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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
where the wind always blows
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2011 - 11:34pm PT
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Would love to hear from anyone that has been in this territory .
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
where the wind always blows
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2011 - 11:42pm PT
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I'ld rather be sitting on a dead horse and drinking some natty light. Beats dealing with the Russians. I prefer a simple life.
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
where the wind always blows
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 14, 2011 - 11:50pm PT
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I'll give you climbing photos except your all bleepity bleeps ha!!!
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Babushka
Trad climber
CT
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Feb 15, 2011 - 02:39pm PT
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wow, thank you,Q-Ball, I have been there a long time ago, around 1986. I was 21 years old and I had just started to climb at that time, but I did not go there to climb. The reason I went to Altai was more cultural and spiritual. I was trying to "find myself", so it was right place to go. Altai is the center of Eurasia, and the center of Altai is Beluha (it means White Mountain), 4440m. Locals call it "White Water place". For hundreds of years people though that there is a second (or North) Shambhala somewhere up there . Many spiritual leaders and just regular people go there to find that place. One of them was Nicolas Roerich, Russian artist and philosopher.
I lived there that summer for 2 months on the base of Beluha. I remember thinking that if there is a paradise on our planet, it is Altai mountains; so beautiful, with grass and flowers taller than your head. Beluha is amazing, the South face is more technical, with a huge icy wall, but it is easy from the north side. I think it would be great to go back and climb it one day.
I will try to find my old slides and pictures and post them here.
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
where the wind always blows
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2011 - 08:24pm PT
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Thanks Babushka for the info and memories. I believe I was around 50-70 miles east of your trip to this special spot. I got to meet many locals still living the nomadic lifestyle, herding goats, yaks, sheep, camels, and living by the seasons moving their felt yurts/gers as the seasons dictated. I also wasn't their to climb but to find snow leopards, ibex, or argali it might as well be a climbing trip, trying to run them down in the hills!
To the west of Kosh Agach the mountains are higher more glaciated and have more forest (lower elevations).On the steppe just east the plains (where I was) are vast fairly dry and forests (larch) are a simple small band on any peak, and the rivers flowing from the peaks disappear and go underground a few miles from the base.
Big country and I'ld love to see more of it. Red Tape is a b-tch, borders China, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, but the russians are the only folks I had come after me.
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bmacd
Social climber
100% Canadian
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Feb 15, 2011 - 08:51pm PT
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How about a map image with markers ? I am always interested in that part of the world having been there once. How do you survive in real life there if you can't take insults on supertopo ? The locals I'm sure are pretty hardcore peoples, the Russsians I met in UlanBaatar I thought would have killed me in a heartbeat had I said the wrong thing
More details on the region please
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
where the wind always blows
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2011 - 09:04pm PT
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I got one map but it is in Cyrillic and I'm not able to post/scan, etc... If I had a good (english) map I wouldn't be asking for info. On top of that I was hoping to hear from folks that might be familiar of this area. Trust me, I've tried many avenues on locating names but the area I worked is a border area and russia doesn't like easy access to that stuff. I know it is out there and sorry if my posts have been emotional. My pictures are not digitized and I only have a few that are. I'm sorry that I can't post much more as of now. It is a very remote area that google still has a hard time finding. Chuysky Steppe would be the biome we were in. Would love any info! Thanks
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bmacd
Social climber
100% Canadian
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Feb 15, 2011 - 09:12pm PT
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use maps.google.com save the image and label it yourself
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
where the wind always blows
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Topic Author's Reply - Feb 15, 2011 - 09:40pm PT
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PM me if you care to still know. I'm not tech savvy and the maps available if I could post them wouldn't shed much knowledge.
What I know- Just east of the town, Kosh Agach, mountains from there to the Mongolian border with several satellite ranges. High plains with very cold winters and very short summers. Snowfall can be expected in July. Tallest peak is around 13,000 and all road within 20 miles are 2-tracks. Only larch are found in a narrow band on mid slopes, and ibex are quite common, a few argali herds, and the elusive snow leopard also calls this home. The mountains are oases in a desert non suitable for many large ungulates. Go Altai!!
