24thJune – The Team wake early ready for the long 7 hour drive from Irkutsk down to Lake Baikal and up on to the Mongolian plateau to find the infamous Zun Kitoy, high up in the East Sayan Mountain Range. There’s a mix of emotions, we are all psyched to be heading to the mountains to what we had planned to be 12 days of amazing White Water in one of the most remote parts of the World. However, we had been warned about the high water levels of the Kitoy and with rain thundering down during the drive, some nerves began to rise. Jaw dropping views soon put the worries at ease and the first glimpse of white water ignites the spark inside us that makes us do the sport that we love. 1800hrs, we arrive at the get on, after an hour of packing and sorting food we wave goodbye to our driver and find ourselves – 7 in 7 billion – alone for the first time in the wilderness. 1900hrs, we start paddling down what we can tell is a bank full Kitoy, with the River flowing from the Mongolian steppe over grassland and into the mountains, 2 hours later we find a camp spot next to a track that leads down the river (which in low levels you can drive to get lower down the river). Despite this feeling of isolation from the real world, we hear this rumble in the distance coming from down the river. We had been warned of bears and that it’s not uncommon for bears to be intrigued by the smells of food and humans in these mountains. This wasn’t a bear. It sounded like a truck but surely not; the river was far too high to drive down. To our disbelief on the other side of the river a giant tank suddenly comes into view. It pauses at the riverbank and then plows directly in to the river towards us. The bow wave rushes up the riverbanks soaking our boats. The tank stops, with no words and in utter shock we stand stunned. 4 Russians jump out and seem over the moon to see us, after some interesting translating they invite us for a ride. We jump on top of the tank and get a joy ride back through the river and down the track and back to our camp.
Afterwards we share stories with the Russians and some home brewed Vodka that they kindly offered, strong but smooth!
25thJune – After 3 hours of paddling we arrived at the first gorge quite unexpectedly! After scouting the first drop, (Scott’s Drop) normally a portage but has been run in the past, we decided to hike our gear to the bottom of the gorge so that we could run the gorge with empty boats. The gorge looked rowdy but Joe, Harry, Adam, Duncan and Jamie were keen to fire it up. After a few hours of scouting and portaging gear the boys jumped in and got ready for some huge water.
After the Upper Canyon partially complete Elliot and Cara re-joined and paddled some, still, big water to get below the canyon and find a beautiful camp spot.
26thJune – It started raining around midday on the 25thand didn’t stop all night so the team woke to an even higher Kitoy, the camp was at the confluence of the River Ara-Oshi a tributary to the Kitoy. We decided to stash some food at ‘base camp’ and hike up the Ara-Oshi hoping to find some waterfalls and let the Kitoy drop its levels. However, with rain still pouring we got to the confluence of the Ara-Khabuty, a trib of the Ara-Oshi and it looked to be a super cool little canyon that had lots of water rushing down it, knowing that this trib was a likely First Descent cent because it is normally a scrape we hiked up to scout the canyon. After finding what looked to be a super fun paddle we got back to the confluence and found that the Ara-Oshi had risen a good foot, and still rising with constant rain. We decided to paddle the trib and then head back to base camp!
27th– Waking up the following morning, the rain had finally, mercifully, stopped. The Kitoy itself had risen significantly overnight and was now a churning brown freight train thundering past the campsite. We decided an attempt at the harder lower canyon may be unwise at these levels and so decided to head down the flat section to check out another tributary, the Gorlyk Gol. The ‘flat’ section itself provided some long big volume wave trains, and one surprisingly huge river-wide hole that gobbled up some of the group and spat them back out a few seconds later! Arriving at Gorlyk Gol the sun was out and spirits were high to check out another tributary. After a long and sweaty walk we found a beautiful canyon, with plenty of gradient that surely would be a classic, if it were only slightly more runnable! Most of the rapids were continuous and bouldery in nature with plenty of ugly siphons and undercuts making a decent by kayak an unattractive proposition. Following this the group consensus was that heading back to the Kitoy for some fishing and stewing up wild rhubarb would be slightly more fun!
28th– Waking up in the sun again but with the level of the Kitoy still looking pretty high we decided to take a more chilled out day. A plan to paddle the lower section of the Gorlyk Gol was interrupted by continuous electric storms and thunder that made your bones quake. Though, this did leave the team well rested and created lots of time to enjoy the wild weather and try and catch more fish!
29th– With the Kitoy finally dropping slightly, we paddled down to the second gorge. The image we had been shown of the get out before the mandatory portage was of a huge rock high out of the water and undercut, we arrived to a ¾ submerged rocked forming a siphon! Fair to say the river was high! And we had to get out quickly before floating in to the Grade 5+ rapid 47. Luckily the portage was easy enough and took us to a beautiful camp spot high up on the gorge walls with views of the canyon and rapids below.
