RUSSIAN FAR EAST
The Mountains of lake Baikal
Eastern Sayan mountains
Within these mountains situated to the west of Lake Baikal we plan to paddle the classic rivers Kitoy and its tributary, the Biluti. These are the most well known runs in this area and offer some amazing larger volume class 4-5 in the Kitoy and some steeper pool drop rapids in the Biluti. Access to the put-on requires a day drive from the major city of Irkutsk. The trip will be around a 10 day multiday which we will try to do near the beginning of our expedition and will allow us to experience the beauty of this remote mountain range. If there is time we plan to paddle the lesser run tributaries of the Kitoy such as the Ekhe-Gol.
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Khamar-Daban mountains
These mountains are found along the southern edge of Lake Baikal and also have famous multiday rivers such as Khara-Murin and the Sneznaya. However these require long 40-50km walk ins or an expensive helicopter ride to the put in so we will likely not be paddling these rivers. Instead we are aiming to paddle some of the shorter rivers and tributaries nearer to the roads and towns along the lake shore which would involve hiking in for a few hours so these runs should be able to be completed in 1-2 days each. We hope to hit this area in higher water levels near the start of our trip as there are some small ditches and possible first descent opportunities of a few waterfalls waiting for the right flows!
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Barguzinskii mountains
These mountains are found at the north-east end of Lake Baikal and are the most remote we plan to explore in. They are only accessible by either a combination of boat trips across Lake Baikal, followed by long hikes or by helicopter. If our budget allows, for our final portion of the expedition we plan to hire a helicopter to drop us deep into these mountains to kayak an epic and very rarely paddled river, the Tompuda. This river has only been paddled a handful of times and some of its tributaries are waiting to be run. This will be a long multi-day trip that we will only attempt if the conditions and logistics work out, but we are hoping to document the descent of this river in more detail than is currently available.
There are many other rivers in this range that we may paddle if we are unable to do the Tompuda. The Levaya and Pravaya Frolika rivers flowing into Lake Frolika are a possibility, as well as some smaller rivers (and possible first descents) on the western side of the mountains, accessible via road and walk ins.
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