grew, not only saw but also ate and picked it up to take with. There were big glades of it growing like snowdrops, only instead of the flower a yellow berry, very special and nice.

As soon as we got higher onto the hill we saw a picturesque mountain valley, 15 km lengthways and 5 km in breadth. On the North slope there is snow.

The temperature is about 0? at the beginning of August. The snow probably will stay there till next winter. We decided to explore the highlands on foot. In an hour we found a place for passing onto the main mountain ridge. We again drove on very low gear. While crossing the valley we ran into two mountain streams which were unexpectedly deep (up to 50 cm). The water in them was from melted snow thereby extremely pure. We poured it into large bottles.

On more or less passable locality we went up to the height of 970 metres above sea level. There was the last mound of rocks seeing which in our hearts arose a desire to move back. But notwithstanding we took a decision to storm the alp. I made all the passengers get out of the vehicle so that it could go easier and alone going round the peak along the perimeter I looked for the appropriate slope. I determined to traverse the hill so that not to butt against the rock. It took us half an hour to cover the last 100 metres.

At last there we were! On top of the mountain. The height was 1027 metres above sea level. We placed the flag 'Naydi' between the stones and took a picture to remember the territory and the moment by.

In half an hour we started the descend to the rocks 'Ostantsy' and next to them stayed for the night.

Day 6

In the morning we slept long until 11 o'clock as the day before we got exhausted. We got up, cooked food and had breakfast. We ran out of bread. But yet did not hurry.

On the rocks I laid the hiding-place 'Naydi-6'. The details are on the site www.geocatching.ru

We gradually began to prepare for the return. Packed our belongings and started at about 15:00. Decided to go home without stopping. A day later we appeared in Perm.

The results of the expedition of 2006: the flag 'Naydi' was fixed at the height of 1027 meters above sea level.
The way out to the ridge 'Molebnyi Stone' was prospected.
The level of machinery preparation was determined. It is possible to go to the highlands with the preparation TR-3, in a pair - TR-2.

Resume:

In 2005 - the prospect of the exit onto the mountains to the Chuvalskiy Stone (from the side of Perm Region).

In 2006 - the prospect of the exit onto the mountains to the Molebnyi Stone (from the side of Sverdlovsk Region).

There is a possibility to organize an expedition for an off-road mountain trip from Perm to Sverdlovsk Region.

Published by Mikhail Shardin.

Download the track (format .plt) here ››
* Konstantin Zykov's note: the track is hand-drawn according to the attached map. The track does not show the actual way on the map but the roads which we went. I drew it starting from the village Ivdel (in Sverdlovsk Region). You can reach this village going on common roads.