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mike m
Trad climber
black hills
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Feb 16, 2011 - 10:19am PT
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Your rigt it looks a lot like Wyoming
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Alexey
climber
San Jose, CA
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May 31, 2017 - 09:23pm PT
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosh-Agachsky_District
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Кош-Агач;
За Кош-Агачем начинается пограничная зона, поэтому для посещения этого района до 2013 года гражданам России требовался специальный пропуск, который можно было получить в Горно-Алтайске, Акташе или в пограничной комендатуре самого села. С 2013 года это требование отменено[6]. Иностранные граждане получают пропуск в пограничную зону после подачи заявки за 2 месяца до въезда, и только в Акташе. В Кош-Агаче иностранным гражданам пропуска не выдают[7].
Q- Ball, you said that you do not understand cyrillic, but what is written here : to be in Kosh-Agach and work there you need to get a permit from Border Patrol. Not only for foreigners, but for Russian too until 2013. You need to file application for permit two mouth in advance.
How SnowLeopard treat you?
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Alexey
climber
San Jose, CA
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May 31, 2017 - 10:04pm PT
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
but to scared to climb them anymore
Topic Author's Reply - May 31, 2017 - 06:00pm PT
Alexey,
Funny you mentioned the Russia/Mongolia border... I was working in the Altai Mountains near Kosh Agach doing snow leopard research...ended up with a few Russian soldiers chasing me up a mountain to the Mongolian border.
Hate to say I never had elephants on that trip!
Qball
what was outcome of the chase? did you fight back with your M16?
I found a really nice guided tour Snow Leopard Transboundary Ecological Tourism Route where you can legally cross Russian-Mongolian border , watch [ not hunt] the Kitty, enter in Kosh Agach and after all write a truthful memoir
http://www.altaiproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Land-of-the-Snow-Leopard-brochure.pdf
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
but to scared to climb them anymore
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Topic Author's Reply - May 31, 2017 - 11:27pm PT
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This letter is old and not sure what it says but believe it was a registration letter to enter certain areas happened to just stumble across it cleaning up last week.. I was able to locate many ibex a few Argali but have yet to lay eyes on.a wild snow leopard.
As I was told the soldiers arrived and asked our translator if the guy on the mountain was with them. I was hauling ass up this ridge to reach an area in my limited time. She said no, he is not my client. They responded, he is my client now.
Unaware to me they started trying to catch me. Our translator later said you were going a lot faster than them and they turned around after a few thousand feet. I ended up finding a few ibex and working my way close to the Mongolia border. Had to hunker down for a July snow squall at one point.
Coming back to the vehicles, the army guys were staring at me and confused that I came down a completely different ridge. I asked if I could take a picture with them, "nyet" was the response I didn,t hear. Good picture that is now lost from a flood.
Nice guys and we gave them a ride to their camp afterwords
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Подробнее, пожалуйста!
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skcreidc
Social climber
SD, CA
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Cool stories QBall. It IS nice to see the photos.
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Снежный барс (snow leopard) kill in Pamirs.
Still had some fur on it. A few miles from where one visited me at my bivy, unbeknownst to me
until I saw its tracks 10' from my sleeping bag in the morning.
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Nick Danger
Ice climber
Arvada, CO
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Great thread! Thanks Q-Ball, the photos and stories are a real treat. Mouse, once again you totally deliver on the musical front.
cheers
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Q- Ball
Mountain climber
but to scared to climb them anymore
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 1, 2017 - 01:08pm PT
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Awesome pic Reilly! And awesome you were able to be in the presence of that amazing critter!
Thanks for taking the time to post it.
Alexey won't believe you though...hell I bet you are making it all up ;)!
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Reilly
Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
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Q, I was following an ibex trail along the Fedchenko Glaciar (the longest outside Antarctica) when it dipped into a sort of narrow ravine. The hair on my neck went right up, it was a perfect ambush spot, and sure enough there was a week old kill at the bottom! (not the pictured one) I kept my head on a swivel you can be sure! It was about a mile from there that I bivied and discovered my nocturnal visitor.
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