I love Altai very much, and so I traveled it far and wide. But my Altai is very different from the favorite places of ordinary tourists who rarely leave further than Chemal.
I still love more wild places and the most interesting places, which undoubtedly conquer with their beauty and power. As they say, "better than mountains, there can be only mountains you have not visited before". But not everyone has the opportunity and desire to go to the mountains, but to look at the beauty and their greatness really want to.
And today my story is about an accessible excursion for everyone who wants to feel the ice in the summer under your feet and stand on a glacier, but does not want to go a couple of days with a backpack up.
Glacier Small Aktru, just then for you. But not everything is as simple as it seems at first sight. A place though also accessible, but nevertheless complexities are..
At the foot of the Aktru glacier is the oldest mountaineering camp, which was opened here before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1938 and exists to this day. Of course, in recent years it has changed a lot in the civilized side and instead of stationary tents, today there are a couple of two-story cottages and canteens. But fortunately nature has not yet been touched, and the asphalt road is not laid. Once this is done, this place will die. While it is difficult to access, it is valuable.
Of course you can admire the snow-white tops of the mountain from the road, in good weather, these kinds of open from the Chui tract.
But if this is not enough for you, then the excursion to the Aktru Glacier is for you.
There are three ways to visit it.
The most expensive and comfortable is to buy a tour on any base that is in this area. You will be put in big cars type GAZ 66 with a kung and take to the Alpine camp and back from the base to the base. The cost may not be small, it all depends on the car, the number of people and the impudence of the one who organizes the tour.
The second option is more optimal, get by car (though not all cars can reach) before transshipment and there to hire a car to the bottom of the glacier. A cheaper option.
The third option is the most budgetary it is to get to the transfer by car, and then go on foot. There is a path, it is safe, but of course physical preparation is needed. Maybe not training, but the desire to reach, at least.
On the road with transshipment (it is a transfer point where you can leave your car and even spend the night, there are a couple of houses and a bathhouse, and also hire a car) to the Aktru is a separate post. Not for the faint-hearted and only on larger machines or UAZ. You do not have time to take pictures, as you hold onto everything, just to not hit, as the car shakes and it jumps from stone to stone.
Here is the first beautiful panorama that opens onto the majestic mountains of the North Chuy Mountain Range. From the left is the small glacier Aktru, with the right of the large glacier Aktru. At the foot of the alpine camp.
Just have to say that the air here is discharged and many can start a headache, need acclimatization, 2200 meters above sea level, how can. Any step with unaccustomedness is very difficult. But over time everything comes back to normal. Before us was a group of gallant grannies who stormed a stone path to the Aktru glacier.
I must say that every year the glacier departs from the alpine camp farther and farther. They say that in recent years 10 has gone by 700 meters.
Near the alpine camp there are two monuments, the girl climber, the monument was placed by the father of the daughter and all the fallen mountain tourists in the mountains. And also a monument to snowboarders and skiers, who crashed in 2002 by helicopter during heliski.
This is such an amazing place.
