we're out of arshan after 3 days, now in ulan-ude, our last stop in siberia (and russia!). were finally successful in getting train tickets without any big surprises today, we take the train from here to ulaan-baatar (mongolia) on monday afternoon. now that we have train tickets out and everything's set, i can say that the russia portion of the trip has been a lot more memorable in ways i didn't expect and also a lot more enjoyable than i expected. i think this may turn out to be one of the highlights of the whole trip (among many). alright, after all that reflection onto the fun stuff.
we took the bus from irkutsk to arshan, a mini-van which was pretty quick. got to arshan and went in search of the climber's hostel, priyut alpinista, as described in the lonely planet (with twin rooms, climbing maps, camp in the mountains). well we got there and the buildings had burned down in a fire during winter. only tent camping. the owner of the place, igor, spoke very limited english. luckily there was a couple from st. petersburg staying there after a 12-day backpacking trip, who spoke english. we asked for information about climbing and igor offered to guide us. he didn't want to do anything hard, since we came across as complete morons (no gear, no idea what we're doing, etc). we couldn't communicate that we were after the splitter hand cracks and even if we did, he wouldn't have had gear to do it. erick took out our gear to show him (harness, shoes, belay devices, quick draw). he took out what he had left after the fire, 5 rusty thin pitons (all similar size), 2 ascenders (both right handed), 3 figure-8 devices, and about 5 screw gate carabiners. nice. and a hammer. he agreed to guide us though on a russian grade II peak, which we didn't know what that meant at the time.
that evening he invited us to a fire/bbq. we bought food and showed up at this place. he ended up taking us on a walk to the site, which was about 1/2 hour straight uphill, about 600 feet elevation gain. great view though. met some other tourists from moscow and also the couple from st petersburg came as well. had a nice fire and food.
next day was a long one. we started out at 6 am from igor's place, with a 2 1/2 hour, ~3,500 foot uphill climb to start it off. then traversed over a big boulder field to a cirque below Peak Zdorobye (Friendship Peak), our first destination. About an hour of 3rd class scrambling up some talus, then we roped up. by roping up, i mean we each tied into the rope about 10 feet apart with a butterfly knot and simul-climbed without pro. most of it was 3rd class with the occassional 4th and easy 5th class move. it was pretty exposed though in some sections and not as secure without climbing shoes on. we got up to the left summit then traversed over to the right sumit (~2450 m high). from there we downclimbed (still roped together) to the saddle between Zdrobye and Arshan peaks.
since we'd gotten up pretty fast and proved ourselves not to be incompetent, he suggested we also climb up arshan peak. this was a bit harder and it started raining. we belayed at a few points, up the steeper sections and erick and i changed into our climbing shoes. then it started to rain. rain pretty much made the rock slick and our feet useless, didn't trust them at all. luckily the terrain was easy and there were plenty of hand holds. ended up summitting to amazing views of the surrounding valleys and peaks, with fog, sun, rainbows all around. probably one of the most spectacular summits i've been on, just because of the view then. peak arshan, ~2511 m, from igor's house to the peak, 6 1/2 hours, which he says is his summer record.
then came the descent. that was just painful and long. first it was about 2 hours of downclimbing 3rd and 4th class slick rock. very slick, and pretty much straight down with big drop-offs. fun. we ended up mainly trying to go down the ridge. after 2 hours, the trail turned much better and it was okay for a bit. then straight down in the forest, lots of elevation to lose. we finally made it to the river and after a tea break (igor thoughfully brought a stove with him) we hiked out. unfortunately, the last part of the trail, which is along waterfalls, involves lots of scrambling and boulder hopping, which is not what i needed at the end of the day. after a brief stop at the mineral springs (taps have mineral water (naturally carbonated) of different temperatures coming out of it, we made it back to igor's place a bit after 7 pm.
so in total, about 5300 ft of vertical gain (and loss), time to peak, 6 1/2 hours, time to descend, 6 1/2 hours, 2 peaks summited, russian grade II.
even though we're still in pain and sore, with the long descent, and virtually no technical rock climbing (no one placed any gear), we both really enjoyed the trip. we were extremely lucky with the weather as well. it rained a little bit on the way to the summit, a little foggy, but overall okay. on the way down it didn't start pouring rain and thundering until after we'd made it down the scariest part and were on easy terrain. otherwise it would've been much worse...
another fun thing we did in arshan was stay in someone's rented room. they had a separate shack they rented out, two (old) beds, stove, fridge. the house had an outhouse and faucet for water (standard in the town). an interesting experience. the bus ride from arshan to ulan-ude yeseterday was another adventure, just long (7 1/2 hours) and cramped (erick and i shared 1 1/2 seats in the back of the mini-van) with a screaming kid and damp (kind of smelly) van the whole way. but we survived and it's just something else to remember.
two more days left in russia, then the mongolia fun begins...
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