Pink Sky at Night Shepard’s Delight – Photo by Harry View down in to the Canyon from ‘Gorge Camp’ -Photo by Joe
30th– After scouting the big rapid below camp carefully, it looked good to go with careful line choice. Everyone had good lines and we set off to Motkins Gorge. With big water and lots of scouting everyone made a successful decent of the gorge with smiles all round and probably some of the best white water the team have paddled! After the gorge we carried on down to the confluence of the Biluti, after a super good day spirits were high and we were graced with gorgeous sunny weather and an awesome sunset!
1st July– We woke early to start the hike up to the first camp of the Biluti, the weather was hot and the Siberian paths were ticky to follow but after much pain and suffering we made it to the ravine where we knew we had to set up a Tyrolean Traverse in order to get the boats and gear across. Luckily Harry and Jamie were quick on the rope work and set up the system to get the boats over. It was a long day but we had reached the camp spot and Jamie, our Fire King was quick to get the fire going so we could start cooking.
2nd July– With little information on the whereabouts of the get on for the Biluti apart from a picture we headed off to try and find the get on. After walking for 4 hours we had come to the visible end of the path, we tracked down to the river and couldn’t find the drop in the picture. We spent 2 hours walking up and down the river with still no sign of the drop. We were all knackered. Cara decided to stay where we had stopped by the river and the boys were keen to try and hike up further to try and find the get on. After hiking for another hour and half and still no sign apart from boulder gardens the boys jumped on and paddled back to where Cara had been chilling! With the group back together we set off down in to an incredibly steep, tight and committing gorge. We quickly realised after Cara took a swim that we needed to be extra careful and decided to portage the last drop. We got back in after scouting the remaining section and got to the 12meter waterfall. An impressive fall that would take extra care to get the line right and a must ‘plug’ fall. Harry, Jamie, Adam, Duncan and Cara all decided that they were too tired after a monumental day of walking and paddling a stress that they didn’t want to run the fall today, but maybe after being well rested they’d run it the next day as it wasn’t far from camp. Joe and Elliot ran the fall and both had decent lines!
3rdJuly – To our dismay it had rained all night once again and we woke to a raging Biluti, Harry and Jamie set off to scout the whole of the Lower Canyon to see if there were any must runs or rapids that needed portaging. The Canyon had 50meter high walls completely boxed in until the end, however, after scouting the boys decided that it all looked good to go. Meanwhile, the others had been looking for a new access point to abseil in to the gorge because the 12meter waterfall and the drops below had become so boily that the water was now pushing undercuts on both sides of the river. With the boats and the Team now safely in the gorge we experienced some sweet ledge drops and boulder garden rapids in an incredible location that made for awesome memories. We arrived back at the Kitoy – Biluti Base Camp at 1730hrs and decided to cook food as we were all fairly depleted. While cooking and eating we basked in the sun and checked out how high the Kitoy had risen, a good 2meters! With the Kitoy so high we were all super keen to get on and have a sunset paddle on some huge Grade 3, water dodging bus sized holes and riding well over head height wave trains down to some huts and banyas that we had been recommended to visit before the 110km paddle out. Arriving at the huts at 2130hrs and finding no one there the idea of paddling through the night had been tossed about due to the first clear night and the fast flowing river. After little deliberation the we decided the paddle through the night would be an incredible experience and this was the time to do it, so we set off at 2200hrs after cooking up some porridge and melting in 7 snickers and brewing coffee for the paddle! Riding the high waters with the light getting lower was jaw dropping and left us speechless. Once the stars came out we floated laid-back fully on our boats stargazing. Seeing first light gave us faith and raised spirits after a few of us getting cold and starting to get sleepy. With the sun coming up and starting to feel a bit of heat the news of only 4km left to go urged us to smash out the final bit and we arrived at the get off at 0600hrs, we were aching and tired but felt an overwhelming amount of achievement. After working out it was actually 115km from the GPS and holding an average speed of 14.3kph and top speed of 27kph, we paddled the ‘flat’ paddle out in 8hours. Safe to say we were shattered and tucked up in to our sleeping bags to get some well-earned rest before waking back up at 0900hrs to blistering heat from the sun. The rest of the day was spent sun bathing and waiting to be picked up and driven back to Irkutsk.
Sun Rise on the Paddle out at 0330hrs – Photo’s by Joe Fender
Now we are relaxing in Irkutsk and organising our next multi-day mission back to the Mountains. Once again we would like to thank Palm Equipment, Dewerstone, Radical Rider Ltd, River Legacy and System X for their support.
Thanks for reading and keep an eye out on social media for more updates.
All the best,
Team Russian Far East.